Agency Management Systems

[sbk]

I am responsible for a $25 million agency and expanding its offerings. I am adding P&C products (auto and home) and have secured contracts with most major independent carriers. I need to have a rater and an agency system to track commissions, etc. I don't envision using the AMS as a marketing tool since that is already in place.

Who has the best combo of a rater and AMS or do I do better using one company for rating (EXLynx) and another for policy management? I would prefer to be web based if possible.

[CSRQueen]

I can't speak about agency management systems for marketing - we're currently a Nexsure agent and while their marketing piece is supposed to be fabulous, we've got so many other issues with them that we haven't used that piece to its full potential. We had previously been a Sagitta agency but converted to Nexsure last May and are still shaking out the bugs.

As for raters, hands down for us the right choice was EZ Lynx. We find it user friendly, accurate and fast. Most of the carriers we use are there & more are getting added every day. The folks at EZ Lynx have been very responsive and their support team has been great as well. They are 100% web based so there's no loading of software, etc. We can quote from anywhere and our producers love that. While there's currently no integration piece between EZ and Nexsure, I expect one shortly and we'll use that once it's available.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: the opinions I've expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of my employer or their subsidiaries.

[sbk]

Thanks for the info. I am pretty set on going with EZLynx on the front end but had received recommendations for Nexsure but haven't been hearing positive feedback yet. Sounds like there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked out in the system.

[garym]

The personal lines agency that I manage has over 10,000 active policies and we currently use IBQ as our rater but are looking at Ezlynks when they have all our carriers in both WA and OR on board. The agency management system we have used for over 7 years (and works extremely well with Ez) is Hawksoft. This is is a program written by an insurance person for insurance agents! Very cost friendly and it will do everything and anything you need to do. Everyone in the agency absolutely loves it. I picked it because it was a breeze compared to the accounting heavy Applied and AMS systems that were presented to me. (I felt I needed to be certified like a gas station mechanic in order to use the program!) They do have both server and web based applications. My agency is converting to the web with Hawksoft within the month. Also included with the web program is the automatic electronic daily back up feature for disaster recovery purposes. Contact info is 503-266-4680 and the website is http://www.hawksoftinc.com.
Their customer service is top notch and they are always available should you need them.
Good luck,

Gary

[TheInsKid]

We are a Nexsure agency (4 plus years) and have been working with SeaPass for a rater, very good rater from what we can tell so far.
By the way, we do use the marketing side of Nexsure and it is a pretty straight forward and overall a very good system, the big trick is getting it set up correctly and having procedures in place so there is consistency. Plus we heard where XDTI is ramping the Nexsure system up to do even more in the marketing area, with some very cool stuff, so we are happy. As for the Nexsure system itself, good system but still fairly new in the management system world but I will tell you that we overall are very happy with it, ASP with great security features and disaster planning that meets the needs of today's agency. Interesting to see that Wells Fargo, Aon and Willis are all using Nexsure currently as well as the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB) endorse Nexsure.
Good luck.....

[Roger@QuickFile]

A little self-promotion, but you should take a look at the QuickFile agency management system. We have thousands of agencies using the program. It's feature-rich, and the price is much less than other systems. I was an agent for over 10 years (and used it back then) before joining the team, over 15 years ago, have seen most of the other systems, and would stack QuickFile up favorably. Check us out at http://www.quickfile.net.

[meytai]

Hawksoft for agency management

They could work on their accounting a little bit more but they are constantly improving but i feel that this is the most underdeveloped aspect of their program

For raters, i've only always used FSC (california).. they have rolled out an agency management software themselves.. so you could have both from the same company.. however.. it is a relatively new program that may have lots of bugs to be workedo ut

X2 on Hawksoft customer service and supports

[Island Girl Agent]

We've been looking hard at the Hawksoft system and I've yet to find anyone who can give me specific details as to how this works for commercial clients with a lot of agency billed business, and on the accounting side even on the direct bill business, we pay producers commissions on each transaction. Are there any agencies out there that are using Hawksoft/QuickBooks that can or are willing to answer some questions? Very very few of our carriers download so we do a lot of manual inputting. We're on Applied's TAM right now.

Mahalo!

[Rusty]

Isand Girl - howzit?

What's going on to make you want to leave TAM? Cost? Support or lack thereof? Just interested.

Have also heard good thinks about Hawksoft and got to know Richard Hawkins a bit, seems like a good guy. In general the smaller systems don't do a great job with agency billed business as they are designed to fit agents who are primarily direct bill.

[TheTAMman]

Island Girl, I would also be interested in why you are not satisfied with TAM. I am the Applied Systems rep for Hawaii. I know that many of the agencies in Hawaii are on older versions of TAM even though the upgrades are free. I will be in Hawaii the week of April 6th if you would like to see the latest version on TAM.

[kfrasier]

We have been on Applied's TAM for many years now. We also were a Cincinnati Insurance Company agency which means that we did a whole book of business that was agency billed. I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say that Tam can't handle the agency billed book of business. We have done it with no problem.

[Smalltownagent]

We switched from TAM Online to AgencyPro from agencysoftware.com. Very pleased, great accounting, flexible. Won't do as much as TAM, but does what we need it to do and a little more user-friendly.

Oh, and it does help that we are saving about over $6,000 a year over TAM online.

[WashingtonAgent]

For predominantly personal lines agencies, the combo of Hawksoft and EZ Lynx can't be beat!

I've used Hawksoft for over 7 years and the program gets better and better (without being asked to cough up addition money for a new version!) EZ Lynx now exports (and sets up new prospect files) in Hawksoft with a click, and you can export existing clients' Hawksoft info for quick and easy re-quoting in EZ Lynx with a click. They are both top-drawer programs with dedicated support staffs. You absolutely should invest in dual monitors for each workstation to get maximum efficiency from these two programs --- your'll easily improve your CSRs efficiency by 30% or better with this single move. And Hawksoft's program is so intuitive that we were able to train a new employee (with no prior insurance experience) in one day to handle downloads, renewals and cancellations.

100% of Hawksoft employees are former agency owners or agency managers so they instinctively understand our needs. Check them out at http://www.hawksoftinc.com or call 503-266-4680.

[volstrike3]

You have to love it when some marketing rep creates a new handle and only has two posts schilling their product...

Anyway... for personal lines and small commercial I would take the "more is less" approach in terms of an agency managment system. Quickfile, Doris, Hawksoft and FSC Manager can do everything you need for a reasonable price. After looking at almost every agency management system around I went with Doris because most quality CSR's in my area have used Applied systems and can pick it up right away as it is basically a stripped down version of TAM. AMS 360, TAM, Nexsure, etc are all fine systems but they go way above and beyond what most agencies need.

[aqualityinsurance]

We switched from TAM Online to AgencyPro from agencysoftware.com. Very pleased, great accounting, flexible. Won't do as much as TAM, but does what we need it to do and a little more user-friendly.

Oh, and it does help that we are saving about over $6,000 a year over TAM online.

Is anyone using AgencyPro from agencysoftware.com? I am looking at Agency Pro and Doris. We are a small agency, 4 employees and growing. Large commercial base.