skahigh - I work in IT, but it's company policy that everybody learns about insurance, underwriting, fraud and various other aspects of what the company does. It works on the theory that if I know about the company and the industry I work in, I can better support my colleagues.
Also, I have become good mates with a motoring underwriter and a couple of guys on the motoring engineers and salvage team, the people who go out and investigate cars that are involved in insurance claims.
Plus, by the sheer nature of my job, I am in every department, talking to every member of staff and working on every part of the insurance process. For instance, the past week I've spent a lot of time working with underwriters and the statistics team, who go through thousands of combinations of possible risks and work out whether to take on a risk, the policy price, what conditions to apply etc etc.
The software we use is vast. There is different software for different departments, varying from personal injury software to 'WhatIF' software and massive databases, spreadsheets and vast tables of data containing millions of records of possible situations, risks, environments and other factors that affect the decision to take on a risk or not.
Plus, and this is important, I'm a nosey git who wants to know everything
I ask questions, as I'm genuinely interested in this area. I'll speak to people, listen to them talk about people and policies and generally try and absorb as much info as possible. If I have a question, I'll bug somebody about it
a saving of £1100 
