The year 2020 was one like no other: it provided
individuals and businesses worldwide with some interesting and rarely seen
challenges. Innovation, flexibility, and adaptation were required in increasing
measure to reduce risk and make the most of the opportunities that came our
way.
For the Partner Platform team at Strategic Insurance Software, the foundational service principles we practice every day were exercised in new ways and to new heights, helping us turn the many challenges of 2020 into some amazing successes. The growth and achievements of the team are truly remarkable.
In this unpredictable and challenging year, our
team worked with the Partner Platform Community to improve the Partner Platform
experience and achieved significant accomplishments including adding and
enhancing features such as:
Through it all, we as a team welcomed a dozen new
team members, celebrated births and marriages from afar, and supported each
other and our Partner Platform agencies through each new test and transition
2020 brought us.
We are thankful for our Partner Platform Community,
who expressed encouragement and appreciation as we worked through the
challenges of 2020 together. Countless positive emails and conversations on
service team experience and product enhancements make us all exceedingly proud
of our team’s commitment, effort, and accomplishments in serving the Partner
Platform Community.
We look forward to building on these successes and assisting our clients in growing and flourishing in the years ahead.
Community, learning, and innovation are core
principles for the Partner Platform team. 2020 has provided many challenges and
opportunities for our team to exhibit these principles. We’ve worked together
to face the obstacles of social distancing and system interruptions, and innovated
with more virtual learning events,
enhanced webinars, and online learning to keep our community connected and
educated.
In these uncertain times of the COVID 19 novel
coronavirus, community is more meaningful than ever. SIS CEO Alex Deak shares
about the SIS Partner Platform community partners: from tech to industry organizations
to regional groups, we’re committed to connecting for collaboration,
innovation, and support.
As an eventful 2019 comes to a close, we at SIS are pleased to see our mission and values reflected so well in the past year. We’re thankful for the Partner Platform community of agencies and their continued support and feedback that makes us who we are: community-focused partner challenging the status quo.
Agency and insurance management system data security has always been a top priority for us at SIS. We built our Partner Platform agency management system suite with data safety and cybersecurity in mind, and it continues to be a topic we follow.
This past May, agency data security was one of our key topics at our annual Partner National User Conference, where we heard from industry expert Brad Ruben on how to prevent and prepare for security attacks.
One of the reasons we asked Brad to speak is we know security takes teamwork. Though we are confident we’re providing the most secure system to our partner agencies, they are still at risk if they’re not equipping their staff to watch for cyber-attacks.
This summer, we encourage you to take the time to look at your data security measures and re-commit as a staff to protect your customers. Here’s a little advice to get you started.
Archway Computer CEO Brad Ruben’s presentation at our National User Conference had quite an impact on attendees. Multiple agency representatives walked away with practical, actionable advice on how they could better manage and protect their data. Highlights from his presentation included:
There is cause for concern. Over 33,000 phishing attacks and 4,000 successful ransomware attacks occur each day.
Anti-virus protection is a must. Programs like Webroot and Malware Bytes are essential to keeping you safe.
Cloud services are the future of security. Data hosting services like Amazon Web Services have 24/7 data surveillance, redundant backups, and multi-character encryption to keep your data safer than you can on your own.
The most significant takeaway was the emphasis on educating staff on data security. Some of Brad’s tips included:
Delete suspicious emails. Never click on links from unfamiliar senders. Delete emails from unknown sources and report them to your IT team.
Password protect sensitive files. When moving files to a USB, sending through email, or saving on a laptop, add password protection to keep them safe.
Use complex passwords. Employ number, letter, and punctuation combinations, including using different cases for letters. And be sure to use multiple passwords, so you don’t have just one tied to all accounts.
Don’t install programs you don’t know. Even something as harmless looking as a computer game or unknown anti-virus software can be hiding as malicious programs. Ensure staff consult with IT before installing anything.
Though you should be keeping your agency data safe no matter what, some agencies are legally obligated to do so by their state. States like New York, Ohio, and South Carolina have individual regulations agencies should know.
We make a commitment to our partner agencies to uphold the highest security standards, ensuring they can trust us with their data. We’re partners in security with our clients, working with and for them to create and support sustainable, secure infrastructure.
Hear what our clients have to say about their experience with Partner Platform and SIS on our Client Stories page.
Next in our series on what’s behind our Partner Platform insurance agency software community is the management and operations consulting group, Eisenhart Consulting Group. For over ten years, we’ve been lucky to work with owner Mary Belka and her team.
Mary Belka, CEO and founder of Eisenhart Consulting Group, has been part of the Partner Allies team for more than a decade. When she was first introduced to the Partner Platform system, she was impressed by the hands-on, personalized service the Partner Platform team provided to one of her clients. Since then, a mutual dedication to personalized service has made Partner Platform and Eisenhart Consulting the perfect team for our independent agency clients.
I spoke with Mary to talk about how she came to meet the Partner team, the unique and transformational service she brings to Partner agencies, and how she prepares agencies for the future.
We strive to provide the best insurance agency software to our Partner Platform agencies, but we don’t have all the answers on our own. That’s where our trusted technology partners, our Partner Allies, come in. In this series, we get to know more about our industry partners and how they bring innovation and expertise to the Partner Platform system.
Based in Nokomis, FL, Lightspeed Voice® is a VoIP, cloud-based IP telephone provider founded in 2009 to provide the insurance industry with reliable VoIP and client relationship management (CRM) solutions.
Lightspeed differentiates through high-touch and high-service, which aligns nicely with Partner Platform’s approach – and is also true for the way our independent agency clients sell. Both Partner Platform and Lightspeed strive to be hands-on, building relationships with clients just as our independent agents do with their customers.
I talked with Lightspeed’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Steve Mohr, about the partnership.
Have you properly equipped your insurance website for sales? Almost three-quarters of insurance shoppers go online to do research and obtain quotes, so you need a quality website to attract those sales.
This shift to online prompted our Partner Platform team to think more about agency websites and how to optimize them for sales and service. We now work with agencies to help them create a custom site to grow their business after seeing several common mistakes. Here are some of the ways we saw agency websites missing the mark – and how we helped them correct their missteps.
