Survey Reveals 84% of Canadian Brokers Believe the Industry Needs Fresh Leadership Thinking

67% of Brokers State that Changes in Distribution has Impacted their Business Results

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada February 22, 2010 Keal Technology, software provider for Canadian brokers, announces the results of a broker survey geared at identifying the pulse of the Canadian insurance industry. The survey was developed by The French Group Inc. and asked Keal clients their opinions on a variety of current issues including carrier relations, changes in distribution, and technology.

Survey results were presented at the Canadian Signassure/sigXP User (CSU) & Keal, Partners in Education annual users conference. Regarding broker and carrier relations, 84% of brokers believe the industry needs fresh leadership thinking. 67% of brokers stated that changes in distribution have impacted their business results, citing the top four reasons for the impact:

1. Keeping up with technology
2. Decrease in revenue
3. Decrease in profitability
4. Meeting rising consumer expectations

When asked about the ever-evolving insurance distribution landscape, 69% of brokers believed new players would continue to gain market share. According to survey results, in order to be competitive brokers need to:

Embrace change – 78%
Train staff to be more proactive – 78%
Invest in technology – 64%

A variety of factors contribute to the success of Canadian brokers, one important aspect is their partnership with their broker management systems (BMS) vendor. Technology continues to evolve rapidly, bringing with it opportunities for increased efficiencies but also newly created stresses like managing change, ongoing training and maintenance costs, and staying current with market place offerings. The brokers surveyed echoed these statements. Brokers rely on their BMS vendor to provide them with tools to minimize their stress, make them more competitive, and ultimately more profitable.

We have seen our customer satisfaction levels significantly increase as a direct result of our leadership evolution, said Pat Durepos, President, Keal Technology. Managing change is not easy but critical for a business to evolve and improve. I am a broker first; and one of my guiding principles is determining how decisions at Keal will impact my brokerage. We then have the unique ability to put our theories to the test within a live brokerage to evaluate the impact for our clients prior to release.

Each year, Keal surveys its user-base to gauge customer satisfaction levels. As a direct result of client feedback, internal processes are amended, development tasks prioritized, and customer service initiatives implemented. In 2009, customer satisfaction survey response rates doubled over 2008 – 83% of respondents would consider referring Keal to a friend or colleague. As a direct response to industry changes, individual client feedback, and the collective community voice of the CSU, Keals user group, a variety of initiatives were coordinated in 2009 that were contributing factors to the increase in customer satisfaction levels. They included:

Commitment to and delivery of smaller, more frequent software updates. Total of 9 software version releases:

o sigXP Broker Management System – 3 releases
o comXP Commercial Management System – 2 releases
o dokXP Document Management Scanning Solution- 1 release
o premiumXP Premium Financing System – 2 releases
o lifeXP Life Insurance Management System – 1 release

Commercial carrier integrations now include:

o Lombard only commercial management system to offer integration
o Gore Mutual
o Intact
o Lloyds

Premium finance software launch – premiumXP integrated with sigXP

Enhanced integrations via partnerships include;

o Call recording integration with blueC 802s blueButler
o Enhanced document management and scanning integration with Microdeas Synergize
o Third party premium financing partnership with Advantage Financing

Insurance Brokers Association of Canada – Ideal Electronic Workflow Initiative

o First BMS vendor to successfully complete Phase 1

Hosted 13 client focus groups involving over 120 clients contributing feedback to shape the direction of future software and service development

Phase one of VoIP telephony and sigXP integration completed – Installation centralizing Keals 14 offices

Enhanced consulting offerings – launched personal lines Best Practices subscription service within sigXP

The interaction between Keal and their users is at an all time high, said Karen Gale, President, Canadian Signassure/sigXP Users Group. Theyve sought out and respond to feedback from our members for service and development offerings through our user conference partnership, focus groups, and ongoing research and development meetings. As a broker, I use several different Keal applications and appreciate their commitment to providing tools to make us more efficient and profitable.

About Keal

Keal is a leading software application developer whose focus is exclusively on the Canadian insurance and financial brokerage marketplace. Keal is the first BMS vendor in Canada to attain Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status and as such works closely with Microsoft to deliver up-to-date, robust applications. Keal’s products are the most technologically advanced in development tools and deployment architecture. Amongst their products, sigXP acts as the CRM and personal/auto/habitational policy management system, integrating with comXP, a CMS (commercial management system), and dokXP, a document management and scanning solution. Keal is the exclusive distributor for Nexisys, providing a single entry multiple company interface (SEMCI); lifeXP, life insurance management; and premiumXP, premium financing management. All products are developed uniquely for the Canadian marketplace in both official languages. In addition, they offer consulting on workflows using Keals Best Practices. They are 100% Canadian owned and operated, servicing clients from offices throughout Canada and are headquartered in Concord, Ontario. With Keal, brokers take advantage of integrated systems to streamline their workflows and grow their business. For more information visit www.keal.com

For more information:

Shannon Major
Marketing and Communications Manager
Keal Technology
Phone: 1.800.268.5235, ext. 2588
Email: Shannon.major@keal.com