Abstract:
In 2018, Falcon Insurance Company implemented Gain Compliance’s Notes solution. Its experience with the software and support over the following two years convinced the Financial Reporting team to expand to Gain’s Full Statement solution.
In this Customer Story, you will learn about how a modern software solution provided Falcon a new perspective on its legacy vendor, and how the team realized value when it made changes to established processes around Statutory Financial Statements.
Key Quote:
“This is my favorite software I use at work. I’ve done other implementations – none that have gone as seamlessly as it did with Gain. We really appreciate the company overall.”
Renae Grimestad, Senior Accountant, Falcon Insurance
Background:
When Renae Grimestad joined Falcon in 2017, the team was using a legacy software product to complete its Statutory Financial Statements. One of its biggest complaints was around the Notes. This part of the filing was completed using Microsoft Word as the then-current software did not adequately support this part of the filing.
“We found Gain Compliance for the Notes, and we loved how the system worked,” Renae recalled. “The service was great. Everything about it made the Notes so nice and easy for us.”
While Falcon’s Notes process had greatly improved with Gain, the experience around the rest of the schedules remained the same. “The [legacy] software had issues, and we had to wait for the fixes to happen. So we looked at Gain Compliance because the company now had a full Annual Statement solution, and we liked what we saw.”
Falcon expanded from Notes to Gain’s Full Statement solution at the beginning of 2022. “It was the same thing as with the Notes – we had a flawless transition, and the service continued to be great,” Renae recounted. “This is my favorite software I use at work. I’ve done other implementations – none that have gone as seamlessly as it did with Gain. We really appreciate the company overall.”
Up and Running (and Collaborating):
When the team first started in Gain, it was just Renae, the Controller, and the CFO working on the statements. In 2023, Falcon added another person to the process. Gain’s modern interface compressed the time required for the team member to achieve domain proficiency and add value.
As Renae explained, “She was able to take to the software very quickly. She didn’t need much training to figure out how to use it. For the quarterlies, she’s now handling almost everything aside from the investment schedules, but she was able to do that work without any issues. For the annual, she doesn’t do investments or Schedule P, but she’s involved in most of the rest.”
Furthermore, Gain’s solution fosters collaboration across the entire team through features such as status labels. “We love how the colored status dots work for us. We can complete a section and mark it ready to review, which keeps us on track through the process.”
This is in sharp contrast to Falcon’s prior experience. Renae recalled software performance problems with their legacy vendor when multiple users were working on the same company – a concern no longer relevant with Gain’s modern collaboration platform. “It was seamless in Gain because we would have multiple people working on the Notes, multiple people working on other parts of the statement – all at the same time without any issues.”
A New (and Better) Normal:
Modern software improves outcomes across the board.
A recurring obstacle the Falcon team had faced with their previous vendor was managing software updates. “There were two to three times every annual statement season where we would have to get out of the system, and wait so that a bandaid could be applied [with our legacy vendor].”
Gain’s Cloud-based infrastructure removed this pain point; updates happen in the background, and the most recent version of the software is always available upon login. Renae recounted how the overhead of maintaining installed software disappeared: “With Gain Compliance, we didn’t have any of those issues, and we could continue working on our statements.”
The team had also experienced issues around performance with their legacy software product. “It would take time to do things. You’d have to jump out and jump back in, and it would lag at points.” This delay caused issues and led to a lack of confidence. As Renae explained, “we found that when we’re working in one schedule and work isn’t complete in others because of this lag; the lag made you wonder if a change went through or not.”
Falcon reaped benefits from increased confidence from the performance of modern software. “With Gain, things happen instantly, and it’s very clear that those things happened.” The ease of use was refreshing. As Renae described, “We really liked how easy it was to use, and how we could go in and just figure things out.”
Support:
In addition to the benefits the team has seen from modern software, Renae was equally effusive about the support they have received throughout their time using Gain. “I can think of many instances where Gain support went above and beyond.”
Recently, they were having an internal debate about one of their Schedules and reached out to Kelsey Gerhold. “We were in kind of a loop. So we asked her if she had any information or insight that might help us determine what is right and she was able to look at the materials and figure it out for us. She ended our debate, and gave us clarity on the issue…the service is top notch and we appreciate how they’re always doing more than they need to.”
Conclusion:
For years, statutory reporting teams have been using out-of-date technology to complete their statements. Like Falcon Insurance, their relationship with their legacy vendor’s support became about applying one bandaid after another to archaic software.
These teams find a completely different experience when they move to a modern, Cloud-native solution, and they find the vendor relationship to be different, and greatly improved, as well. Without the burden of reactively fixing issues, solution providers like Gain Compliance become proactive partners in the process.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.