Smith-Berclair Insurance

Smith-Berclair Insurance, a second generation, family-owned independent insurance agency, has grown to be one of the largest agencies in the Memphis area. After 30 years of using their legacy agency management system, agency owner, Brad Smith realized his team was not operating as efficiently as they could be when it came to saving documents and emails into client files. “We’d been paperless for nearly 15 years, said Smith. “But, the process of saving a document or email in our legacy system was terrible. I knew it was time we needed a product that would reduce the number of clicks and make for a more efficient workflow.”

Finding the Right Partner

Brad began researching alternative agency management systems, as well as third party vendors when his research led him to Strategic Insurance Software and Partner Platform. “When I read about Partner and its capabilities – the integration with Microsoft Outlook immediately peaked my interest. I needed to learn more,” said Smith. After attending multiple online demos, in addition to traveling to Columbus to meet the SIS leadership team, Brad knew Partner accomplishes everything that the other agency management systems do, it’s just a matter of doing workflows a little bit differently than what you are perhaps used too.

Before his agency could fully commit to making the switch, Partner had to pass one last test; a demo with his entire staff so that everyone at the agency had a voice in the decision. “During the demo, our entire staff was shown the various capabilities. One of my CSR’s applauded when he saw the Outlook integration capability, it was the answer he had been looking for,” Smith said. Partner’s Outlook integration provides a quick easy way to capture and store all client inbound and outbound communications, reducing the number of clicks drastically compared to their legacy system.

Transitioning to Partner XE

With change, comes the fear of the unknown. This fear was immediately put at ease when the SIS client services team traveled to Memphis to provide Smith-Berclair with 3 days of hands on training. “There were a few temporary work arounds and minor hiccups, but after about two months the complaining subsided.”

The Perfect Partner

With SIS, your agency is not just a number and we understand changing your agency management system is not a transaction. It’s your livelihood and your legacy. “When I talk to people who are looking at Partner, I tell them one of the things that have impressed me the most has been the management and ownership. They are committed to making the product better and are spending the money and time to do so. We had some concerns when it came to the systems reporting capabilities, but SIS made the commitment to improve the functionality, which I can say honestly say it has drastically. My voice is being heard and I’m actually seeing the improvements and enhancements I was promised.”