Combining the IT systems of legacy and acquired MGA brands is the hardest part of any large-scale integration, according to Cameron Copeland (pictured), president and CEO of Specialty Program Group Canada (SPG Canada). In an interview with Insurance Business, Copeland said the company's answer is to take on fewer initiatives and commit to them for years, and that its acquisition plans mean the work will continue.
SPG Canada has been on an acquisition streak in recent years. Beginning August 1, 2025, the company's Cansure, Beacon, i3 Underwriting, Totten Insurance Group and Anderson McTague & Associates brands started unifying under a single national brand, SPG Canada, with teams moving over gradually rather than all at once.
Read more: Under the hood of SPG Canada's consolidation: What it means for broker relationships
Copeland said the systems inside each business they acquired were purpose-built when those businesses were smaller and niche. Bringing them together means building core systems flexible enough to handle all of the company's lines of business, he said, with data, business and workflow management running on "one chassis and one rail bed."
He noted that the work extends into people and process, because workflow systems can't be harmonized until the core systems are in place.
"That's our biggest challenge, and it's ongoing," Copeland said. Each additional business unit adds to the difficulty, he said.
Copeland said the company has been fortunate on the people side. Employees from the combined businesses have worked well together, he said, bringing cross-sell, relationship support and a shared toolbox to customers under an integrated brand model.
"I would way rather have a system challenge than a people challenge," Copeland said.
He said customers have responded well to that, and that it lets the company get away with some “clunkiness on the back end” while it takes its time to fix it.
Scaling has also changed how the company is run, Copeland said. A small business is people-led, he said: it puts great people in a position to do their best work. As a company grows, it has to become structure-led, deciding what roles the organization needs and then putting the right people in them. Copeland said that shift is something SPG Canada is still working through, and that it took some unlearning.
Copeland said an organization can only digest so much, and part of growing and scaling is becoming more disciplined about what it chooses to do. SPG Canada runs prospective initiatives through an internal vetting process before committing to them.
"We try to do fewer things, but do them better," he said.
He said that applies to technology in particular, because a new system is a multi-year commitment that changes all workflow and requires realignment across the company. The company still needs technology to fill gaps, Copeland said, and the goal is a purposeful ecosystem of the tools it commits to.
Copeland said inbound offers from technology vendors are useful, because a company “doesn't know what it doesn't know”, and a lot of new technology is effective at solving problems.
The sales pipeline is long, he said. A vendor first has to build awareness, then the product sits while the company considers whether it fits its ecosystem, and a yes may come later. He said he would imagine that holds for most buyers, given the commitment involved in bringing in a piece of technology.
The integration work isn't finished, because the company plans to keep adding businesses, Copeland said.
He said SPG Canada wants to be the specialty partner for large consolidated brokers, so they can “get 70% to 80% of their specialty needs met within one trusted relationship”. The alternative, he said, is dealing with 100 different MGAs, the Lloyd's open market or small players without strategic importance in their market mix.
Read more: Chasing growth from a shrinking pie: SPG Canada's Copeland on specialty market pressures
For 2027, he said, that includes standing up and filling specialty segments and improving technology so the company integrates with its customers and takes part in the AI, efficiency and digital service journey they want to be on.
"We are acquisitive," Copeland said. "We want to add more specialty into our lineup."
