Horace Mann Sends A Clearer Message To Its Customers

In sports, a coach frequently will encourage an athlete to dig down inside for the motivation to reach new heights. In business, however, improvement often can be the result of a company looking outside its own walls.Many companies across a broad range of industries have turned to outsourcing as a way of improving corporate performance, from call center operations to information technology management. The main benefits of outsourcing are the opportunity to cut costs, to take advantage of state-of-the-art processes and systems and to focus resources on an enterprise's core competencies.

The Horace Mann Cos., a Springfield, Ill.-based multiline insurer that focuses on the education market, was able to capitalize on all three fronts when it outsourced its customer communications operation last year.