Dear valued customer,
We are thrilled to publish our 2022 newsletter to share the most significant achievements and events over the past year at Figtree.
Please read on for the highlights of the year, including our first anniversary with our parent company, changes in our management, rebranding, powerful enhancements of our products, and the renewal of our commitment to providing you with top-class products and services.
Company
In June 2022, we celebrated our first anniversary as part of the Vela family! As a wholly owned subsidiary of Vela Software, we have continued to operate as an independent company backed by a global network of expert software businesses meaning we are able to leverage years of industry knowledge and best practice to deliver the highest levels of service to our clients.
Vela Software acquires, manages and builds mission-critical vertical market software businesses and provide expertise, operational support, and capital to help businesses grow organically and through acquisitions.
Being under the Vela umbrella has been nothing but a great experience. We receive continuous support from our sister-companies, Vela’s corporate management via workshops, and other corporate initiatives that give us access to industry knowledge and best practice.
As a company that is proud of our continued efforts and commitment to our clients, we were honoured to be recognised at the European Captive Review Awards 2022 as a ‘Highly Commended’ candidate in the Insurtech Solutions for Captives category. This category merits firms using technology and new approaches to change how the insurance industry operates.
People
Sarah Roberts was appointed our new CEO following the change in ownership. Sarah joined the company in 2019 and brings extensive experience supporting diverse industries with innovative software solutions to further improve our client experience.
Also, after 23 years with us, Mark Brown, our former VP of Sales and Marketing, retired from Figtree in November 2021. Mark was without doubt, a crucial asset for the company and his contribution to our growth is incalculable. We hereby thank him for all these years of service and wish him the very best on his next adventure.
In November 2021, Brad Mason joined Figtree’s Management team as the new Sales & Marketing Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Brad has been part of the Figtree family since 2010 and brings in depth product knowledge, from both, a technical and commercial point of view delivering a comprehensive product outlook for our clients.
Also in November 2021, Ayaz Merchant joined the Management team, extending his scope of responsibilities into Sales as our Regional Head for Europe and North America. He has been with the company since 2008 and brings product and client expertise providing a simplified perspective to streamline our clients' implementation journey.
Product updates
We have invested extensively in ensuring our solutions are as flexible, intuitive, and user-friendly as possible in alignment with our customer needs and pain points.
We have released an off-the-shelf General Insurance Claims Management application that is designed for rapid and low risk deployment meaning our customers can deploy the application and workflows seamlessly with minimal disruptions.
To find out more about this, contact us for a demonstration.
We are also working hard to minimise the need for the back-office interface. Our goal is to transfer the back-office features to the web interface, giving our customers easy access to manage the platform when and where they need it.
Additionally, we are proud to have released several new features to make your business life easier with more to come in 2023:
Security
Figtree know security is critical and on everyone’s mind. For this reason, we have established several initiatives and improvements to enhance security, strengthen procedures, and modify processes.
Multifactor Authentication has been rolled out for all clients who use Figtree to manage their users’ credentials and for all Figtree staff. In addition to encrypting data in transit, we have also implemented data encryption at rest, which protects your structured and unstructured data, providing our customers with a stronger security level, broader scope, and greater peace of mind.
Every year we engage a third party to perform penetration tests at a network and an application level meaning our data stays manageable, safe, and secure at all times. Our Security Team, ensures that all findings, if any, are rectified promptly and any risks are mitigated accordingly.
We also undergo annual audits to verify compliance with and retain our Information Security (ISO 27001) certification. This ensures we continue to provide all our clients with top industry standards in Information Security.
The Vela Software Group of business takes a proactive group-wide approach to ensure the highest client data security with the ongoing Cyber Security program. They have conducted thorough internal and external security audits of each company in their group including Figtree Systems to create targeted goals and a plan of action that delivers the highest level of security and trust for our clients.
Branding
In July 2022, we had exciting changes at Figtree. A new logo was launched as part of our recent brand overhaul to better reflect and align with our new ownership and business trajectory. Our new logo combines a Figtree leaf with a digital system connection to convey our message of sustainable solutions under a collective digital framework. Our redesign to a vibrant green resonates with a renewal of our commitment to deliver tailored customer service experiences and ensure client and user needs are being met.
We also revamped our website to be more user-friendly and be a valuable resource for our users and customers.
If you haven’t visited our new product pages yet, check it out Software Solutions | Figtree Systems.
Social
In July 2022, we inaugurated our new office on Holt Street, Surry Hills. It was such a nice day to catch up with colleagues as we transitioned back into face-to-face operation. It was great to celebrate our new chapter with great company and an amazing cake courtesy of our top chef Chris Asquith.
This year, our teams, Fig-tastic and Fit Don’t Quit, participated in the 15-minute challenge initiative by Vela Software. The 6-week team competition aimed to make daily exercise an enjoyable and sustainable habit. Our teams saw the real-time benefits to their physical and mental health, productivity, and mood of investing as little as 15 minutes daily on physical activity.