News & Updates

APEXA and the Shirtless Dancing Guy

Who would have thought that a shirtless dancing guy at a festival would have something in common with APEXA? If you have seen this video, you are laughing right now knowing exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, check it out. 

Now that we’ve wrapped up APEXA for launch, Dylan Friedmann, VP of Client & Partner Experience, has been attending industry events and meetings to show Advisors how to register when they receive their APEXA invitation.  I’ve taken some time to join Dylan at these sessions so I can interact with Advisors first hand and listen to their views and questions about APEXA. 

The most common phrase I hear from Advisors is ‘it’s about time’. 

So…What’s Next?

You may have read in the news that Apexa is ready to launch in May http://insurance-journal.ca/article/apexa-expected-to-launch-in-may/. Yes, it’s true.

User testing has concluded and we’re currently knee deep in training. Our clients are training their internal teams while we are training the Advisor Call Centre so pedal is to the metal for several more weeks. Once we launch…what’s next?

We’ve been talking about when APEXA goes live for so long that we often get asked, what happens once APEXA is live? But before we jump to that exciting nugget, let me bring you up to speed on our progress. 

If you’ve been following our Newsletters you will recall that we wrapped up the final bits of the build at the end of September 2016. In October we ran our clients through another round of training and then opened up APEXA for user testing in mid-November until mid-December. 

One of the most challenging tasks when building technology is meeting both the technical requirements of your audience and providing a positive user experience. Apple has built an empire on doing this well.

Ask any loyal customer what they like about the product and words like sleek, intuitive and easy to use will frequently tumble out of their mouth. Yes, there must be impressive technology to back this front-end experience, but the main thing that we’ve learned from Apple is that ease of use is a key contributor to the adoption rate of technology.

Throughout my career there’s been one thing that’s been constant: change. Every 18-24 months like clockwork my role has changed. Sometimes by choice when I seeked out a new role and sometimes imposed through organizational change. Here’s my little secret. I absolutely loved it! Change is a breath of fresh air to me. Yes, workload goes up, everything takes longer, I feel out of my comfort zone, I have to manage the emotions and worries of other people but despite this chaos I bubble up with an energy and excitement for charting a new path, figuring things out and helping people transform from a place of trepidation to prosperity.

I celebrated another birthday in September. Have you ever noticed that as you get older, birthdays seem to come faster every year? I remember being six and a half and feeling as though it would take forever to reach my seventh birthday. Similarly, I remember feeling as though time completely stopped right before turning sixteen, counting down the days until I could finally get my driver’s licence. 

Even though I’m years away from September representing the start of a new school year, I can’t help but feel the shift that occurs when the labour day weekend rolls around. As a child our family tradition was to go camping on the long weekend and each year I had to remember to pack my lopi sweater (for those of you who have no idea what that is…

I like to think of our monthly newsletters as quick pulse checks. As you know, APEXA is tasked with connecting an industry, so 2016 is a BIG year, not only for my team, but for our industry. Yes, things are going to change and it’s time for things to change, it means progress is upon us. Have a peek at some of our key milestones from the month of May: