A CELL-CAPTIVE AND PERSONAL

COMMERCIAL LINES UNDERWRITER

WHO WE ARE

Strategic Insurance Systems (Pty) Ltd (SIS) is a cell-captive general personal and commercial lines underwriter.

Over our 20-year existence, we have been committed to the idea that the client relationship is owned by the broker, and that we have been entrusted by the broker to provide a solution that supports the delivery of exceptional client service.

Mutual benefit underpins our purpose of building resilient communities where resilience is the ability of an individual or business to overcome adversity by leveraging the value of the relationships to which it is committed. And communities are the policyholders, brokers, service providers, individuals and families that form part of that relationship.

We view relational value creation as a product of doing what is right, acting with empathy, honesty, trust and making equitable decisions.

Take your place in our resilient community. 

OUR VALUES

EMPATHY

EQUITY

HONESTY

TRUST

OUR FOUNDER

The SIS value proposition has evolved through generations of active involvement in the insurance industry.

Dating back to the 1930s, Allen McDonogh Snr, Allen’s great grandfather, was entrusted as one of the very first multi-representative insurance agents in Pretoria.

Allen’s father continued with the family’s affinity for the insurance industry by setting up his own brokerage wherein Allen himself spent the first 10 years of his career.

It was during these 10 years that Allen identified the need for an information technology platform capable of facilitating the broker’s delivery of insurance products and services.

This need saw the construct of SIS, an underwriter powered by a centralised, user-driven, information technology platform.

Our History

  1. 1907
  2. 1936
  3. 1950
  4. 1964
  5. 1971
  6. 1990
  7. 2000
  8. 2005
  9. 2016
  10. 2020
  1. The First South African McDonogh
    1907

    Patrick Joseph McDonogh, and his pregnant wife Julia, made the fateful decision to escape the blight of famine and the increasingly repressive environment of British-controlled Ireland. After being refused entry in Buenos Aires, Julia gave birth to Allen Patrick McDonogh en-route to Port Elizabeth - thus Allen Snr became the first South African McDonogh.

  2. Early Beginnings
    1936

    Allen Patrick McDonogh (Allen Snr) began the McDonogh affinity for insurance by forming an "Insurance Agency" - the precursor to Insurance Brokerages as we know them today - servicing the Pretoria-Johannesburg region. In the era of the post-Rand Rebellion and Great Depression, Allen Snr understood that 'trust' was the only sustainable currency during this time.

  3. Allen McDonogh & Co.
    1950

    Allen Snr formally registered the agency as "Allen McDonogh & Co." with the purpose of providing high levels of professionalism and client service.

  4. Father & Son
    1964

    Terry McDonogh, the second eldest of five boys, joined his father's brokerage. With relationships that had been established over 30 years, Terry understood the fundamental value of developing and nurturing business relationships built on trust and mutual reciprocity.

  5. Terry McDonogh & Co.
    1971

    Terry left the business and moved to Bloemfontein. A few years after Allen Snr had retired, many of his previous long-standing clients clamoured for Terry to return and continue the family business. Subsequently, Terry moved back to Pretoria and registered Terry McDonogh & Co.

  6. Allen Joins Terry McDonogh & Co.
    1990

    Allen Jnr (Our Founder) joined Terry McDonogh & Co. at the tender age of 20. He would spend the next decade understanding the value of the client-broker relationship.

  7. Strategic Insurance Systems (Pty) Ltd
    2000

    At the turn of the millennium, Allen identified the need for an IT platform that was capable of facilitating the broker's delivery of client service. An IT platform that handled the entire policy and claims management lifecycle which enabled brokers to focus on the client relationship - Strategic Insurance Systems (Pty) Ltd was formed.

  8. SIS Partners With i-Sixty
    2005

    Recognizing the inadequacy of its system solution and the inability to guide and affect change on the system, Allen continued the familial collaboration by partnering with his cousin, Grant McDonogh (CEO of i-Sixty). The first in-house developed platform was creatively called the "Commercial System".

  9. Cafe
    2016

    The second iteration of the "Commercial System" is an OutSystems-based policy and claims management system called, "Cafe". Highly adaptable and fundamentally broker-orientated, Cafe would go on to win the "Best Legacy Replacement" award at the prestigious Innovation Awards in 2016.

  10. 20 or 84?
    2020

    With 6 ecosystem partners and over 90 independent owner-operated brokerages nationwide, SIS celebrated its 20-Year anniversary. However, with the values that we hold that have been passed down from generation to generation, we contend that our history actually starts in 1936 - 84 years of maintaining the broker-client relationship built on trust, empathy, equity, honesty and mutual reciprocity.