Columbus, OH – Leading insurance software provider Strategic Insurance Software (SIS) today announced the completion of its Partner XE 2016 update, including additional enhancements to its Outlook Plug-In. (more…)
Most well-run independent insurance agencies eventually fall into the “routine trap.” This is the phenomenon of sticking to established systems and processes, experiencing some success – but missing out on growth. Other names for this condition are the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” syndrome or the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” disorder. (more…)
Insurance agency accounting may not be at the top of your mind. But it’s still taking up your time – 40% of small business owners in 2015 spent 80+ hours a year managing accounting tasks.
Is your agency accounting giving you a migraine or at least a mild headache? Consider the benefits of switching to an integrated system. An integrated accounting system syncs accounting with your insurance agency management system, creating one cohesive operation. With the right system, you end up saving time and money while improving your reporting.
SIS recently conducted a perpetuation survey to investigate the process and practices of buying and selling agencies. The results of this survey provided insights on independent insurance agency perpetuation, including:
Preparing for and looking to the future is an important part of insurance agency management. But, the future may be here faster than you think. Recent estimates predict property and casualty agencies will need to fill nearly 400,000 positions by 2020. Independent insurance agencies face a particularly high need as the average principle is close to 60 years old.
How can you ensure your agency will continue to grow as members of your staff reach retirement?
One way to prepare is adding Millennials (those aged 18-35 according to the Pew Research Center) to your staff now, while experienced staff members are still around.
Cyber security has been a concern across industries for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated risk. With more businesses moving to online operations, more data became vulnerable. This is especially true in insurance, where the use of insurance tech skyrocketed in 2020, along with incidents of cyberattacks.
Insurance is second only to legal firms as cyber criminals’ preferred industry to attack. The average agency is targeted over 100 times per year, with more than 30% of attacks succeeding. And according to PwC’s Digital Trust Insights Pulse Survey, cybercrime is expected to cost companies $10.5 trillion annually over the next four years.
Since our founding, the Partner Platform Community has grown exponentially. What started as a group of agencies and dedicated staff has exploded to contain much more. One of those additions is our group of Partner Allies. This team of insurance agency software providers started as a collection of exciting integration possibilities and grew into an ever-expanding coalition of cutting-edge insurance tech.
Another year is here, and we can already see what’s on the horizon for digital insurance—the last few years demonstrated the need for more data gathering and analysis, tech integration, and a focus on personalizing and streamlining customer service. The 2021 Independent Insurance Agent Survey found that, before the COVID-19 pandemic, about a third of agencies said they “lacked the financial or other support” to invest in digitization. However, by the end of 2020, 77% were investing in digitization, showing digital insurance is growing rapidly.
As we ring in the new year, let’s take a look at what’s on the digital insurance horizon for 2022.
