Agency Management System

Your response to industry hot topics.

Moderators: Josh, independent guy

Which System You Like?

NexSure
23
16%
Applied TAM
18
13%
Applied Epic
5
4%
AMS360
4
3%
Ebix
24
17%
Newton
3
2%
EbixASP
1
1%
Hawksoft
16
11%
Nasa Eclipse
1
1%
Other System
46
33%
 
Total votes: 141

yoyowordup
Insurance Journal Addict
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:43 pm
Location: The Valley of the Sun - AZ

Re: Agency Management System

Post by yoyowordup »

The "referral" from quikfuzion is from an employee. He has four posts all related to the selling of quikfuzion software. That doesn't mean it's bad, I'm just always leery of spam posters.
aem84
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:51 am

Re: Agency Management System

Post by aem84 »

I agree. I tried Googling Quikfuzion and could barely find a thing much less a website.
jjb
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Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:03 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by jjb »

I read up on the board but saw no mention of EZLYNX. Is anybody using them? They have an awesome rater and they rolled out their management system a couple of years ago.
aem84
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:51 am

Re: Agency Management System

Post by aem84 »

They appear to have a lot of good product but I think they are trying to do too much. Their website barely gives any info on their management system. I am pretty set on QQ Catalyst now.
dcamp
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:51 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by dcamp »

I've noticed that none of the companies developing these management systems have employees that have actually used there systems with other programs that are used by real agents. It's a joke the way many of them conceptualize how their systems "should" integrate with FSC Rater and Microsoft Office. Currently, I have AMS360 but I'm still working out the kinks in my work flow. It doesn't do exactly what I need (and what I was told it would do) but it does do a lot more then what I need. The main problem for me is we have our own applications and documents for our agency that need to have specific policy and coverage information to migrate into them quickly and without inputting information twice or copying and pasting. AMS360 does migrate a lot into documents automatically (way more then other systems), but there is still a ton of information (migrate fields) that is not available. Other then that, AMS360 is great but complicated. I used FSC Manager before since I thought it would work well with FSC Rater, but it was out dated and worthless. Management systems take lots of time and money from those of us that are looking for something to help us simplify and organize. Also, sales departments sound like car salesmen promising the world.... If they only knew how a real policy is quoted, sold, bound, etc, from start to finish they might come up with something that really works for agents instead of putting agents to work.
aem84
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:51 am

Re: Agency Management System

Post by aem84 »

Talk with John Fear at QQ Solutions. He is a sales guy for them and has been in the industry for over 20 years on both te agency and carrier side. He is the real deal. Knows his stuff. Knows what agencies need and is a great person to talk AMS with.
jackwehoca
Insurance Journal Addict
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2010 1:23 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by jackwehoca »

What am I missing? What do guide dogs and Social Behavior have to do with Agency Management systems?
isidorostk
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 10, 2013 3:44 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by isidorostk »

I am an independent agent looking finally to purchase an management system. Anyone have an idea as to how must they cost for one user.

The upfront and monthly.

looking into ams 360 and tam
aem84
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:51 am

Re: Agency Management System

Post by aem84 »

isidorostk wrote:I am an independent agent looking finally to purchase an management system. Anyone have an idea as to how must they cost for one user.

The upfront and monthly.

looking into ams 360 and tam
There are quite a few prior discussions that hit on this. Each system varies quite drastically in both price and options. It really comes down to what you are looking for and the make-up of your agency. Some are designed for commercial lines while others are designed for personal lines. Many of the new systems are going to the "cloud" and it is eliminating you to have to put actual software on your computer. Prices have dropped dramatically as well...However, the "big 2" are still costly (i.e. Applied and AMS). There is a website that reviews AMS systems and ranks them. Go to Google and type in "Agency management system reviews and comparisons" and it should be the first result. Other things that go into pricing are number of users, number of locations. For one location, 5 users, 50/50 split between personal and commercial, I would say you could spend anywhere from $300-$600 a month.
ABMCalifornia
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Posts: 29
Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 10:01 am
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Agency Management System

Post by ABMCalifornia »

Undecided wrote:Hello, first timer here. I will read all 10 pages of these posts this weekend. But for now need opinion on Hawksoft. We have Applied System TAM for 20 years. The HS reps made this look good, but what are is the downside? Thank you.
I'm not sure about the other insurance client management systems but I personally love Hawksoft. I'm new to the current agency I work for, in about a week I felt very confident with the different options and user interface. It seems so easy to use for the vast amount of things it does.
The California insurance guy.
http://www.CaliforniaQualityInsurance.com
micheleg
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 9:59 am

Re: Agency Management System

Post by micheleg »

I was reading through the thread and wanted to share our new product. Terrace is launching a new agency management app - Power Billing for Insurance - on the Salesforce AppExchange. It runs standalone on the Force.com platform and also integrates seamlessly with Salesforce CRM. Features include contact management, commission tracking, policy management, billing, A/R, A/P, and full general ledger. PBI is cloud-based and browser independent. To learn more, visit the Terrace website or contact me for more info and/or a demo. We are happy to share information and assess if we are a good fit.

Michele Gage
Product Manager, Terrace Software, Inc.
micheleg@terrace.com
RigQuote
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 12:08 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by RigQuote »

I am an agent doing primarily commercial auto and trucking. We are using a system called NowCerts.com We love it. Mainly because it costs us only little over 100 per month for unlimited users and no upfront cost. We get all the standard stuff like client management and downloads from carriers plus our management system sends certificates by fax all online for no extra cost. Also our clients can log in and get their own certificates. Well it is an awesome system. I would recommend it.
exclaimsguy
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:26 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by exclaimsguy »

Rusty wrote:I look at the pricing with a big grain of salt. To me it's like buying insurance where you say you want minimum limits at the cheapest price. Whether you like it or not, you are married to the vendor for longer than you realize going in to the relationship.
Couldnt agree more on this "married to vendor" statement. We recently spent about 400K on upgrade to Vertafore. Obviosly did a great deal of diligence prior to pulling the trigger and a huge part of our equation was the enormous difficulty of changing platforms midstream regardless of whether what we had was absolutely the "best" there was right now. What we had was working reasonably well, and a transitoin was better than a change.
haharem
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:26 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by haharem »

Our agency is primarily benefits with a growing P & C department. Any experience with a management system that will handle both?
FLCracker
Insurance Journal Fan
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:25 pm

Re: Agency Management System

Post by FLCracker »

We just went live on Applied's Epic management system last Jan. We had been using Vertafore 360 for the last 5 yrs but we had to adjust to the system vs. with Epic we can customize and configure the system to work for us. We felt with our agency changing all the time to stay ahead we needed a system to grow and keep up with us. Epic can handle our P&C business as well as our financial side of the business including L&H. Since Epic is so customize able with automated workflows and customize reporting it took a little more time training setting up but now that Epic does so many processes behind the scenes automatically my staff has had more time to focus on rounding out accounts and quoting new business. We have already seen an increase of revenue per employee in excess of 10% in just six months moving two csr's over to marketing. We feel Epic is a good bang for the buck because we are using a larger percentage of the system and feel we can get many years out of the system.
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