|
Contact Us
Foundation Insurance Group 803 West Broad Street Suite 500 Falls Church, VA 22046 703-988-3750 (phone) 800-203-2811 (toll free) www.foundationinsurancegroup.com info@figva.com
|
|
5 New Apps Your Business Needs Now
The business world has changed a lot in the last few years, thanks in no small part to the smartphone, and the endless multiplication of apps to use with it. Despite having thousands of these tools literally at our fingertips, a recent TechCrunch study found most people only use five apps on a regular basis. With that in mind, here are the five best new apps that your business should be using in 2015.
1. Workflow, $2.99
The less time you spend on multi-step tasks, the more productive you can be. That's the idea behind this app, which lets you create a multi-step task with a single icon. With one tap of your finger, you can call an Uber to your next meeting, put the day's updated documents in a Dropbox folder, or anything else that often needs doing. Workflow is the only non-free app on this list because of how much excitement it's caused at major business publications like Forbes-and there's no doubt this app quickly pays for itself in time saved.
2. Evernote Scannable, Free
In the business world of 2015, paper documents can be an uneasy fit. We want things we can hold and hand out, but we also want to email, copy, and edit. Evernote Scannable seamlessly brings paper and digital together. Just take a picture of a piece of paper, and this app turns it into a readable, emailable, editable document. The app can also recognize and extract contact information from a business card, so you can digitize your Rolodex no matter how analog your contacts might be.
3. Sunrise, Free
Your calendar is the most important tool you use to keep up with your business. Out of a crowded field, Sunrise has emerged the victor, called the best calendar app by Business Insider and topping Forbes' list of organization tools. It's visually appealing and easy to use. It syncs with all calendar services, lets you know which meeting emails need RSVPs, and even gives you the weather-all without getting clunky or crowded. Apparently unique among calendar apps, it can also use contact information to tell you more about the people who will be at your next meeting by connecting to their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
4. Charlie, Free
That last function of Sunrise might be the most exciting. If you knew more about the potential clients or partners you're about to meet, how many more connections could you make, and how many more deals could you seal? Charlie takes that ability several steps further.
For each person at your next meeting, Charlie gives you their company news and stats, blog posts, and tells you which contacts and interests you have in common. You become a supernetworker, or an eerily-knowledgeable negotiator, automatically receiving the equivalent data of over fifty Google searches per meeting. No surprise it's used by the sales teams of Twitter, Yelp, and other major companies.
5. Mint, Free
Streamlining, organizing, and networking are all vital to a company, but you're in the business of making money.
Mint has been a favorite of small businesses and independent contractors for years, a simple tool to keep track of credit cards and budgets, track cash flow, pay bills, check credit, and analyze spending, all in one place.
This summer, Mint released a universal app, so no matter what kind of smartphone you have, you can hold the whole financial side of your business in the palm of your hand.
Linking all of your finances to your mobile device might make you understandably squeamish. While apps like Mint use bank-level security, an ever more connected and digitized world means business information of all kinds is potentially vulnerable to cyberattack. Don't let that keep you away from these new technologies. Instead, talk to us to make sure you have the cyber liability coverage you need to keep up with the app-filled business world, and all of the advantages that come with it.
|
Out of the Blue: Are Drones the Future of Insurance?
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's... an insurance drone? Earlier this summer, the Federal Aviation Administration gave a handful of large insurance companies permission to experiment with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, better known as drones) for conducting inspections on the wing. Other insurers have requests pending-so it looks like insurance drones are part of the very near future.
Why do many insurers want an eye in the sky? It's all about data collection. From risk assessment to surveying large-scale damage, drones offer a way for insurance companies to evaluate properties, keep track of construction projects in real time, and check the condition of infrastructure from power lines to pipelines, all without sending a pilot into the air, inspectors into the wreckage, or a claims adjuster up on a wobbly ladder.
In other words, it can take a lot of the risk out of evaluating risk, and potential damage out of looking at existing damage. It would also mean lower costs when it comes to gathering data, and faster claims processing and payment.
As the commercial drone use develops, so do protections for people on the ground: private companies using aerial surveillance may make some people squeamish, and not just the aluminum hat-wearing types. A number of states have or are drafting laws against surveillance of private property, or anyone on that property, without the written permission of the surveilled.
For its part, the FAA officially bans commercial drones, pending the creation of formal regulation - although it's issuing around fifty exceptions per week. For insurance use, the FAA is limiting drones to 400 feet up, 100 miles per hour, and 55 pounds maximum.
At the moment, we don't have drones, and most likely you don't either. Still, whether you have a claim that needs a bird's-eye-view, or your business gets a drone of its own and needs coverage, we'll be keeping one eye on this as insurance drones take off-and one eye on the sky.
|
 UBI: For a Fairer Future, Plug in Your Fleet
It's an age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Another question, as old as vehicles and vehicle insurance: Why do high premiums happen to good drivers? If you happen to have a teenage son who's an excellent driver, the fact that his baseline premium is still higher because someone else's son is doing donuts in a mall parking lot at 2am probably seems downright unfair. The solution: user-based insurance (UBI) with telematics - from individual drivers to your business' fleet.
With UBI, a wireless telematic device plugs into the dashboard to record abrupt stops, fast turns, speeding, overall mileage, driving after dark, tailgating, and other specific risk factors. Premiums adjust accordingly, and your cautious son no longer pays for someone else's donuts. Meanwhile, an insurer doesn't have to wait for the risky driver to actually get into an accident - causing real damage and serious injury - to adjust the premium.
Not surprisingly, UBI has caught on big time with individual drivers: there will be an estimated 89 million monitored vehicles on the road by 2017, according to Forbes. About two thirds of drivers benefit from UBI, with discounts ranging from $150 to $1,500. Unsafe drivers finally get the wake up call they needed, bruising egos but saving lives.
Now, businesses are starting to reap the benefits of fairer premium calculations, too. With a telematic device in each of your business' vehicles, we'll be able to see how your fleet stacks up against other businesses. If your drivers go shorter distances, make fewer abrupt stops, signal, take turns slowly, etc., your premium goes down. If some of your drivers are being reckless, that's not just good for you to know - it also means you'll have a clear incentive for safety training and other measures.
Telematics don't just improve safety and make premiums fairer. You can discover more cost-effective and fuel-efficient routes, recover lost or stolen vehicles, and coordinate seamlessly with the rest of your business. Your fleet isn't just cheaper to insure: it's also smarter.
Talk to us about UBI plans, so we can plug in your fleet. Life isn't always fair, but your vehicle insurance can be: we have the technology.
    
|
|
All content © 2015 Professional Marketing Associates, Inc. This newsletter is not intended to provide specific legal or insurance advice. Please consult your individual agent for further information on the topics covered.
|
|
