Paperless Environment

[jackbauer1]

Meytai:

Can you elaborate on the limitations Hawksoft has in your opinion. Our agency of 10 Agents/CSRs is looking into this system (online) as a way to go paperless and make our work as a whole more efficient. So far we've been very impressed with the full demo and are seriously considering making the investment. We're still "shopping" around - but this system seems to be the easiest and most capable and in our price-range. Would you mind explaining why it might be a mistake?

[meytai]

Yes Jack,

First off.. Hawksoft has the ABILITY to do many things that other programs do.. amongst the other programs it is amongst the highest in quailty and service relative to its price. I love Hawksoft and the people at Hawksoft. Every agency manager/owner has to define their needs.. and what level of information is important for them to obtain and document. Hawksoft is rolling out a new version.. version 3.0 very soon.. so i'm hoping my opinion on them changes.. but for now.. their limitations are as follows:

Reports:

What i mean specifically is the ability to get reports and a profile on your company's production and book of business.. for instance, how penetrated you are (how many policies you have per client), who is doing what (keeping track of your producers), the ability to get real solid numbers.. and reports on actual/real numbers on your agency. This last one is important for a situation where you are trying to get a new appointment.. and the company asks for numbers on your agency.. you tell them.. let me call you back.. so i can get these numbers for you in a day or two.. but with AMS.. it can be done with a push of a button.. while Hawksoft claims that these numbers can be generated.. but through a lot of motions and filters.

Accounting:

Hawksoft uses Quickbooks for its accounting.. it is not within the program itself.. this causes an extra step and the need for an additional workflow just to keep track of the trust accounting. Especially for an agency like yours with 10 users, this will become a big issue.

For me, these are the TWO MAJOR things.. these are things that your CSRs and producers won't have to deal with, but as an agency owner, your need for these things will become more refined, and you will want specific numbers.. you will want to know EVERY detail on the numbers.. this is what matters to you

Hawksoft is an amazing program and it has taken my office to the next level, but now i need to go the next one.. unless Hawksoft makes an effort to meet those needs.

When i talk about Hawksoft and their shortcomings i am talking bout it relative to AMS360. The reason i have not switched yet is because AMS360 is like super super expensive in comparison to Hawksoft.. nearly 1000 a month for the first year.. compared to 150 a month that i pay now.

I am glad you asked me, because i highly recommend you check AMS before you commit to CMS.. AMS is a lot more expensive, but it is a complete and full agency management suite.. it covers nearly every aspect of your needs..

And again i reitierate that every agency management software has a market, now you just need to know which one is for you.. also.. think ahead of what needs you may have in the future..

Also, AMS is online, which is super cool.. so it eliminates costs for servers, software, maintains and the headaches of backsups

[stemkin]

I am a veteran of the insurance industry having been around for over 20 years. After seeing all of the waste of not only paper but other natural resources used with unnecessary travel I started my own company - Green Proposals. We offer Web Solutions for an Eco-Friendly RFP Process. The current RFP process generates a needless waste of time, money and precious natural resources. Green Proposals is dedicated to providing buyers and their prospective vendors with an all-inclusive "go-to" website that manages the entire RFP process from beginning to end while maximizing efficiency, profitability and environmental sustainability for everyone. With our convenient website as the central communication area, Green Proposals will oversee a system that breaks the RFP process into easy-to-follow steps while simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint of our market segments. Vendors will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars sending representatives to pre-bid meetings and printing multiple copies of hardbound submissions. During all aspects of the process collaboration with colleagues will be easier that ever before by utilizing the totally electronic services presented by Green Proposals. Please visit www.greenproposals.com

HAVE A GREEN DAY!!

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Green Proposals
GreenProposals.com
stemkin@greenproposals.com
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[ltajik]

The paperless enviroment is the way to go. Check out this website etfile.com they have been around for sometime and cater to the insurance industry. Their software is truly a document management solution and meets all legal requirements needed in the industry today.

Linda

[Rus]

I keep hearing great things about Docstar as well http://www.docstar.com!!

[insurance fan]

iChannel is the best product on the market. The company sees the future of technology - NOW. They are the only company to have a Next Generation product - today. all of the other products use old technology. they even have a built in crm tool. check them out before you make ANY decision. http://www.bluegoose.us

[lucia]

Of course I am also with the paperless environment technology. Another company that is in sync with this topic is Idit. Their insurance management system is another example of this trend.

[mclureins]

www.paulmargroup.com

allows agency to manage entire banking, commission accounting procedure without printing a single document. Also allows agency to manage renewals, cancellations and track production without printing documents. They are also able to communicate financial information to serve multiple locations. Currently looking into sponsorhsip of www.treesaregood.com to boost recycling and paperless businesses as well as promoting digital publications.

[mclureins]

You absolutely must have a great management system and most importantly you need 2 monitors or more to avoid having to print documents.


Ray McLure
www.paulmargroup.com

[paperlessofficeguy]

Definitely going paperless is the way to go. It's not just saving money on paper and toner. It's much more than that. It has to do with workflow and security and just making life in the office easier.

Before we went paperless in the office here, we researched a bunch of systems. It was helpful to get a webinar on what exactly going paperless could do for us, so that's what we did. We learned how each staff member can have various paperless security settings, and send documents to others, but all without paper.

There's a helpful company that will do a free webinar for those wanting to go paperless in their office:

http://www.freepaperlesswebinar.com

[beyert1]

I have been paperless since I went IA over 3 years ago. I was with Nationwide before and started going paperless back then but they liked the paper up until I showed how easy it was. In fact, Nationwide used my office as kind of a test bed when they started really looking into it. But I left shortly after that.

I have to agree with the previous statements saying if you have not gone paperless you are going backwards. I modified ACT! client management software and utilize it to manage all my documents. It is so much easier to do the filing and recovery of documents than it was when I had paper files.

I have had many conversations with underwriters, claims adjusters and clients who said they needed a document, since I am paperless I am able to pull the client file up and send it to them while I am on the phone. I utilize a scanner and a program which prints documents in PDF format. I have a fax service through ITPVoIP which sends all faxes to me via email in PDF format. I am able to send them directly to the clients file. This saves a TON of paper, toner and time when dealing with a client. If I do have a paper document I scan just scan it quickly.

If you are going to go paperless you will want to make sure you have a good scanner to use, a large hard drive to store documents and a plan in place. The hardest part for me was trying to deal with my company files since I have no file cabinets in my office. I finally made a folder called "File Cabinet", I have it broken out with A, B, C, D, etc. Underneath each of those sub folders I have the companies name, The Hartford, Travelers, etc. Underneath those I may have Memos, underwriting information, website info and so on. This has been a God send for me. I can be at my desk and find information right then and there. I don't have to get up, find a file, find the document in the file and the reverse everything and hope I put it all back in the right place.

Oh, one thing about the scanner, I created a folder called New Scan which holds all my newly scanned documents. I name the file when I scan it with something like "A Jones signed Trav home app" or "A Jones DD Cert 04162013". I am able to sort the folder by name and when I file, I an grab all the files for one client and drag them into the document storage area on ACT!. Once they have copied into the storage area, I can then delete them out of the folder.

As for backing everything up, ACT! enables me to back up all my data into a single zip file. I have it uploaded to an off-site storage area such as Carbonite or something like that automatically every night. I also copy the file to a local hard drive attached to my server which only holds back up data. And last but not least, I copy the file to a thumb drive every other day. This way I know it is triple backed up. The time is minimum for the back up but I know I am triple covered. This came in handy a few months ago when a virus attached to an email got through my old virus software. I was able to restore everything to my laptop off my thumb drive in a matter of 10 min. I was up and running and finding a new virus protection software, suggest Kaspersky by the way.

If you have any questions you can email me at tbeyer@thebeyeragency.com. I will be happy to answer any questions.

[justthere]

I completely agree with Island Girl. We started going paperless 6 years ago. The first year was a royal pain with the initial scanning but it was well worth it. We cut our postage costs by over 90% and our paper usage by 95%. In addition, we got rid of dozens of file cabinets. The only files we still have in paper form are the financial services files which are required that way by FINRA. We even send out our commercial policies via e-mail. When we started that process, we let the clients know that they could have a paper copy if wanted and over the six years, we have had only 3 clients request that (and yes - we do have more than 3 clients). In fact, we have clients who have stayed with us because we are paperless. We back everything up daily and remove the backup from the premises every evening. We were also able to drop our staff by 2 employees because of the paperless aspect. While I do not have any official papers on the subject, our working experiment has been a total success.