Foundation Risk Partners tackles massive expansion through network modernization

“Having a trusted advisor is really important to us, one with a proactive approach to things. We have had vendors who say: ‘Here’s a tool. Tell us how you want it configured.’ No. We want them to tell us how we should configure it. Spectrum Business gets that.”

Rich Dinan, Chief Information Officer, Foundation Risk Partners

In just six years, Florida-based insurance brokerage and consulting firm Foundation Risk Partners (FRP) has acquired 174 agencies with 182 locations across the United States. It plans to continue this high rate of growth through vigorous acquisition.

To overcome alignment barriers and optimize value in bringing together these agencies, Foundation Risk Partners needed a technology partner able to manage complexity by introducing the right infrastructure and solutions. They found that partner in Spectrum Business.

“Our objective is to be a powerhouse insurance brokerage that can service all aspects of the customer value chain for insurance,” says Rich Dinan, Chief Information Officer at Foundation Risk Partners.

This began with delivering fiber circuits for high-speed internet connectivity at each of the company’s locations as they were acquired. With every new Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI) installation, trust in Spectrum Business grew. As Foundation Risk Partners expanded, so did the need for better IT standardization and security. Spectrum Business delivered on those needs by introducing Managed Network Edge.

Another critical need for the brokerage is having reliable, modern communications at each location. A system was needed to better accommodate a mobile workforce, without the stress of grappling with a complicated user interface. Spectrum Business again delivered, with Unified Communications with RingCentral. Today this platform is being used by over 2,300 FRP team members.

Dinan appreciates the Spectrum Business approach to developing their co-managed relationship over time. He also appreciates the depth of technical and engineering expertise at hand with Spectrum Business, and its ability to use its vast scale to resolve issues.

“Their size makes a difference, by making it less expensive and requiring less overhead than for us to do it ourselves,” he notes. “We looked at the cost of having internal staff, and we saw a 30% uptick by letting Spectrum Business do it for us instead.”