QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

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Agent79
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QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Agent79 »

We bought the Applied TAM system late last year. We're a small agency, 5 people. They have already had a rate increase (worse than our insurance companies?). We have the online version, 3 users, and we're at about $800 a month. We need another user, but they said about another $125 a month or so. Whew. They're pricing us out especially since we don't need the accounting and don't have use some of the other features and some of the Real-Time rating seems too buggy to use. We'd be over $10,000 a year, and that a decent amount for a little agency.

Anyway, in our research of QQ Evolution/Solutions, they seem more reasonable, most features, and affordable especially when adding another user. Anybody had any experience with them? Appreciate!
glennetheridge
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by glennetheridge »

Hello Agent79,

I am biased and work for Evolution Agency Management(Not QQEvolution). We have been doing many conversions of Applied TAM to our system lately because of the price increases. Check us out at www.my-evo.com, I can give you references of people who have changed from Applied to eVo and have been very happen with the change and savings on costs. See below.

We are Evolution Agency Management based in Alpharetta, GA.
We are leading the way for real change in the Agency Management software industry.
At eVo, we have never had a price increase in the history of our company, ever.
At eVo, we do not nickel and dime you with costs. We do not change our prices to entice you to buy. We do not have fake discounts on setup fees; there are no setup fees, unless you want to convert your data into our system for one low charge. See our transparent pricing structure. We have nothing to hide.

Whether you have 500 agency locations with thousands of users or just one agency location with one user, we have a state of the art system for you at a fraction of the cost of other agency management software systems, period.

See our website for a 10 minute demonstration or sign-up for a personal demo of eVo’s capabilities.

We believe that an agency, no matter what the size, should have the ability to obtain and use a state of the art agency management system, at a reasonable price. That the agency should not be subjected to price increases beyond the cost of living increases, unless the value of the product itself is increased proportionately. Even then, to the greatest degree possible, the agency should be able to opt out of the additional features and costs. See our Agent’s Bill of Rights.

Agency Management Software Features

Full Accounting – Commission Accounting, Agency Bill, Direct Bill, Account Current, Check Writing, full General Ledger.
Policy Details – Full policy details – drivers, vehicles, coverages, accidents and violations, prior policy history.
Multi-Office – One office or hundreds, individual reporting, consolidated reporting, office by office security and privacy.
Hosting – Host system for you on our servers or you may host the system at your location.
Diary system/ToDo List, Notes, History, Policy Download, Direct Bill Commission download, Rating Integration, Real Time Interface, Contact Management, Document Management, Word Processing/Mail Merge
aharmon
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by aharmon »

Hello Agent79,

I’m Amy with QQ Solutions’ Product Management Team. I see you are asking about QQ Evolution, our agency management system. We provide numerous features agencies need to grow their book of business, go paperless and operate more efficiently. We provide important benefits including: comprehensive commission handling, direct document scanning, cross-selling and marketing reports, carrier downloads, real-time inquiry, custom and scheduled reports, all wrapped in a hosted solution backed by our service level agreement (SLA). QQ Evolution is powerful, affordable, and modular allowing you to choose the set of features which best suit you.

QQ Solutions has been in business for 23 years. We have NO setup fees or any hidden fees (really!!!) and require no long-term commitment. Information about QQ Evolution editions and pricing is available on our website. You can even purchase your subscription to QQ Evolution online right from our site!

We would be more than happy to provide you with references of customers who use QQ Evolution. A number of customer testimonials are provided on our website.

We have an extensive Applied Systems TAM/WinTAM database conversion, which includes the information from key ACORD forms such as Certificate of Liability, Personal Auto, Homeowners, etc.

As you indicated in your post, you are already aware of all the wonderful features QQ Evolution can provide your agency at a low price. We encourage you to look at other agency management systems so you can see for yourself
how QQ Evolution is an all around great fit for your agency.

For more information you can visit our Web site at http://www.QQSolutions.com/or contact us at 800-940-6600.

Sincerely,
Product Management
QQ Solutions, Inc
Brand
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Brand »

Well agent79,
We’re a small agency looking to graduate from doing stuff on excel and get a management system. I’ve checked out the demos and pricing for all but a few agency management systems. I’ll be getting around to the rest by next week, but I gotta say that the system that looks by far the best for the money is aspire. I’d never heard of them before so I had to do a little research, the system is so darn easy to learn. Other systems seem like slightly different versions of each other, aspire has a modern look and feel to it. Its does everything tams does (they were the first ones I checked out) but easier, with less clicks. And they’re integrated with quickbooks for acctng, which is cool for us since we already use quickbooks. QQ evolutions price tag looked good, but when I started adding scanning, downloads, reporting etc it jumped up. Ams360 was ok, but I didn’t need the accounting, the price was kinda high and the training is 8 weeks long. Hawksoft was better priced, but doesn’t have a customer portal or any marketing stuff, they do integrate with quickbooks though. Check them out, you’ll see what I mean
SteveAnderson
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by SteveAnderson »

Selecting an agency management system can be a difficult process. There are 34 different products available. Each have their pro's and con's. Selecting the right system for your agency is a very important decision as you will not likely change systems quickly.

I have created a short email course I developed to help agents with the system selection process. You can sign up at: http://steveanderson.com/choosing-the-b ... nt-system/. Included is the 5 step process I use when helping agencies with the selection process. There is no cost and absolutely no obligation.

Steve Anderson
www.SteveAnderson.com
Brand
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Brand »

Spoke with my aspire sales guy today. I'd been asking what options they have if I didn't want all the bells and whistles their system has, like the drip marketing, surveys and all that stuff. Was trying to give the guy a hard time and angle for a better price, and today he tells me that they've had others ask that and in the next 2 months they'll be releasing aspire 'lite'. Same interface, less fancy stuff for 999. Even tells me I can change my purchase and preorder the new system. I'm sticking with what I've got, but I love this. Feels like I was listened to, why can't all my vendors be this responsive.
Agent79
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Agent79 »

That's good info. I know you like aspire and I can see why (we did the demo). However, they are still pretty expensive or at least as they price us. $3,000 sign-up and $99 a month per user with no downloads. Downloads another $50 a month. Some of the fancy stuff is great, but frankly I don't know if we would use it that much. If you don't get the fancy stuff then what do you have that's specia? We do no accounting, so if aspire so super with Quickbooks, I can see that as your fit. But I still haven't found a better deal than QQ Solutions. With no sign-up fee and no contract, what have you got to lose? I figure we could always sign up with aspire. I've blown about $12,000 or so with Applied TAM and that upsetting, but live and learn.
GOVERNER
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by GOVERNER »

I also did the webinar. Great product Aspire has! They are ahead of the curve with some of their features like the to communicate directly with your rating system. The email marketing tool is ahead of its time, but very useful if you and your agency take advantage of this marketing tool. I like the product allot in comparison to Tams , which is expensive and antiquated on some of its features. Aspire isn't cheap , but offers so much more. The 3000 initial fee is high and to charge for downloads is ridiculous. I will wait for the "LITE" version.

QQ is a good product as well. their price point is very reasonable for what they do as well.
Brand
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Brand »

the Aspire sales guy told me that the reason they are creating aspire lite is because it will be more of an apples to apples system when compared to applied, vertafore, hawksoft, qq, etc. It will just be on their "great" UI.

If you want the "special" features, then we need to pony up the cash to get it. my needs are a web based ams, drip email and some way for customers to interact with me through my website. i priced out the cheapest ams (agency matrix), infusionsoft for drip and csr24 for the portal and the pricing was in line with aspire...then aspire gives you 100 more features and there is no need for duplicate entry, a savings in manpower right there.

as for the downloads issue...i won't need it yet so i'm not worried about it. do other systems not charge for it?
gforaker
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by gforaker »

You bought a management system only a few months ago and now want to buy another? Maybe it was a bad decision, but changing again before you even learn the system and give it a chance is just stupid. You didn't know the price 6 months ago? Why not use the accounting? Even if you are mainly direct bill and don't need to transact on it, you need to do your accounting somewhere. It sounds like this is your first agency management system. Maybe a cheaper system would have been a better fit for you, but you need to give it at least a year to adapt your workflows to automation.
gregcw
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by gregcw »

I've been a TAM (Applied) user since 1994. At that time the first years maintenance was included in the purchase price. It doesn't sound like that is the case now from what you've said. It was also a five user system (their smallest package then). When they offered us the online system we elected to not take it for multiple reasons, one is that I didn't want to be attached to them by an umbilical cord. I agree with gforaker, don't make a hasty decision after less than one year. He also asked why your not using the accounting??? It has the ability to tell you a lot about your business since it is integrated with your agency set up. It tracks your income by company, line of business etc.

Since I've been using the system for 17 years, when they made the last increase on support costs, I felt comfortable in cancelling the support. This is why I'm glad that I'm not connected by the umbilical cord. However this is not something I would suggest that you do. You might however look into the cost of getting a file server and doing it on a Local Area Network (LAN). I don't know what that would do to your cost but it would be worth looking into because I think that the cost of the sky connection was higher than the LAN. The only cost I suspect that you would have is the cost of the file server and configuring your system. You'd also need to make sure that you had an adequate onsight backup. Something that you may not have to worry about with it stored in the sky with Applied.
Gregcw
Agent79
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Re: QQ Evolution/Solution Management System?

Post by Agent79 »

gforaker wrote:You bought a management system only a few months ago and now want to buy another? Maybe it was a bad decision, but changing again before you even learn the system and give it a chance is just stupid. You didn't know the price 6 months ago? Why not use the accounting? Even if you are mainly direct bill and don't need to transact on it, you need to do your accounting somewhere. It sounds like this is your first agency management system. Maybe a cheaper system would have been a better fit for you, but you need to give it at least a year to adapt your workflows to automation.

OK gforaker, I appreciate your post and points you mention. On the accounting, I don't want one of our CSR's using time to do our accounting, checks, payroll, etc... We have a super cheap CPA who handles everything perfectly and that's his field. Where I erred and I'll admit to being stupid is the impact of just getting 3 user id's in a 5 person office. I thought heck, we'll all not need to be on at once, so we can swap off OK and it will be fine (even the TAM people were going along with that). Apparently that is not uncommon, to have fewer log-ins than employees, but I don't get that. It's not working well in my office. To buy 2 more logins and we'll be adding another $2,500 a year vs. $288 at QQ. I have to say, the TAM salesperson was super. Even encouraged us to check out other systems (and ironically I didn't because of that encouragement). We were just so busy at the time (I didn't have the hours I should have to research other systems). TAM is apparently the most popular widely used and accepted system that can do everything, so it must be the best and thus the best fit for me (or so I thought). We're learning the system, so it's not that. It can't do the round trip quoting with all our carriers, endorsements are buggy and the CSR's are still much quicker going to individual carrier sites. By contract I'm stuck for a year anyway. I did know the price, but they had a rate increase about 2 months into it. Also, I even think the additional ID cost went up. Thought it was $100, but think now it more like $125 a month. With no sign up fee at QQ vs. the $5,000 I paid for TAM, I just don't know why agents wouldn't give QQ a shot.
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