New Digs for Sword AgencyPort

Posted by Michael Albert - August 30th, 2010 at 05:08:48 pm

It’s a big day for us at Sword AgencyPort as we begin a new chapter in our history from the confines of a sweet new office at 51 Sleeper Street in Boston’s Fort Point Channel Neighborhood.

The View from Ed's Desk

Looking back, we’ve progressed considerably over the last decade insofar as office space is concerned. Back around the turn of the century when we were just starting out and were less than ten people strong, we were co-located with founder Adam Black’s retail insurance agency downtown on Milk St. While it was an ideal incubator for a young insurance software company focused on agent ease of use, space was a little tight. Our CEO sat at a pop-up table. Most of our local servers were stacked atop my desk in a room that I shared with three other employees.

In 2004 we sprawled out (relatively speaking) leasing some additional office space at 33 Milk Street across the hall from where we started. We found some space for the local servers on a bakers rack in an air conditioning closet. Most employees got their own desks. Even though we effectively doubled our square footage, it didn’t take long before we were once again living on top of one another. The close confines at Milk Street really helped us get to know one another well and while it wasn’t always sunshine and roses, the tight quarters of our early years reinforced the sense of camaraderie and intensified a shared objective to rule the world of insurance technology.

In 2005 we moved again, this time a few blocks away to the 11th floor of 211 Congress St. The new office was downright palatial. There were legitimate conference rooms. There were skylights. There was a server room. Things were good. Until that office filled up too. And when it did in 2007 we doubled our space by leasing the 6th floor of the same building.

Now in 2010 we found ourselves busting at the seams again. After a long weekend of unwiring, packing, hauling, sorting, unpacking, and rewiring, by an all-star team including Krista Fulton, Jack Elliot, Damien O’Mahoney, Kiran Suryadevara, Andrew Wagner, Santosh Jaybalan, Emily Baker, Phani Nayani, Carolyn Loucas, Donna Davis, Lindsay Ford, Susan Yardley, Kakada Khath, Hartman Wagner, Jeff Guzzi, Hab Yohannes (and anyone else I mistakenly missed in my haste!) Sword AgencyPort is in business at 51 Sleeper St!

We look forward to seeing you at our new offices soon!

Coming This September

Posted by Michael Albert - August 18th, 2010 at 12:08:53 pm

From the people who brought you the Agent Insight Tour, Kidnapped, and Lost at Sea, come their most important work yet…

Join us September 26th in Pinehurst Village NC for the premiere!

The Insurance Industry as Early Adopter?

Posted by Mason Power - August 6th, 2010 at 07:08:24 am

Our colleagues at Sword Ciboodle recently launched a provocative blog called “under the C” and I was invited to guest post.

Ciboodle is a unique form of CRM solution, one adopted by leading companies with large service centers in many industries from retail (Sears) to publishing (Dow Jones) to capital markets (JP Morgan Chase) to insurance (BGL or Admiral to name a few). At Sword Insurance we are working with our P&C carrier clients to develop a unique “Insurance CRM” solution for P&C and life carriers who want to stitch together data from various systems (back office, third party data, and front office such as our web portal) to provide an unparalleled customer experience.

We are working on a number of ways to apply the assets of Ciboodle and to stitch them together with products from Sword AgencyPort (e.g. service centers often have to key data on behalf of policyholders or producers who call and we can provide an effective portal experience consistent with the policyholder or agent portal) and from other Sword Insurance businesses.

The guest post talks about how hard it is for insurance companies to be on the leading edge of technology because of the complexity of their market with is 50-state regulations, etc. and how Ciboodle and the Insurance CRM are agile solutions that leverage existing business and compliance rules and product definitions and offer exceptional speed to market. Because legacy systems don’t need to be changed nor replaced, insurers have a second chance to be early adopters of technology.

Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about our Insurance CRM solution.

New Client for Sword AgencyPort: V3 Insurance Partners

Posted by Mason Power - August 4th, 2010 at 02:08:14 pm

Sword Insurance’s client list grows to nearly 120 with the addition of V3 Insurance Partners who licensed the P&C market’s leading web portal from Sword AgencyPort. V3 joins a dozen other MGAs on our client list but occupies a unique space in the P&C market.

Susan Rivera is a co-founder and Pres/CEO of V3 having worked for 15 years at AIG prior to being President of ACE USA and then President of QBE Specialty where she ran $2b GWP through 80 programs via 65 partners. Susan spotted an opportunity to provide the small and medium sized commercial insurance market with a choice of products from top carriers delivered via an MGA differentiated by moral excellence and top quality service.

Today we announced that V3 has signed with Sword AgencyPort so that V3’s appointed agents will be able to quickly and easily quote and bind online with V3. Based on our portal solution (which is live for 17 other carriers for Workers Compensation insurance including WR Berkley, MEMIC, Tower Insurance and others), V3 will soon offer online rate, quote & bind for its iConnectSM Comp multi-state Workers Comp program for companies with two years experience in Retail/Wholesale stores, Manufacturing, Services, Local Trucking, Building Operations, and Artisan Contractors. After Workers Comp, V3 will implement agent portal access for professional liability and commercial auto.

To achieve superior service and efficiency, V3 is looking to use modern technology from the start and according to Susan Rivera, “Sword AgencyPort’s product is the leading solution on the market and their team experience made them an easy choice.” By “leading solution” we refer to the fact that more insurance carriers from regional players (e.g. Arbella, Tower) to national providers (e.g. Hartford, Fireman’s Fund) use our portal; that the portal comes with the most content ready for use (e.g. we offer commercial auto for all 50 U.S. states); that our portal integrates with all varieties of back-office architecture (V3 went with a best-of-breed approach for rating, policy admin and claims); that the portal is designed with the agent end user in mind (you may have heard about how we stay current with agents’ needs); and that our delivery team has unparalleled experience implementing the portal.

Lastly, our press release is the first public mention of a new member of our team who has come in as Head of Sales and Account Management to find every need in the market for distribution, policy administration and insurance CRM and to be sure the needy know about Sword Insurance solutions. We welcome Scott Alfieri to the team (though “you can call him Al” as he was referred to by his last name when he joined, so some on staff thought we’d hired a “Mr. Albert Fieri”).

Top Five Reasons to Attend The 2010 Sword AgencyPort User Conference

Posted by Abby Mitchell - August 3rd, 2010 at 09:08:27 am

The Sword AgencyPort User Conference is just around the corner. Whether this is your first time attending or if you have joined us before, here are the Top Five Reasons you should attend this year’s conference:

5) The sessions. In two days you will hear from our insurance carrier customers (your peers) and from our staff about Sword AgencyPort solutions and implementation.

4) We have more solutions to offer since being acquired by the Sword Group. Here’s your chance to find out what Sword Insurance is all about and what it means to you.

3) Time spent with CIOs and IT executives at other companies who are dealing with the same issues you are. Who knows, you might find the silver bullet idea in a session, during dinner or at the driving range.

2) Have we mentioned it’s at Pinehurst this year – Home of the 1999 and 2005 US Open? Even if you’re not into golf there are plenty of fun activities at Pinehurst.

1) The conference is the best way to understand Sword AgencyPort products, hear about and influence our product roadmap, while spending focused time with our leadership in product, delivery and strategy.

Register Today!

Hope to see you down in North Carolina this September!

Sword Insurance in the News

Posted by Mason Power - July 14th, 2010 at 06:07:42 pm

Doug Shillito of Insurance Newslink wrote a thoughtful piece about the formation of the insurance division including quotes and perspective not seen in other coverage. With Doug’s permission, you will find the article reprinted below.

Sword Insurance unfolds global strategy

It is four years since Insurance Newslink interviewed Heath Davies, then coo of French-owned Sword Group, now ceo. Sword had recently acquired long-term London Market software specialist Intech and Davies outlined his vision for the Sword Group to become predominantly software-orientated and a global player-and he planned further acquisitions in the insurance space.
Earlier this month, Sword Insurance was launched. It is a global co-ordination unit across Sword Intech, Sword Health, Sword Open Xposure, and the latest acquisition, Sword AgencyPort, purchased last November. Following Davies’s plan, Sword Insurance is also utilising horizontal Group solutions such as customer relationship offering, Sword Ciboodle, another acquisition, which has been sold to two companies in the UK insurance market.
Insurance Newslink met up with ceo of Sword Insurance, Steve Hauck, in London to obtain further background to Sword Group’s ambition to be a global software provider, particularly in insurance, which is targeted to produce a third of the Group’s revenues this year.
Significantly, Hauck was a co-founder of AgencyPort in the US ten years ago, and his co-founder, Eric Harnden, and other senior members of Sword AgencyPort, are forming the initial global team.
Key roles for Sword Insurance include global product development-the Research and Development budget has been significantly increased with onshoring facilities in Wales and offshoring in India. Strategic sales and marketing will ensure cross-fertilisation of products to the existing 110 insurance customer base across17 countries. Revenue from organic growth is planned to more than double in the next few years, and further acquisitions are likely to complete the global and across-market segment jigsaw. The Group has over 350 staff dedicated to insurance.
Hauck emphasizes the “single unified message” and the aim to achieve an “inventive mindset” across all offerings, with the focus on strong customer interaction-100% client references are a feature of the successful Sword AgencyPort business. He believes the future is component-based rather than “big bang” and the existing customer base is buying into other products across the Group-Sword AgencyPort is working with three major Sword Intech customers in the London Market, and opportunities for multi-channel front-end distribution abound, particularly as Sword Intech has real potential to expand in the US-and Continental Europe, as has Sword Health. ACORD involvement from both sides of the pond is also a plus point-the London Market is a global business with a complex, often lengthy, process chain, and there is an opening to offer streamlining and multi-lingual/currency solutions. Hauck added that Sword Ciboodle makes Sword AgencyPort richer.
Sword Intech has hidden its light under a bushel and a higher marketing profile will spotlight its speed of implementation, its impressive customer base, its readiness for Solvency II, and its wide market knowledge after 40 years of providing insurance software solutions. Sword AgencyPort management bring an entrepreneurial and customer relationship flair and will be the catalyst to implement the Heath Davies strategy-making the whole bigger than the sum of its parts.
There is much to do and Insurance Newslink will be keeping in touch as this potential global player emerges.

Which of These Really Happened?

Posted by Ken O'Sullivan - July 2nd, 2010 at 10:07:29 am

Which of these really happened:

1.) Ken O lost 40 lbs
2.) Glee has been cancelled.
3.) A soccer(football) player really got injured.
4.) Ken O stopped telling stories.
5.) The Sword AgencyPort softball team won a game.

If you picked 1 or 4, don’t worry, neither would ever happen.

If you picked 2, I might have to kill you. They would never cancel the best show in the history of television.

If you picked 3, you’re probably european. They all fake it, get over it. Actually, don’t get over it, tell them to stop it!

If you picked 5, it sounds ridiculous, but …..

Sword AgencyPort Wins 10 – 9 in extra innings!!!!

For those of you who missed the top story on SportsCenter tonight, “They did it!”. It has taken Sword AgencyPort 10 games, but they finally pulled it off and crushed the opponent tonight in a resounding 10 – 9 victory. The team had the lead in the last inning (7th in softball) and had to get three outs before relinquishing 2 runs. They successfully got the three outs but not before letting two stragglers cross the plate. The game was tied and went to extra innings. In the top of the ninth, Sword AgencyPort’s first baseman made a costly error giving the lead to the other team for the first time in the game. We will not give out names, but his initials are the same as our old company name (AP). The game went to the bottom of the ninth with the AP team down by one. Fast Eddie Cole smashed a single to start the inning and it looked like AP was in business. Two quick ground balls forced the runner out at second each time and we were left with the oldest and fattest guy on the team stuck on first base. Ken O then faked an injury so he could get a pinch runner and Krista Fulton took over. The goat came to bat next, a chance to redeem himself. Anthony smashed a drive deep to left and cleared everything ….. crap, only a ground rule double (short porch). Anthony had redeemed himself quite nicely, but AP wasn’t out of the woods yet. Two outs, two runners in scoring position and who’s at bat? K Spaz … crap again. Kevin Spiers was about to bat and has had good at bats and bad at bats ….. nobody knew what we would get here. (I was guessing it was a Charlie Brown moment.)

After taking a strike, Kevin drove the ball deep in front of home plate, maybe 7 feet away as everyone screamed RUN! Fleet of foot, Spiers flew down the line (he should, he weighs like 46 lbs!) …. their pitcher, some old guy (not as good as our old guy!) …. picked up the ball and fired to first.

The throw to first hit off the first baseman’s glove and rolled into right field ….. Krista scored and the game was tied. Anthony was motoring toward third and the third base coach (Ken O of course) sent him home. Polcari peeled down the line and crossed the plate for the winning run. He ran like there was an opening in the sales department, it was amazing.

The team hung around for a good half hour making up stories about how good they are. Coach Ken O reminded everyone how bad they really are and they called it a night.

A shout out to the team tonight ….

  • Ed Cole, Andy Shepard, Patrick Scott and Kevin Spiers didn’t miss a fly ball, they actually caught close to a dozen!
  • Ann Copolla, or should I say Stopolla didn’t let anything by her at third base as usual.
  • Andrew Wagner – “Wags” – and Krista were the core of the defense and played solid up the middle getting force outs at second all night long.
  • Anthony played first base. (and he did well except for that one play)
  • Tara Durheim was solid catching again and was relieved as Lisa Gilgan got there in the 4th inning to help boost us to victory. (Everyone was so happy when Lisa got there …. it was like she brought the beer or something!)
  • The old fat guy pitched and never shut up as usual.

Everyone hit the ball well for AP tonight, some may have hit triple digits with their average. Also, we are now in the midst of our longest winning streak in franchise history.

A special thanks to those of you who could not make it tonight … we couldn’t have done it with you. (Actually, not true. Everyone who has played in the previous nine games has contributed to this victory.)

If you think this was a waste of time, you shouldn’t have read the whole thing. Don’t worry, I don’t think this will happen again anytime soon.

Announcing Sword Insurance

Posted by Mason Power - July 2nd, 2010 at 08:07:44 am

As noted at the time that AgencyPort was acquired in late 2009, the intention of the Sword Group was to pull together a strategic division focusing on the global insurance industry. This week we announce the management team, market vision and goals for our new division.

With 350 staff serving over one hundred clients in 17 countries with offshore delivery and services staff in Wales and India, the new Sword Insurance division just needed a strategic vision to combine the strengths of Sword Intech, Sword AgencyPort and Sword Ciboodle and a management team to execute on that vision for our customers.

Today we announced the new vision and management team led by Sword AgencyPort co-founders Steve Hauck and Eric Harnden and Sword AgencyPort’s Curt Stevenson. The three have worked together successfully already for ten years.

The market strategy that seemed sensible at the time of the acquisition of AgencyPort has been developed and market-tested with global clients and industry analysts like Novarica, Celent, Gartner and Forrester. We offer a unique combination of products from front-office distribution technology to back-office policy administration complemented with business intelligence tools. Our delivery teams (onshore and offshore) are dedicated to customer satisfaction.

An increased R&D budget funded by the parent company will ensure that the roadmaps of the individual product teams are achieved and also to drive an integration roadmap to offer the market unique combinations of policy administration and point of sale applications or an insurance CRM with transaction portals bundled together.

We have updated the sword-insurance.com website to have two versions: one for North America and one for Europe (which replaces the Sword Intech website). You can toggle back and forth at the top right of the site. This blog, once focused on all things AgencyPort has begun to discuss matters relevant to all markets Sword Insurance serves.

For us, the customer-centric value system is the highest priority – it has served Sword AgencyPort well for ten years (all of our clients act as references) and will drive our product development and delivery teams across all of Sword Insurance. We’ve already seen delivery and product integrated at client sites. Let us know how we can better serve you.

Under The C

Posted by Michael Albert - July 1st, 2010 at 04:07:06 pm

Sword Ciboodle, a member of the Sword Insurance family, has launched their own blog that features tips, discussions and general chat about customer relationship management, CRM software and how changes in customer behavior affect the way you run your business.

The crew of Ciboodlers is keeping their ear to the ground for what’s new and exciting in the customer management world – check it out: http://www.sword-ciboodle.com/blog/

40 years of new client installations and counting

Posted by Mason Power - June 23rd, 2010 at 11:06:05 am

Sword Intech was founded in 1968, (and yes, its single system for underwriting, billing & claims has been rearchitected since) and works with over 60 insurers. Known best for being a market leader in policy administration for the Lloyd’s market, Sword Intech also serves companies in Asia and Europe but most of its clients are in London, North America, and Bermuda.

MS Frontier Re (MSFRe), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Limited, Japan, has been writing mainly Property Catastrophe reinsurance business out of Bermuda since 2002 covering worldwide risks and needed to move off a legacy environment to a robust, modern and configurable system.

MSFRe chose the Open Co+ single system for complete management of its assumed reinsurance business and in the words of their IT manager running the implementation, “The Sword team was diligent and highly professional in assisting us with this conversion and implementation.  Overall I am very pleased with the final result.”

The press has covered the story in Insurance & Technology here and Insurance Business Review here.