SENTRY
SENTRY PROVIDES EXPERT CONVERSATIONS At Sentry, we’ve built our reputation on listening and providing assistance to all of our business customers. It’s in our DNA. And has been for more than 115 years. DEDICATED SERVICE Every company needs insurance protection for when things go wrong. But if you’re like us, you know there’s a bigger picture. We are here to help you find the right coverage, manage claims, and develop a proactive safety culture to minimise risks. INNOVATIVE OPTIONS Let’s face it. Insurance is not a one-size-fits-all solution. At least not here at Sentry. We get to know you and your business, offering innovative solutions that make sense for you.
Jim Frank
94 | North America Outlook issue 01
Jim Frank, Chief Information Officer (CIO), has been with Sentry since 2003, and transitioned from Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to the position of CIO last year. He has had the privilege of witnessing the growth of Sentry throughout the past two decades, and highlights what has differentiated the company from its rivals in the industry. “As a company overall, we take a more personal approach to how we do business,” Frank informs us. “We truly value having conversations–so we do just that. We engage our customers in substantive conversations. We listen to their unique challenges and their goals. Then we work with them to identify solutions and plan for the future.” Sentry also houses an innovative culture in its operation – the continuation to discover advanced solutions and provide its customers with better services sits as the company’s standard of practice. It is the aforementioned personal approach that helps in this regard, as the firm is able to build and grow alongside its customers. Of course, as a business that drives forward with IT services, innovation is critical to stay ahead of the curve. Yet Sentry still retains its human edge shown by the personal and professional care it provides its customers. The firm has adopted cloud-based operations faster than that of the industry. This ensures it provides better availability and greater scalability with regards to services – Sentry can iterate and develop elements of its work a lot faster due to cloud-based technology. “Most insurance companies spend 50 percent or more of their IT budgets to maintain legacy systems – technology that may have limitations in accessibility or scalability,” Frank explains. “At Sentry, we are spending under seven percent on legacy technology because we’ve transitioned a majority
OneNeck OneNeck IT Solutions LLC specializes in multi-cloud solutions, combined with managed services, professional IT consulting services, hardware and local connectivity via top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon and Wisconsin. OneNeck’s nearly 500 technology professionals deliver secure, modern platforms and applications for organizations embracing data-driven transformation and secure end-to-end solutions throughout the country. OneNeck is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems [NYSE: TDS], a Fortune 1000® company, whose business units also include U.S. Cellular and TDS Telecom.
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of our systems to web- or cloud-based operations. “A recent Accenture study estimates 10 percent of insurance computing is being done in the public cloud. At Sentry – we have 20 percent of our capacity in the cloud, and we’re working to increase that every month.”
INDUSTRY INNOVATION Despite the obstacles posed by the past year, Sentry has been able to weather the storm of COVID-19’s effects on the industry thanks to an innovative approach to progressive digital services. “We already emphasise having conversations, being accessible to our customers, having a way to get a hold of us – whenever they need us. Over the years, that has led to establishing more sophisticated capabilities on the web, like being able to buy directly through our customer-facing portals,” Frank continues.
