View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2003/06/19/29985.htm
Pathlore Software Corp., a provider of learning-management systems (LMS), announced today that New Berlin, Wis.-based Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MS/B) will use Pathlore’s LMS to bring training to insurance agents, underwriters, claims adjusters, and contractors across the United States.
A driving force behind the use of Pathlore’s wares is a desire on the part of MS/B to make technical education more convenient for its customers. MS/B looks to cut the cost of training, too. Using Pathlore’s product, MS/B will deliver training via the Internet to customers who buy the Wisconsin firm’s Residential Component Technology(TM) (RCT), software that helps agents and underwriters calculate the value of homes. MS/B’s customers will be able to launch Pathlore’s LMS from any desktop computer.
MS/B is the global leader in providing the insurance industry with residential and commercial building-cost data and estimating technologies. With more than 70 years of experience, MS/B counts over 100,000 individual users, including underwriters, claims adjusters, inspectors, and agents. And, the Wisconsin company licenses its data and software to approximately 700 insurance firms including many of the largest homeowner’s insurance carriers in the United States.
Pathlore’s LMS will report on what insurance industry professionals learn. For example, when an MS/B customer passes a course, the LMS records a score and generates a certification to prove the fact. In this way, people managing the RCT users know if their employees understand how to use the product’s features. Another plus to the LMS is that MS/B can give its customers the chance to access the RCT training over the span of several months, so customers can brush up on their know-how of the RCT as needed. According to MS/B President Bob Crine, with the LMS in place, customers can learn at their own pace and on their own terms.
Classroom training still plays an important role for MS/B. But, the company sees the LMS as a way to instruct hundreds of customers (who are spread across the country) at the same time, and for a fraction of the cost of classroom training. MS/B expects to trim the cost of instructors’ fees as well as its customers’ expenses for travel and lodging. Along with MS/B’s clients, the firm’s employees will use the LMS, too. Indeed, newly hired employees who support the sale of MS/B’s underwriting products can tap Pathlore’s tool to learn about the RCT. And, to add to their knowledge, MS/B’s technical support staff will also draw on the LMS.