Insurance Firms and the Need for Managed Service Providers
April 7, 2017
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) offer security, maintenance and other features small- to medium-sized insurance offices need, but cannot afford. Large insurance companies can afford to have an extensive IT team onsite, and many of them use MSPs as a way to reduce IT costs. Small- to medium-sized insurance firms may not have the resources to maintain and upgrade their servers as they grow. Not to mention the need to keep data safe and secure during all transitions of the data process. Keeping IT personnel trained as new technologies come out can by an added expense in itself that can cause insurance firms to fall behind their competitors.
You Should be Selling Insurance
No matter how tech savvy you are you should be selling insurance not managing your network. To fully be successful in the world of insurance you must be diligent in getting clients, selling policies, and retaining those clients. Nowhere in the job description is there a mention for managing networks. IT personnel are paid (quite well) to make sure your client data is secure and away from prying eyes. You need to have these people as part of your team while you take care of the things you are qualified for. Find out more:
Why MSP?
Managed service providers can help you in ways your IT department cannot. MSPs work 24-hours a day and are constantly monitoring your site’s network. Customer portals are a standard in insurance company’s repertoire of customer services. Portals need to be maintained at night when the office is closed, and they should be as close to a 100% up time as possible. This is not possible with in-house IT.
Relaxed security is not an option for insurance companies. If data is lost, stolen, or compromised in any other way, it can lead to the loss of clients and reputation. Not to mention the possibility of legal ramifications. Only MSP employees are properly trained to handle all mishaps in the cloud. They already have security solutions in place, and they have the technologies to maintain and secure your data. Providers can also store and backup your data to multiple locations as necessary, so your data will always be safe and receivable, even in the case of employee disruption, theft, or natural disaster. To keep up with the MSP community and how it affects insurance:
Onsite Monitoring
MSPs have the tools and the know how to monitor your site with advanced analytical tools. Monitoring is not just a way to see if something is broken. Their advanced analytics can determine weakness that may cause failures in the future. This advanced monitoring is the most effective proactive way to defend your network against attacks and breakdowns. The best part is that the MSP may find an issue and have it fixed without you ever knowing there was an issue to begin with.
In-house IT solutions are a thing of the past. They can be effective in enterprise-sized companies, but even then, only to an extent. They mainly work on the infrastructure of the network and pass all the monitoring and detailed backups and security to MSPs. To find out more how an MSP can help you: Request a Quote today.
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