Cloud Continuity

In today’s volatile global environment, it is more important than ever for organizations to develop a business continuity plan. From political and economic uncertainty to the increased prevalence of extreme weather events, business continuity plans can help businesses remain financially and operationally viable regardless of external factors or unforeseen events such as natural disasters.

A comprehensive business continuity plan entails planning for the adoption of technology, tools and processes that enable an insurance brokerage to serve its customers when they are most in need. This planning goes hand-in-hand with disaster recovery and disaster preparedness, allowing a company’s management team and employees to prepare and respond effectively by safeguarding themselves, securing a physical location, protecting critical and sensitive customer data, and continuing to service customers.

To remain competitive in today’s dynamic marketplace, brokerages need to build these plans and strategies to ensure their businesses return to the operating level and capacity they had prior to the disaster in question.

That means brokerages must continuously test and evaluate their business continuity plans to ensure data back-up plans work effectively before they are needed. By evolving strategies alongside business changes and running frequent tests to confirm validity, brokerages can make sure their business continuity and disaster recovery plans are updated accordingly and will work to mitigate business risk in times of disaster.

CLOUD CONNECTIVITY

A.M. Best Company Inc. reports that catastrophic events in 2013 contributed to record insurable losses totalling $3.2 billion. To ensure business continuity and minimize the loss of business operations during disastrous events, independent brokerages need to implement technology strategies.

From a systems standpoint, technology like the cloud and mobile can enable brokerages to protect important data in a secure online environment located outside the physical office. Cloud solutions offer hardware, networks, storage, services, applications and interfaces across the Internet, centralizing critical business intelligence and providing on-demand, remote access to information.

By leveraging cloud technologies, Canadian insurance brokerages can capitalize on their benefits, including better user experiences, lower IT costs, increased business operations flexibility and stronger IT security.

Cloud technologies store insurance brokerage information in secure, off-site data centres that deliver a high level of security and rely on redundancies for power and back-up sites. If a data centre is in a disaster location, the redundant site will take over cloud operations to ensure business continuity.

In a bid to continue increasing adoption of the cloud among Canadian insurance brokerages, technology companies worldwide are providing in-country data centres, thereby minimizing concern over brokerage data crossing sensitive regional borders.

Combining mobile with cloud solutions also creates an optimal platform for quick data access and provides brokerages with increased operational flexibility.

Mobility allows brokerages to conduct business remotely, enabling its workforce to carry out functions more efficiently during disasters. It also offers that secondary channel necessary to gain access to brokerage data outside the office, allowing brokers to service clients when they are most in need.

As consumers increasingly conduct more business online on various digital channels, insurance brokerages must adopt cloud technologies that deliver online client self-service to extend business continuity planning to the insured level. Canadian brokerages have started to deliver online client self-service webpages to provide client access to insurance information – including policy coverage, deductibles and claims processing – anywhere, anytime.

By providing 24/7 online client self-service, clients empower themselves to seek out the information needed, reducing broker time spent on support calls and increasing the value that a brokerage delivers to its clients during a disaster event.

BROKERAGE EXPERIENCE

The cloud has proven especially useful when a physical office or piece of equipment is damaged. Having infrastructure, tools and critical data running in the cloud can reduce a brokerage’s revenue loss from unexpected business disruptions.

Best Buy Insurance in Ajax, Ontario, for example, last year experienced an unexpected disaster in its office and leveraged the continued operational resiliency of the cloud to service customers during the crisis.

In August of 2013, the brokerage’s office was forced to relocate after experiencing a flood that originated from a pipe bursting in the kitchen and causing damage throughout the office. By operating on a cloud-based brokerage management system, the business was up and running shortly after being alerted of the incident when it connected to the Internet.

Had the brokerage still been operating on a LAN-based brokerage management solution, its destroyed server room located next to the kitchen would have put most critical brokerage data at risk. While hardware was destroyed in the flood, the cloud supported the brokerage’s data and important infrastructure so it could continue to service insured customers.

“Being on the online brokerage environment was a life-saver,” Gillian Van Kempen, managing director and executive vice president of Best Buy Insurance, says of the experience. By 9 a.m. the next morning, the brokerage’s customer service representatives were able to service any clients who called or came to the office, Van Kempen reports.

“All of our data was there. Everything we needed was there. Once that Internet connection was established, we were back online,” she notes.

DATA PROTECTION VITAL

Protecting customer data is vital; brokers recognize the importance of keeping critical client information on Canadian soil. Online back-ups provided by Canadian cloud environments provide online brokerages with a competitive differentiator – peace of mind.

As insurance consumers become more tech-savvy and understand their rights with regard to data security and privacy laws, brokerages can confirm that their information is backed up on Canadian soil.

Best Buy Insurance’s unexpected crisis in the summer of 2013 is one of many examples of independent brokers dealing with disasters. Brokerages also need to consider that in the event of larger-scale catastrophes, the business of their IT providers could also experience delays during these times. The time needed by the IT provider, such as a hardware provider, to restart business operations and begin servicing clients can have a further impact on a brokerage’s ability to service its own clients.

By leveraging the immediate access to business critical information that the cloud provides, brokerages can return to business operations as soon as an Internet connection is established, and eliminate the need to rely on third-party vendors that may themselves be affected by a disaster.

Brokerages must be able to respond and provide information rapidly in order to stay competitive and serve as a trusted resource. Providing connectivity, mobile access and continuous customer service during unexpected events is becoming increasingly important for the successful operation of an insurance brokerage.

Integrating cloud solutions and emerging communication channels can help reduce downtime and bolster connectedness to both a brokerage’s internal operations and clients, enabling brokers to better service clients when they need help most.