Preparing For Technology Partnerships Know Who and What's Behind The - - PDF document

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Preparing For Technology Partnerships

Know Who and What's Behind The Curtain

Steve Ogden Certified Information Professional (CIP)

I AM A YOUTUBE VIDEO

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What is an Agency Management System (AMS)?

A SaaS (software as a service) technology

• r client-based software that insurance

agencies use to organize their book of business and more effectively run their operations.

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What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

A term that refers to practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.

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How does an AMS differ from a CRM?

• Specificity
• Totality
• Productivity

An AMS is a CRM but much, much more. It’s industry-specific and insurance-customized to tailor to those specific industry needs.

How is an AMS a tool?

• Not a sales and marketing tool, but a conclusive agency management

tool for a productive, compliant, and efficient insurance agency

• Helps agencies manage and keep track of their leads, agents, policies,

clients, prospects, carriers, etc.

• Integrates functionality while streamlining effort to make your agency

run as one cohesive unit

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What are some of the top features of an AMS?

• Lead, Prospect, & Client Tracking
• Policy Tracking
• Carrier Tracking
• Commissions Process & Tracking
• Client-Centric & Client-Focused Communication

○ Think compliance & retention!

• Agent Tracking

○ Think compliance & protection! ■ Licensure & E&O tracking

88%

• f consumers research their

buys online before making a purchase

eCommerce Foundation

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Investing in a Product vs. Investing in a Partner

How do the people behind the product affect your business?

• The data migration process
• The service you’ll receive getting started and ongoing
• The software security and maintenance
• The software enhancements

○ And how much those enhancements are based off your feedback

• The educational resources you’ll have access to regarding the software
• The educational resources you’ll have access to regarding best

practices for your business

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Situations you might find yourself in if you don’t consider the company behind the product:

• Without adequate initial training to get up and running in a timely

manner

• Without a quick way to reach a customer service representative in the

event of a question or issue

• Without a help center to turn to to learn how to use all of the

software’s capabilities

• Feeling like you and your needs aren’t a priority if the company has

investors to answer to

Going In-Depth: Vendor Research

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70%

More security vulnerabilities are fixed in the top quartile of

• rganizations than the average

Veracode

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Questions to Ask Your Vendor

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7 Questions to Ask About Data Migration:

• How do I get my data into the system?
• Does my file need to be in a certain format?
• Can I import multiple policies for one client?
• What about my notes and attachments?
• Is there a separate fee for data migration?
• How long will the migration take?
• How easy is it for me to get my data out?

9 Questions to Ask During Your Sales Demo:

• What’s their history?
• Do they have ties to a GA/IMO/FMO?
• What type of software is it (generic/focused, hosted/on-premise)?
• How many revisions/updates do they release a year?
• What is their uptime?
• Do they support integrations with 3rd parties or APIs?
• What does their help/support look like?
• Are they willing to provide comparison content?
• What does an exit plan look like?

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The most important question to ask:

IS YOUR DATA STILL 100% YOURS?

Going In-Depth: Security Terms to Know

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Uptime

Definition: The percentage of time that a site/service is available “Most services fall somewhere between 99% and 100% uptime. Most cloud vendors offer some type of Service Level Agreement around availability. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s set their cloud SLAs at 99.9%. The industry generally recognizes this as very reliable uptime. A step above, 99.99%, or "four nines," as is considered excellent uptime.” (Statuspage)

Data Archive/Backup Copy

Definition: Full backup of your data This information is crucial for unplanned disasters, exporting your data, accessing your data, restricting access, and more. It also ties back to the question of who owns your data and if you still have 100% ownership.

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Software Patches

Definition: Updates made to the system to guard against newly found vulnerabilities Is your vendor up-to-date on software patches and consistently watching the latest hacking changes and latest vulnerabilities to help keep your information and your clients’ sensitive data safe?

Data in Transit/Data at Rest

Definition: In Transit is data transmitted from your computer or mobile device (office, coffee shop, home) up to the server or site (both data & files) whereas At Rest is data being stored within the site. It’s essential to have protection for both types of data whether it’s moving

• r staying put.

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Data Encryption (SSL/TLS)

Definition: A secure way to communicate; used by financial institutions and many other sites (“bank-grade”) Basically, it’s the type of encryption banks and other institutions of that level use to encrypt their data to keep it safe and secure.

2-Step/2-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Definition: A second line of defense beyond your username and password; many services send you a unique link or text message that you can utilize to gain access to your account Any service can provide a username and password which can be easier to hack into; 2FA provides a second level past that which is harder for hackers to duplicate or authenticate.

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IP Restriction

Definition: When you only allow certain IP addresses to log in to your account (ie. home, office, etc) This is also called whitelisting.

Domain Registration

Definition: A lookup of who owns a particular domain or web address Easiest way to look this up, search the domain here: whois.icann.org/en. This gives you insight into who or what company owns the vendor you’re looking at to help you better understand the company’s goals. If they’re self-funded/self-owned their goals will differ greatly from a holding group

• r group of investment firms.

Plus, you can see what else they own to see if they have an conflicts of interest, i.e. they own a competing insurance agency. (Yes, this happens.)

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HIPAA Compliance

Definition: The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act. This act mandates specific controls like encryption; includes PHI (Protected Health Information) and guards against misuse and/or uncontrolled access to this data; includes HiTech which details specifics regarding the storage of these related electronic records

SOC (System & Organization Control)

Definition: Independent third-party examination report; confirms compliance controls & objectives Get the 4-1-1 on the software vendor to make sure they’re reputable and the right fit for the partnership you’re seeking.

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The 5 Steps for Selecting the Right AMS for Your Agency

5 Steps:

• 1. Identify your agency’s pain points & goals
• 2. Identify your agency’s needs (& wants!)
• 3. Research your vendors—sound familiar?
• 4. Select a system
• 5. Manage the change

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Thanks for Joining Us!

Steve Ogden steve.ogden@agencybloc.com