Virtual Actuary uses SMART TECH solutions

HERE’S HOW I DID IT

ADI KAIMOWITZ, co-founder of Virtual Actuary, spends more time out of the office than in it. Here he shares the tools that allow him to do this and still run a growing business.

Which key tech tools allow you to operate as a digital nomad?

Zoom has been our breakthrough program. For interacting with clients remotely, it is spot on. Importantly, it is very reliable, unlike many of its competitors. Using Zoom means our actuaries and clients can all dial in to a digital meeting Kern from wherever they are. It is an affordable off-the-shelf sol.on. and is ideal for a lean start-up. We also use it to co.uct team meetings via the video function. We can share screens, which makes learning instant and seamless. We’ve had meetings where people from five different countries have plugged in.

Slack is another great tool. It’s like a Whatsapp group chat We have various “rooms” which are client and job-specific, or more topical like modeling strategies. We also have a fun and no rules room. Hopefully no one is taking screenshots there. The central announcement “news feed” gives us that office vibe with everyone able to throw in their two cents’ worth.

Google Sheets allows some of the senior exec.ve team to collaborate on documents in real time. This allows us to have project management sheets running, which can be update with no conflict happening between the version on my computer and one of the other senior team members. It is actually more useful than it sounds. Because Google Sheets is cross platform enabled, it means it can be accessed from a, device quickly and easily. Depending on the document, we can also allow anyone who needs to contribute access.

Why did you opt for these specific tools?

As a services consulting business. we constantly ask ourselves how we can be more efficient than the current service providers. We believe that if we can achieve a greater level of efficiency, then our clients will get more of the good stuff and less of the time-wasting stuff. This should translate into lower fees for them but the same quality of send. that they are us. to. We’ve try to strike a balance between going in and working in the client’s office when needed and working In the virtual space. We are never going to get important executive level clients to learn a new software. Instead, our goal is to make communicating with us easy to do. So, we felt communication backwards and forwards with clients was our entry into using more efficient software.

Looking beyond communication software, we have partnered with three software providers to develop actuarial software, which we believe is more efficient than anything currently on the market. This will allow our actuaries to do more in less time. We believe that the speed of our new software and the need for lower computing power, will see us capture a large share of the market in the coming years. I also strongly believe the strength of our top management will play a big factor in how successful we can be.

What is great about these programs?

The software is plug and play and the user experience is simple. No training is required, and in most cases a link is sent, which anyone can click on to plug in. Communicating to our clients as to why th, should use these solutions is crucial. Our new actuarial software features impressive Artificial Intelligence and Machine teaming capabilities.

What kind of limitations have you experienced?

Despite all this impressive software, our actuaries still spend at least half the day,
and in some cases longer, at the client, office. Some of our dients are happy with us working completely remotely if the sensitivity of the data allows it Our vision is to morph into a fully virtual business in time. We’ve learnt you can’t enter an established market with. conforming in some way to market norms.

If there were any major costs involved in procuring the software, how did you get around these?

The communication software, which is affordable. allows us to communicate efficiently with clients. For the more intense actuarial software, we partnered with experts with experience at an executive insurance, reinsurance and banking level. They were looking for an actuarial partner to help their clients to adopt the new software. So, we formed a number of strategic alliances where we get to use the custom software ourselves and for our clients. Once clients start using the software, we form the actuarial support team to help them migrate across from their old systems. Our partners benefit from the licensing fee and we benefit from the actuarial services fee. In reality it’s slightly more complicated than this, but it, still a workable arrangement.