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I stand by my belief that a new system needs to be built from the ground up, not tied to any other CRM program, with API's so that it can be linked to other programs in the back-end.

It would be great to have an AMS like Saleforce.com. The AMS does the core processes for insurance but does not into accounting, reports, and other areas where another company can do it better. That was my knock on Nexsure, they are not terrible for basic policy administration, but the reports will make you want to slit you wrists. No option to connect to Tableau or Pentaho. They claim to be a Microsoft company and don't connect to Office 365 Power BI.

You are right APIs are key, but first these companies have to stop trying to do things they suck at. Nexsure offered us marketing automation like Mail Chimp for over $10K a year. Why not partner with them with a real time integration?

Not sure how I feel about Salesforce, but I know there are (2) programs that run in conjunction with Salesforce.

One is Tech Canary and the other is Veruna. I know next to nothing about either of these. Problem is that Salesforce can be expensive. The other, at the risk of sounding like a luddite is that running completely in the cloud? I'm not totally convinced. There are companies that offer solutions that are not cloud-based, so I don't think it's necessarily the best thing. If it was so good for the end consumer, everyone would have done it already. It's slower than a program that is installed in house, on a server, and it is inherently riskier. I don't care where the data is being stored, it's riskier. Thieves are lurking in every corner of the earth trying to hack into Amazon servers, Google servers, wherever there is data...so for anybody to say that cloud based apps are safer than in-house is pure nonsense. They are smart and persistent hackers, for sure.

That being said, it's hard to make a really educated decision about a system when companies will not let you demo a working version. Even if you could get a login and password, that is limited in giving you a true feel for a program.

Let me bold and say that a small group of agents (NOT a users group of hundreds of users, or even an advisory group of 50 principals) sharing the same vision could come up with a blueprint for a system that would do everything an agency needs. It would be critical that CSR's be involved, so they could comment on the ease of processing transactions.

Yes, reports are important, and sales are important, and email integration with MailChimp is important (because it's free up to 2,500 email addresses), and integration with Docusign OR RSign is important...but first it needs to do basic stuff like keep track of Contacts, Policies, Transactions, Correspondence, Documentation. More than anything it needs to keep track of everyday tasks very, very well. Nothing fancy.

Then...you can dress it up with all the other features.

Honestly, I think it should cost as little as possible...I think it should be modeled after ACORD, as someone else suggested.

Here's a snippet from Wiki entry "Established in 1970 as a non-profit organization, ACORD was formed by insurance carriers and agents focused on building efficiencies in the United States Property Casualty Insurance Market."

This probably sounds simplistic to those working in the software industry, and I would not disagree...but I would say that it has to first be simple, straightforward, and intuitive.

Building efficiencies, yes! There is enough inefficiency in the varied company interface systems.

Interested in taking this conversation offline? Get in touch with me by email or phone.

George Page
(203) 453-5259
george@pageins.com

You could try reading this post to balance your choices,
https://www.crmswitch.com/buying-crm/cr ... ptability/
Towing St Louis

That article was published in 2011, so it's a little dated. Plus, it's too general, referring to CRM software...not specifically Agency Management System. I think that highlights the difficulty for software developers and why there are (2) programs that are designed around Salesforce. Balancing general CRM needs and functionality with insurance-specific functionality.

And if that wasn't enough, there are a number of software programs (hosted, and in-house) that do not get enough attention. Here they are in no particular order:

https://sisware.com/
http://www.jenesissoftware.com/
http://www.agencysoftware.com/
https://agencysystems.com/
https://www.hawksoft.com/
https://www.ezlynx.com/management-system.html

https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/insu ... management

I would check them all out...there are probably a few more.

A few more...

https://agencyintel.com/
http://www.agencymatrix.com/
https://www.getitc.com/
http://www.qqsolutions.com/

Requires Saleforce
http://www.veruna.com/
https://techcanary.com/

Salesforce pricing
https://www.salesforce.com/solutions/sm ... s/pricing/

I particularly like when companies display their pricing. No BS, no games

Not really agency management...

https://www.nowcerts.com/
http://www.acords.com/pricing.html

http://www.echosage.com/

Since Agency Management is an all-encompassing term, there are many facets and many different programs that run. As a result, there is no ONE solution.

Some more resources here:

ACORD Forms
http://www.simply-easier-acord-forms.co ... anagement/

Payment processing:
https://www.simplyeasierpayments.com/

Intelligence:
http://www.echosage.com/

I will be buildintg a website where all this information can be stored and a comparison tool, as well as rankings of the carious offerings. Stay tuned!

A clarification: Veruna and Tech Canary are built on the Salesforce platform and the costs associated with Salesforce are included in their pricing. A separate subscription is not required.

SteveAnderson wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:30 am A clarification: Veruna and Tech Canary are built on the Salesforce platform and the costs associated with Salesforce are included in their pricing. A separate subscription is not required.

Does either company and/or Salesforce encrypt your client data?
If so, specifically how is that data encrypted?
Who holds the encryption keys?
Are they public or private keys?
Does it comply with Best Practices and/or HIPPAA specs?
Could ANYONE at either of these companies gain access on any level to your client data?
Finally...what is the extra cost / effort associated with encryption?

You can disregard those questions, as I realized the questions presume to oversimplify the process and/or concept. It's complicated, as they say. But with that in mind, I think Zero Knowledge might be worthwhile if it could function with a working database. Because, no one else should ever have access to the information about our clients except the agency and company, and anyone who has permission (implicit or otherwise).

BIG I conducts a study each year and summarizes insights important to independent agents. Attached is link to report excerpt. This may help narrow down management system providers to consider.

http://www.independentagent.com/Resourc ... mmary.aspx

Looking at how management system utilization is trending (up or down) can serve as guide to companies who are gaining in popularity (innovating) and delivering the goods (stuff works).

InsTech wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:28 am BIG I conducts a study each year and summarizes insights important to independent agents. Attached is link to report excerpt. This may help narrow down management system providers to consider.

http://www.independentagent.com/Resourc ... mmary.aspx

Looking at how management system utilization is trending (up or down) can serve as guide to companies who are gaining in popularity (innovating) and delivering the goods (stuff works).

I totally disagree. The report won't tell a decision maker anything except what are the most popular programs. There is no insight here, it's all high-level. Insight is defined as "the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing". The broad stroke of this summary does not meet that definition, at all...it's just a bunch of numbers.

pageltd wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:52 am

InsTech wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:28 am BIG I conducts a study each year and summarizes insights important to independent agents. Attached is link to report excerpt. This may help narrow down management system providers to consider.

http://www.independentagent.com/Resourc ... mmary.aspx

Looking at how management system utilization is trending (up or down) can serve as guide to companies who are gaining in popularity (innovating) and delivering the goods (stuff works).

I totally disagree. The report won't tell a decision maker anything except what are the most popular programs. There is no insight here, it's all high-level. Insight is defined as "the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing". The broad stroke of this summary does not meet that definition, at all...it's just a bunch of numbers.

Thanks for the link. Great article and informative overall but I agree with PageLTD, there is no insight on Agency Management Systems and will not help making a selection when choosing a platform. I currently use AMS360 and the fact that I would be part of a statistic on agencies using AMS360 provides nothing but a number to those looking to find a good agency management system. I am very unhappy AMS360 as I mentioned in my previous post, so those number not really helpful for that matter.