I've had a lot of discussions about silos in my six years with Claims — the metaphorical business ones, not the free-standing farm versions. Typically, a “silo” is loosely defined as a unit of a company that focuses on a specific, self-contained goal with little interaction with the other aspects of a company's function.

The discussion about silos really revolves around issues related to communication. In other words, silos can be great for addressing and achieving specific goals, but the risk is that tunnel vision creeps in, creating blind spots to other aspects of a company's overall strategy.

In insurance, this is perhaps most obvious in the silos that crop up between claims and underwriting. When these two units cease to communicate, successes and best practices are never shared, and failures are never used to enhance the learning process. When they communicate effectively, however, intelligence is shared on risk factors and exposures, to the betterment of the company and the staffs involved.

Here at Summit Business Media — parent company to Claims Magazine — we have faced our own particular dilemmas related to silos. Five print magazines make up our P&C insurance division: National Underwriter, P&C, Claims Magazine, American Agent and Broker, Tech Decisions, and Florida Underwriter. Together, these publications take a closer look at different aspects of the P&C industry, each providing a silo of information that targets a specific audience or region.

And it works, at least in print. In today's web-savvy world, though, this approach's flaws become evident. With more powerful search tools and interactive research capabilities expanding every day, having each magazine maintain its own web site and news ended up creating barriers to information and duplicative reporting. Making it difficult for readers to find information is not what drives the editorial teams for each publication; in fact, it's quite the opposite.

So for the last several months, we've been tearing down the virtual walls, right down to the silicon studs. We've been working to combine all five magazine web sites into one portal that caters to all audiences in the P&C sector in one location. Thus, PropertyCasualty360.com was born.

When it officially launches next month, PropertyCasualty360.com will be an all-inclusive source for P&C news, analysis, trends, and industry activity. It will enable professionals at all levels of the industry to understand and react to the unique market challenges they face. Eventually, the site will combine the established knowledge resources and news reporting capabilities from the experts at each magazine with proprietary market data and relevant content aggregated from across the web to create one distinct and vital information source for all P&C professionals.

As part of this transition, though, it's time for me to say goodbye to Claims readers as I move forward to take the reins of PropertyCasualty360.com. I leave you in the capable hands of the magazine's new editor in chief, Christina Bramlet, whom many of you have gotten to know in her previous role as senior editor. I'm confident she will continue to bring her fresh ideas and excellent journalistic capabilities to the print magazine and the new portal site through 2011 and beyond.

Even though I'm leaving, remember that I'm not going far. I'll be making sure those silo walls stay down, contributing content, and working to make PropertyCasualty360.com a dynamic, information-driven site that continues to help you and all of the other P&C professionals stay informed and educated in new and dynamic ways. Come along for the ride, and be sure to stay in touch with me at [email protected].

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