Stoneriver Reviews

Pros

Benefits are decent
Flexible work arrangements when necessary
Looking to update products

Cons

No career growth opportunities
Little employee training
Instead of looking at current employees brought in outsiders for some positions without posting them

Advice to Senior Management

Create greater opportunities for advancement
More training as product use updated technologies. Encourage employees to seek areas of growth.
Less micro management especially for people that have continually shown success in achieving success in their positions.

Pros

The people - dedicated to success of their customers and a sprit de corp of willing to help each other to that end. A team educated and experienced in the insurance industry that applies their skills to the success of their customers and each other. StoneRiver has a dedication to their existing clients while focused on developing products that insurers need in the future for competitive advantage and profit improvement

Cons

Areas of improvement may be in the communication internally and externally of the successes and vision of the company. Meetings to communicate to employees are focused on an annual or bi-annual basis as a total group. More communications that bring people/teams togehter face to face more often would be helpful even if on a smaller basis.

Advice to Senior Management

This advice is to all levels of management; Bring your teams togehter and do more brainstorming of ideas. Teams that are on the front line experience life through a differnt prism and ideas and recommnedations from the dedicated and experienced people may be invaluable in the directing the vision of the company. It also may help with new ideas on a day-to-day focus on how to delight our customers now and in the future.

Pros

Benefits are world class
We are focused on achieving key results and continued success
My ability to contribute to the organization is not limited by my job title
The level of integrity and respect is high across the board
At StoneRiver, people care about the business and each other

Cons

We work hard and that is not for everyone
Our business is complex and the learning curve is a bit steeper than it is for some industries and businesses

Pros

I have seen a lot of positive cultural changes within the company over the past year, and I continue to be even more impressed with the direction and leadership Gary Sherne has provided. I look forward to a great 2012!

Cons

I would love to have more office comradery, but unfortunately our business unit is distributed in various cities across the United States.

Advice to Senior Management

I think it's important that management continue to listen to their employees. This always proves to create a great working environment.

Pros

It was a very flexible work environment when I was there. Could work from home several days a week. Seem very process oriented.

Cons

Seemed like all the teams were micromanaged. Too many project managers/project leads. Lots of politics within the group and it was hard to figure out what was going on.

Pros

Overall they had good pay and benefits. In some areas there was a sense of family (the company is actually a collection of companies). Their are good people working there that enjoy working with the customers.

Cons

Politics was the worst that I have ever seen. Large ego's within the senior executive ranks led to many good people leaving and being let go.

Advice to Senior Management

It has been a couple of years since I have been there so maybe things have changed. If not that my advice it that management needs to clean up its act or the owners need to find people that will.

Pros

Work at home flexibility is good.

Cons

Lack of direction by Senior Management. Lack of strategic thinking. Inability to produce a product - ClaimStream and PolicyStream, that had been promised to the industry for three years, which killed sales of its other products which were currently in play - Powersuite, CWS and jProducts.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more openly and honestly to your employees where the company is heading - before laying them off.

Pros

Very flexible in work location. Employees can work from the Denver area (Greenwood Village) office or from their home. Everything is done pretty virtually.

Pay is typically better than other employers. Benefits are about average.

Lots of folks with very long tenure (10+ years), so very deep in industry and business knowledge.

Management finally taking some steps to right the ship, though it may be too little too late!

Cons

Company has made poor business decisions regarding existing products, and products under development. The new product series has been in development for three years with no defined launch date yet! The actual lanuch date keeps getting pushed out.

The company stopped actively marketing and selling existing products about three years ago. They've essentially milked this client base dry with product enhancements and extending engagements. There's just not much milk left in the cow! and now the company is facing some serious cash-flow problems.

Existing products remain "buggy," so clients consistently complain about product quality.

Lots of people looking for new opportunities, meaning poor and decreasing morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on products that work. Don't overpromise and under-deliver.

Pros

The company has friendly people, a benefits package comparable to other companies, and a suite of products that would benefit our customers.

Cons

This company hasn't had a sale of it's flagship product in over a year. The "innovative" product that is supposed to replace it isn't ready to sell yet. The reduced revenue has caused the company to lay off employees more than once this year. Unless management turns this company around and makes some sales, the firm may be headed to bankruptcy court.

Advice to Senior Management

Management says everything will be OK, but then they lay off more people and try to hide that there are layoffs and other problems. Keeping secrets from your employees is bad enough, but it is worse when something bad is happening with the company and management thinks the employees are not important enough to tell them the truth. The employees don't own any StoneRiver stock, but they are "stakeholders" too.

Pros

People, people, people. Can be very collaborative with very helpful people. Many quality resources have left, so work is getting more difficult to accomplish without heroic efforts.

Cons

No career advancement, no raises, no ownership of decision making process at most levels. Trying to do what is right for the customer doesn't result in much for the individual, so no incentive.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be better if sr leadership was empowered and trusted to do what the believe is right. Currenty GS must approve all decisions.