A Case Study: Earl Bacon Insurance Agency, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

The Earl Bacon Agency is a full service insurance agency located in Tallahassee, Florida. The agency provides all lines of personal and business insurance. With over 40 employees, they are one of the largest independent insurance agencies in North Florida. After experiencing rapid growth and changes in technology, the Earl Bacon Agency called on Aegis Business Technologies to assist in streamlining the agency’s business processes and technology. In order to efficiently manage the agency’s new technology, Aegis developed a plan to provide the Earl Bacon Agency with daily support for the ongoing planning and maintenance of their systems. Utilizing the skilled resources of the Aegis team has brought depth of knowledge and reliability to solving the technology issues at The Earl Bacon Agency. “With Aegis focused on our technology, we can focus on providing our customers the best service possible.” – Cindi Cavallaro, IT Supervisor/Commercial Account Manager.

CHALLENGES

Since the invention of the personal computer, technology has changed the face of business. Along with the increases in efficiency and productivity, technology brings the additional challenges of maintenance and implementation. The Earl Bacon Agency, keenly aware of technological competitive advantage, aggressively sought new ways to improve their operations through technology. These improvements included new insurance management software, paperless document management, and a reliable computing environment that encourages efficiency and collaboration between employees. The staff quickly realized their skill sets limited the utilization and growth of the Earl Bacon Agency’s technology environment. They were also seeking methods to reach their goal of providing even greater focus to their customers. Eliminating burdens in technology could significantly help in their goal. The Earl Bacon Agency saw they were in need of two vital components for growth and strategic planning; technology expertise in all areas and technology training of staff. Increasing productivity through proper training was of key concern to the agency. Hiring a full time or part time employee to manage their technology would limit the Earl Bacon Agency to the knowledge of one person. The Earl Bacon Agency needed a wide set of skills and a dependable team to back up their network infrastructure. The decision was made to look outside the Earl Bacon Agency for a company that could handle the challenges presented.

SOLUTIONS

In April 2007, Bobby Bacon, the CEO of the Earl Bacon Agency, approached Aegis looking for a solution to help him manage his technology more efficiently. Aegis worked closely with Mr. Bacon and the staff at the Earl Bacon Agency to develop a strategic plan for the agency’s technology environment and future technology needs.

• The Earl Bacon Agency and Aegis decided that daily on site support was needed in order to meet the ongoing technology need of the Agency. Aegis provided a dedicated lead technician, supported by a team of technicians. The lead tech would be responsible for handling problems and would run a help desk for the entire organization. This would allow the staff to focus on their business; providing for the insurance needs of their customers.

• The agency formed an Information Technology Committee, with representatives from each department, to work with the Aegis Technicians. The IT Committee, along with input from the Aegis staff would be responsible for determining the technological direction for the Agency.

• The technical staff would also assist and lead in training the employees in basic computer skills. The IT Committee members would also participate by providing training in their industry specific software.

• Aegis was also able to bring dependability and depth of knowledge to the Earl Bacon Agency staff. They assigned technical staff to provide secondary support to ensure continuity if the lead technician were to be unavailable and ensured key technicians were familiar with the Earl Bacon Agency environment. Also, numerous technicians were involved with the planning phases to cover all areas of expertise. Earl Bacon Agency was able to rely on the whole Aegis team instead of managing a single, full time technician.

RESULTS

After a year and a half working with Aegis, the agency is now more focused on their core business, allowing Aegis to manage their technology needs. Aegis responds to individual employees needs through a central help desk intranet, allowing for accountability and more efficient resolution of issues. Through their new paperless system, Earl Bacon Agency has eliminated the need for file storage and therefore has increased their efficiency per square foot of office space. Aegis has conducted numerous training sessions on everything from Outlook to Excel in order to help employees to be more efficient and adaptive to changes in technology. The Earl Bacon Agency has not experienced any major interruptions in their technology. The Aegis team was able to respond within hours in the case of a lightning outage that damaged networking equipment. These factors, in addition to the plans for the future, have brought the Earl Bacon Agency to a more sophisticated level of technology. In turn, their technology is helping them excel in the field of insurance sales and service.

Challenges