(Portland, ME) - Two veterans of the insurance industry, with a combined 35 years of experience in implementing and supporting software solutions, have come together to launch Next Level Solutions (NLS). The new entity is solely focused on servicing the Duck Creek Technologies market, and is the only full-stack, on-shore, U.S. based entity with that distinction.
The company’s founders, Chris Sawyer, President and CEO, and Michael Smith, Managing Director, are well-known leaders in the insurance industry. With their knowledge and the strong partnership with Duck Creek Technologies, Next Level Solutions is poised for significant success in the marketplace. Both Sawyer and Smith said the opportunity to partner with Duck Creek, an industry leader in technology, was a game-changer in the process.
“We believe we are uniquely positioned to provide a hands-on, on-shore, service-first approach that differentiates us in the marketplace. Our approach is to recruit only the best Duck Creek talent in the market and then implement only the very best training methodologies for our new hires. From the beginning, this will foster a culture and an environment of mentoring and a team first approach,” explained Sawyer, who has held a variety of positions in the consulting and software implementation market including a senior position at Liberty Mutual, and starting and running his own successful company, Premium Consulting, in recent years. “NLS is an opportunity to make a dramatic change in how things are done in the market and an opportunity to build a skill set across the Duck Creek domain that will be unrivaled in the industry.”
Managing Director, Michael Smith, brings a different skill set than Sawyer to the new company and is widely considered as not only one of the leading Duck Creek technologists in the market, but one of the industry leaders in recruiting and building truly transformative organizations. Michael spent the first 10+ years of his career at Duck Creek technologies where he started as an analyst, but quickly climbed to the role of Services Application Architect Lead. “Finding dedicated and innovative talent who are committed to providing outstanding service and support is what we are building at Next Level Solutions. At the end of the day, it will be our people who will make us stand out in the marketplace, and we are off to a great start,” Smith remarked.
According to Sawyer and Smith, industry interest in Next Level Solutions has been “phenomenal, and a void that has existed in the market. From new customers and prospects, we are receiving a lot of interest in a short period of time. The future is very bright.”
