Agency Information
- Based in Newark, DE.
- Founded in 1970
- 50% commercial and 50% personal
- 10 Employees
John Yasik
“Partner XE can not only offer all the functions that your agency needs, but also costs about 1/3 less than any of the solutions provided by the bigger providers. You get so much more for your money with Partner XE. Make the switch and you won’t regret it. In fact, your agency will be better for it.”
Poland & Sullivan Insurance is an independent insurance agency representing some of the top rated national and regional insurance companies. Located in Newark, DE, they provide individuals, families and businesses with specialized strategic plans for wealth preservation (insurance) and wealth accumulation (financial and retirement planning) through sound insurance advice and products.
Realizing they needed to find a better management system with higher quality customer service, support, and lower cost, they began a search for a more reliable system. In discovering SIS and Partner XE, they realized it was the solution they had been looking for. Read on to learn more about their experience with Partner XE.
Tell me about Poland & Sullivan Insurance—What makes your agency unique?
What makes our business most unique is that we offer three separate lines of insurance: personal, commercial, and financial services. It is very unique for an agency to offer more than just commercial and personal insurance. This enables us to cross-sell to our customers and as a result our retention ratio is much higher than many in the industry. We offer all types of financial services products, including Life, Disability, Retirement Plans, 401ks, etc. It’s a decided advantage.
Our core philosophy is we don’t sell products. We believe our job is to educate, inform and advise our customers. It’s not our job to decide what they should buy. If we educate them, inform them of potential risks and advise them of possible solutions, we hope they come to a conclusion themselves regarding what they need to buy. Of course, we guide them all along the way.
You’ve been working with SIS since April 2017, what prompted your agency to change management systems?
There were three things that prompted our decision to switch. First, we were fed up with the costs of our previous system. Every New Year, we experienced an increase on costs that were already too high.
Second, we were paying tens of thousands of dollars for the previous system and yet could never run certain reports with any confidence in the accuracy of the information. That was very frustrating for us.
Finally, the customer service was atrocious. We would identify problems with our previous system and once we finally got a hold of someone, they would confirm it was something that they planned to fix but issues were never addressed. This went on for years.
We knew there had to be a better solution out there, and we were determined to find it.
How did you learn about SIS and Partner XE?
Our professional agents association offered a handful of weekly webinars examining ten agency software systems. We participated in that and discovered Partner XE in one of the webinars.
Eventually, we narrowed it down to Partner XE and another larger provider. We truly weren’t eager to go back to a big player in the industry. We were adamant about finding a better alternative and Partner XE stood out.
After about 9 months, we were confident that SIS and Partner XE was the solution we were looking for. We realized SIS and Partner XE would enable our agency to take care of our customers the way we needed to.
What have you found SIS is able to provide that larger providers do not?
The biggest difference is that when we call any member of the SIS team, we get a quick response. We don’t have to wait a day or two to hear back.
It’s the support that stands out to us. We are insurance people, not computer people so consistent, high quality customer support is significant to us.
What do you think is the best part of the Partner XE system? What features do you or does your team use the most?
For the first time since 2003, we can now run reports, and the numbers match up to what the insurance companies have sent in their year-end reports. It is very meaningful to me that the information we get from Partner XE is accurate. It has been a long time since we’ve had that – and we finally we get that with Partner XE.
The accounting system is also great.
Do you have any advice for other agencies that are realizing they need to switch management systems but may be holding back from doing so?
The first piece of advice is that your solution will not be one of the larger companies out there, so don’t even bother looking. Don’t try to compare systems, because you can’t do it.
Partner XE is a lot different from other programs but you need to recognize that once you learn how to use it, the system is capable of managing all the things you want out of it: from accounting, to personal lines, to commercial lines, and more.
I’d also mention that the whole training process might be hard for some individuals. Some people just don’t want change and you have to be prepared to manage that. We assured our people that we had vetted Partner XE and its functionality and that it would allow us all to do our jobs better. We were sticking with it. We weren’t going back.
Now, everyone in our office is good. They have figured out how to use Partner XE, though we still have a lot to learn. Everyone is in a better place.
Finally, I’d remind any business contemplating making a switch that Partner XE can not only handle all the functions that your agency will need, but it will cost about 1/3 less than any of the solutions provided by the bigger providers. You get so much more for your money with Partner XE. Make the change. You won’t regret it.
