Abstract:
Inland Mutual and Safe Insurance Company are separate but related entities that transitioned to Gain Compliance in 2022. Previously, David Stump, the CFO, had been reluctant to change due to the familiarity he had with his prior annual statement product. In this customer story, you will learn how Gain’s modern software won him over.
Key Quote:
“It’s a totally different experience with Gain. I’m able to correct errors as I go along and the software is preventing me from making errors as well. If I’ve got a problem, the software is highlighting it for me in real time, so that gives me peace of mind throughout the process.”
David Stump, CFO, Inland Mutual
Background
David Stump took over the filings for two companies some 18 years ago. The companies were using the Booke Seminars annual statement product, The Complete Package (TCP). Over the next few years, David became a TCP power user.
In 2019, SOVOS, an international tax software company, bought both Booke Seminars and Eagle Technology Management. The following year, David learned that SOVOS had plans to move him to Eagle’s annual statement product Wings.
“It was a horrific day,” David recalled, “when they called and told me ‘TCP is going away’. They told me they couldn’t support two products and they decided to go with Wings. Regardless of the details, this was a change, and I was going to have to learn something new.”
Despite his reservations he sat in on a few online tutorials to learn more about the product. “Their schedules and worksheets are Excel based,” he explained, “and half of my day is spent working in Excel, but when I sat through those tutorials, it was all very confusing to me. The way their schedules came together, I’ve been doing this for 17 years so it should have been straightforward, but it was not. That really caused me some concern.”
In addition, he had concerns that went beyond software. “They talked about how SOVOS now had the largest number of customers of any annual statement vendor and I was worried that I would be a very small fish in a very big pond. After getting the news of the change, I probably had three or four different account reps and for me it was a sign of turmoil as they worked to change everyone over.”
As he looked at other annual statement packages, Gain stood out. “With Gain, they didn’t have all that stuff going on. When I saw the demo, I was impressed and I liked how the software looked, so I decided to go in that direction.”
It’s Still A Change
Even though Gain had won his business, it would take time to win David over. “I was convinced that there would never be anything better than TCP for annual statement software. The software worked great, I was very familiar with it, they put on seminars that were helpful to me. The people I was talking to there had been there for years, I could pick up the phone and call them anytime.”
TCP was installed, on-premises software, so that sort of responsiveness was important when data needed to be restored or schedules needed to be reset. His larger concern was having the software and all his statement data loaded on this computer. “I was always apprehensive about having all that stuff on my PC, but with Gain, the software and my data are all on the cloud, so I don’t worry about that anymore.”
TCP’s Notes module worked fine for him because he was very familiar with it. “When I moved over to Gain and saw how the Notes were handled, the process was so much better. Booke had things standardized, so you just fit what you were doing into their parameters. With Gain you have much more flexibility and the ability to tailor it to how you want them done.”
With TCP, David had to do his entire statement before running validations. “If I entered a number wrong, it would cause all these other problems that I wouldn’t see until I validated the schedules,” he said. “Talk about anxiety, I was spending a couple of weeks getting my statements into Booke and now I have to run validations. I was praying, please let this not be too bad.”
It’s been a very different experience with Gain’s real-time validation engine. “Now I’m doing that on the fly. If I enter a number wrong, I immediately see this nasty red line, so I fix it so it’s a nice green line and I move on. The amount of time it saves in completing the annual statement is fantastic.”
For David, Gain has delivered more than just time savings. “It’s a totally different experience with Gain. I’m able to correct errors as I go along and the software is preventing me from making errors as well,” he explained. “If I’ve got a problem, the software is highlighting it for me in real time, so that gives me peace of mind throughout the process.”
Like the many Gain customers that came over from TCP, David had much to say about the experience with his Customer Success Manager, Tony Arrowood, as he got set up in Gain. “Tony is fantastic. In the beginning, he was always willing to climb on a call. He was patient and understanding as I worked through this change.”
After clarifying a few things after his first annual statement with Gain, he said he didn’t talk with Tony during this last annual. “The way he worked with me in the beginning, I haven’t really needed him since.”
Conclusion
David was convinced that he would never get anything better than what he had to give up in TCP. Over the course of his 18 years, his familiarity with their product and his relationships with their people did much to smooth over any rough patches he might experience.
With Gain, he found peace of mind around his filings that he didn’t know he was missing.
Learn more about how Gain has improved outcomes for financial reporting teams for other carriers.