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In an insurance coverage expertise panorama dominated by sprawling nationwide gamers, smaller native choices are nearly remarkable. Nearly. Enter Particular Agent – mirroring the various unbiased businesses in Massachusetts, this native, unbiased firm stands out as a homegrown answer designed particularly with their wants in thoughts.
The brainchild of Christopher Baker, Particular Agent is an company administration system constructed from the bottom as much as simplify workflows for unbiased brokers. After years of hands-on expertise sustaining outdated legacy programs, Baker got down to create inexpensive, user-friendly software program that solved brokers’ greatest ache factors.
Launched within the Nineteen Nineties, Particular Agent has grown over a long time of considerate iteration formed instantly by person suggestions. Baker’s workforce relentlessly fine-tunes the system to maintain up with rising trade developments and the newest integrations.
At present, Particular Agent’s intuitive interface and tailor-made integration proceed to win over unbiased businesses throughout Massachusetts and past. As the corporate expands its geographic footprint, few perceive the unbiased agent perspective higher than Baker.
Within the following interview, Baker shares the origin story behind Particular Agent and his insights on selecting company expertise as an unbiased agent. For these contemplating native AMS choices, Baker gives an inside take a look at what makes Particular Agent a novel, easy answer for an unbiased company.
As CEO and founding father of the one Massachusetts-based Company Administration System of unbiased brokers, might you share with us the backstory of how Particular Agent got here to be? How did the concept for Particular Agent come about?
Years in the past, after I began on this trade, I used to be doing software program upkeep for one of many unique company administration programs. It ran on an historic minicomputer with dumb terminals. It was solely utilized by a couple of brokers and was horribly outdated. The {hardware} was failing and required heroic efforts simply to maintain it going. The machine itself was concerning the measurement of a fridge, and the disks had been like washing machines. By comparability, at this time’s cell telephones are about 4 million instances extra highly effective. One of many final brokers who was utilizing this method approached me with the concept of growing a brand new system from scratch. PCs had been nonetheless a little bit of a novelty, so I created the brand new system on Unix after which rewrote it to work on PCs as they grew to become mainstream.
What made you need to begin your individual Company Administration System?
Since I used to be very younger, I’ve had the need to begin a enterprise. Lemonade stands, paper routes, lawn-mowing, snow shoveling – you title it. I’ve an early reminiscence of somebody calling me an entrepreneur, and I needed to lookup what it meant. I used to be continually looking out for a enterprise concept. Later, as a pc advisor for brokers, I stored listening to the identical grievance: ‘Company administration programs are too difficult and too costly.’ Creating an easy-to-use, inexpensive administration system appeared like the right drawback for me to resolve.
How did you initially discover your approach into the insurance coverage trade?
It was largely by likelihood. I used to be in graduate faculty for pc science, and an area company was on the lookout for assist to customise their software program. By coincidence, my father bumped into the proprietor. They bought chatting, and he arrange an introduction for me. I believe my father was fearful he was going to have an unemployed grad scholar transfer again into his home.
What’s the present make-up of Particular Agent’s market share?
We’re the most well-liked company administration system in Massachusetts. Nearly all of our prospects are small to mid-sized, primarily private strains unbiased brokers. Nonetheless, we’ve many brokers that target industrial strains and/or area of interest markets. We even have a small variety of captive brokers.
The place are the vast majority of your shoppers situated? We’re guessing Massachusetts, however what about New England and past?
Over 90% of our brokers are in Massachusetts, however we’ve shoppers throughout New England, plus a handful of different states as properly.
Are you trying to increase exterior of your present geographic space?
Completely. We’re designed to work nationwide, so we’re glad to work with brokers wherever. Nonetheless, we’re at the moment specializing in increasing our presence within the northeast.
Turning to your precise product, in your opinion, what makes Particular Agent particular? In different phrases, what units it other than different company administration programs?
Brokers’ greatest grievance about different programs, except for price, is that they’re advanced and cumbersome. Of their effort to bolt on each function that each agent might probably want, they’ve made easy issues extra difficult. It will probably take many steps to do on a regular basis duties.
In contrast, we put quite a lot of considerate effort into the design. We put essentially the most used options entrance and middle and transfer extra advanced options out of the best way. We try to make it usable proper out of the field with out intensive coaching. At first, most brokers who’ve used different programs are shocked at how streamlined Particular Agent is. It’s nearly too easy. Later, they’re shocked once more at how a lot energy is hidden beneath the hood once they have extra difficult calls for.
Look, no person will get up within the morning and desires to consider utilizing software program. We acknowledge that it’s not about our software program. It’s a couple of software to empower brokers to serve their shoppers extra simply and precisely. We fastidiously take heed to our customers and watch how they use our software program. If there is part of our software program that appears to want quite a lot of rationalization, we return to the drafting board and redesign it to be extra intuitive. By making it simpler to make use of, there are fewer requests for help, so we don’t have to cost as a lot. Ease of use and affordability actually go hand in hand.
Particular Agent not too long ago accomplished a significant redesign and relaunch. May you inform us just a little bit about why you determined to revamp your AMS system and what the method was like?
The core of our software program was 10 or 15 years previous; it was constructed on older expertise, and it was changing into harder so as to add fundamental options which can be anticipated in trendy software program. The expertise and design pre-dated the web, and from a visible viewpoint, it simply appeared previous and out of contact. As usually occurs within the tech world, newer merchandise had been beginning to leap-frog us, and we knew we needed to re-invent our software program and transfer to the cloud.
When coping with a significant overhaul of a product like this, there are mainly two approaches. The primary is to create an entire new product from scratch designed for the brand new setting. This technique is a little bit of a crap shoot. New software program merchandise are infamous for brand spanking new bugs and lacking options that labored simply wonderful within the previous model. Most firms wind up ignoring the previous model whereas placing all their vitality into the brand new model that originally doesn’t meet the person’s wants. It’s dangerous, and the software program trade is affected by firms that went this route and failed. For instance, at one level, Lotus and Wordperfect had been two of the best-known software program merchandise, and each stumbled whereas utterly re-creating their merchandise.
The second strategy is to proceed to totally help the present mature product whereas redesigning it in place one piece at a time to work within the new setting. It’s a a lot slower however safer strategy that’s kinder to the customers as modifications happen regularly. For a number of years, we upgraded one portion of the software program at a time till, lastly, the whole product was prepared to maneuver into the cloud.
We began putting in the cloud model for some pilot businesses in 2022, and it was a success proper off the bat. Our meticulous strategy paid off, and we had no main points. We made it typically accessible late final 12 months, and now tons of of businesses are utilizing it.
What does model 2.0 now supply that was not accessible earlier than?
Properly, we name it model 5, and it’s all concerning the cloud. Prior variations might solely be put in and used on computer systems, which needed to be bodily situated in an agent’s workplace. Model 5 permits us to host the agent’s information within the cloud to allow them to entry it from any Home windows PC wherever on Earth. Correction – wherever with an web connection. I not too long ago logged in with a Wi-Fi connection on an airplane. Along with being accessible in every single place, the cloud is way more reliable and doesn’t should be upgraded or backed up like an area workplace server.
May you briefly spotlight your company administration system’s essential options and advantages?
Truthfully, most programs have a lot of the similar options, so it may be onerous to distinguish. However, as you talked about, we’re a Massachusetts firm, and I do know most individuals studying this are concerned within the Massachusetts unbiased company system, so I’ll concentrate on that.
Being native, we’ve our finger on the heart beat of native issues. We are inclined to know the regional carriers and distributors fairly properly and might be forward of the curve with native points. Greater than as soon as, we’ve piloted integrations and introduced new options to our customers earlier than different programs. For instance, most brokers in Massachusetts use SinglePoint from Boston Software program. We work very intently with them to import and export information and have shared expertise to supply SinglePoint eStamps to our brokers. One other space the place we’re distinctive is MA RMV types. We’re the one system that has completely built-in with the commonest MA RMV types to pre-fill information and retailer the finished types mechanically in our system. Having every little thing in a single place is way more environment friendly.
How do you make sure the safety and privateness of your shoppers’ information?
All of our information is saved in Microsoft Azure, one of many world’s most safe and dependable internet hosting platforms. It’s utilized by the US Army.
How do you deal with integrations with different software program platforms and instruments?
It’s largely pushed by the wants of our brokers. We do plenty of integrations and like to work with market leaders who help commonplace applied sciences. We get requests to combine with our software program on a weekly foundation, usually from firms we’ve by no means heard of and by no means will once more. So, it may be tough to know the place to focus our sources. There are some new applied sciences coming alongside which can be making an attempt to be a form of common translator and function as a center layer between software program merchandise from completely different distributors. We’re maintaining a tally of this house; it actually has the potential to multiply the ability of any product.
How do you measure the efficiency and satisfaction of your customers?
Continuously. On the finish of each help interplay, brokers have an opportunity to price and go away feedback. We do periodic account critiques, concentrating on brokers we haven’t spoken with shortly, to verify they’re conscious of any new options and are utilizing the system to its fullest capabilities. Pre-COVID, we had in-person person group coaching periods with ample time for brokers to share their ideas. Since then, we’ve discovered that most individuals are extra comfy with webinars. We not too long ago had an out of doors supply interview a cross-section of our shoppers to search out out what’s working and what’s not. Lastly, we not too long ago despatched out a Web Promoter Rating (NPS) survey to our customers. We had been happy to get tons of of responses and a rating that ranks us with essentially the most customer-focused firms on the earth.
What options or capabilities of Particular Agent or comparable AMS programs can brokers make the most of extra successfully than they presently do, in your opinion?
Off the highest of my head, I’d title two. The primary is Obtain. Each company ought to take a minute to verify they’re profiting from downloading every little thing with each firm they’ll. There was an explosion in capabilities and high quality of downloads lately. Not solely does downloading save a ton of time, nevertheless it additionally helps you to benefit from having correct, detailed data beneath your management with out being reliant on particular provider programs.
The second is Actions. Most programs have an Exercise operate that permits you to simply monitor to-do gadgets and simply create a everlasting document of communication with shoppers – each are important to decreasing errors and omissions publicity.
Do you supply any trial runs of Particular Agent or demos for brokers trying to be taught extra?
I’m not satisfied a trial run is a good suggestion for an company administration system. The facility of a administration system is within the information. To be actually helpful, an agent must have fairly a bit of data of their system. Whether or not they manually enter it, obtain it, or convert it from an current system, it’s a huge funding of time and sources.
We provide limitless demonstrations of Particular Agent and are glad to spend as a lot time displaying as a lot element as an agent wants. Getting a brand new administration system is a giant determination for an company. We choose an agent to take their time, ask many questions, and discuss to many references to make sure about their determination. There’s an previous saying: ‘Marry in haste, repent at your leisure.’ Like a wedding, an company ought to take its time discovering the right match and plan on it lasting a very long time. Fortunately, we’ve a really low ‘divorce’ price. Our buyer retention is near 100%.
What’s the pricing construction for an company all for buying an AM system Particular Agent?
There’s a small preliminary startup price for setup, configuration, and coaching. As soon as up and operating, there’s a recurring month-to-month payment partially primarily based on the variety of customers. We’ve one product and one pricing plan. There aren’t any add-ons or up-sells.
Lastly, why ought to an agent cease and take a look at Particular Agent versus an AMS system from a nationwide firm?
Simply as brokers worth their private relationships with their shoppers, we worth private relationships with our brokers, which simply can’t occur with massive nationwide firms. We love what we do, and I believe it reveals not solely within the product however in each interplay brokers have with us.
For these brokers who might need to examine Particular Agent additional, what must be their subsequent steps?
We’re reachable in quite a few methods: e-mail us at info@SpecialAgent.com, chat or message us by way of our web site at www.SpecialAgent.com, or you’ll be able to name and converse to an actual particular person at 781-767-2222. This Friday and Saturday, November 3 & 4, we’ll be at Sales space #514 at The Massive Occasion – MAIA’s Annual Convention and Commerce Present on the Westin Seaport District, Boston. Thanks; it’s actually been a pleasure talking with you. I actually loved telling our story.
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