Our Blog
We’re insurance experts and insurance-technology experts, if we do say so ourselves. So, we think we’ve earned the right to have opinions here and there. And we believe we should share those opinions with the people in the industry we serve. That’s why we created this blog. We want to share what we know and what we’ve seen. We want to share what works and what doesn’t. We want to give you the benefit of our experience so you don’t have to come by your experience the hard way. Most important, we want you to think of us — and this blog — as a resource. Please come back often. There’s no telling what you’ll find on any given visit. But we’ll do our level best to ensure it has value to you, to the industry, and to the work in which we all share, one way or the other.
Live and Learn
By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO Albert Einstein once said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.” While I’m not sure what he was referring to, this could not be more true of a business. If your business becomes complacent, things can start to fall...
Paralysis by Analysis
By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO Decisions aren’t easy. I can’t even decide what to have for lunch half the time. You definitely don’t want to hear about my wife and I trying to decide what to have for supper. And these are small, relatively insignificant...
What Does it Mean for the Customer?
By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO Do you think enough companies use this question to drive their businesses? I don’t. Especially IT companies. Many IT companies have competing agendas. Management has profit goals. Sales and marketing have revenue goals. Rank...
Go, Cubbies!
By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO I'm a huge baseball fan. I try to be loyal to my Cincinnati Reds, but most years they’re in the cellar at this point in the season. This year’s no different. So, now I spread my baseball love between the Red Sox and the...
The Next Great Customer
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Doesn’t it seem like business people are always chasing the next great customer — or, at the very least, like they’re constantly trying to change who they are or to reinvent themselves? But what about...
What’s More Important – You or Your Money?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Do you ever ask yourself that question when working with a vendor partner? Does the vendor really value your relationship and the opportunity to work for your organization? Or is it strictly about the...
But Has It Ever Happened?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Recently, I found myself in one of the most peculiar situations of my professional career: Our team was part of a joint project for a customer that had an ostensible IT professional on the project. Our...
And Security Takes the Lead …
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Well, here we go again. Another big, international cyber security incident. A bunch of people clicked an email link or opened an attachment they shouldn’t have and took down their employers’ computer...
‘Tis the Season … of Scope Creep
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Spring has sprung, the birds are chirping, and all the July 1st go-lives are getting moved back. Companies start out the year with ambitious goals for their IT projects. As they’re finalizing budgets...
Do I Even Matter?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Lately, I’ve been feeling insignificant … like I don’t even matter in this big, cruel world. I’m sitting here pouring my heart out, and half of you won’t even read this. Not because you don’t want to,...
It Ain’t Sexy
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer When many people think of IT, they think of innovation, computer programmers, and cutting edge apps. They envision groups of people working on ways to make your sweeper and lawnmower talk back to you...
IT – The Ultimate Afterthought
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Spending my entire career in IT, I might be a little biased. Nevertheless, I’m still surprised that the role and importance of IT in an organization is usually overlooked, especially in startups and...
Fast or Good?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer You can have it fast, or you can have it good. But you can’t have it both ways.* Welcome to the word of unrealistic expectations: I need something very complex, and I need it yesterday. Or I want to...
How Many is Enough?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Do large numbers impress you? Do you pick your hamburgers based on things like “over 99 million served”? Or are you the kind of person who likes your hamburger from the place where the owner comes out...
What did I miss?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer So, here we are in the land of insurance technology at the beginning of 2017 and #insuretech is all the rage. We’re supposed to be planning for the future, pushing innovation, trying to draw new blood...
Use the Right People
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer You run a company full of top-notch people. They’ve been with you through thick and thin. They might even fight through anything with you. You decide it’s time for a new building to house your...
Agility Isn’t Everything
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Aren’t buzzwords awesome? It’s kind of like high school all over again. The in-crowd versus those not in the in-crowd. Get with us or you aren’t cool. There’s more and more of this kind of jargon...
Happy New Year
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Happy New Year … Again Where does the time go? It’s already New Year’s again? That’s amazing to me. People always talk about how fast time goes by, but it’s true. The other day I was looking for an...
Eggnog, Mistletoe, and Budgets
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Well, it’s that time of year again. Checking every list twice, making some people’s dreams come true, and completely shattering others — all with the dreaded corporate budget. We all know what a blast...
Turkey Talk
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Anyone sick of leftover turkey yet? Many people have probably had everything from turkey sandwiches to turkey pot pie. I love turkey, but even I get sick of it after a while. Speaking of turkeys, in my...
Time to Give Thanks
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Tis the season for being thankful. You’d be hard pressed to find someone more thankful than me. From my first day on this planet, I’ve had the chance to do things, see things, and have things that many...
RFP RIP?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer “Can you fill out this RFP to help me send out an RFP? I want to see if you’re qualified enough to write 500 questions that will help us pick a new policy admin system.” To borrow my wife’s favorite...
Change Control
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer What Happened to Change Control? If you were to compile best practices for managing an insurance policy admin system, change control would have to make the list. Insurance systems are complex, with...
Don’t Let One Bad Apple Spoil a Good Thing
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer Relationships between companies and vendors can be tricky due to many factors — budgets, timelines, experience levels, and maybe most of all, personalities. The use of vendors in insurance is at an...
What’s the Cost of Saving Money?
By R. Christopher Haines, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer How many times have we seen this? A company needs help. Help isn’t free. You quote a price, being as fair as you can; and the company says it can’t afford it: The work will get done in-house. A few...
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Marias Technology
25 East Wright St
Covington OH 45318