Vendors of agency management systems are constantly upgrading their product lines with features intended to help users operate more effectively and efficiently. Indeed, many vendors release upgrades several times a year.

To check out the latest wave of product improvements, we recently contacted seven major agency management system vendors. For most, a common theme was that they've taken steps to embrace real-time transactions and become more Web-oriented. Their comments follow.
AMS Services
(www.amsservices.com)
In the past year, AMS Services has invested significantly in the “connectivity” of all its products; that is, in clients' ability to use the systems to conduct transactions in real time with insurance-company systems, said Bill Bunker, senior vice president of products and marketing. Such transactions include looking up policy information from an agency management system or obtaining quotes from the vendor's SETWrite comparative rating system. “We've seen huge increases in the number of connectivity transactions–about a 100% increase year over year,” he said. “If you look at the transaction volume, we're executing well over 400,000 a month.”
Such transactions take place over the vendor's TransactNOW product. “There's a new version of TransactNOW that came out earlier this year,” Bunker said. “It increased the speed at which (clients) can connect to carriers, and it also focused on large agencies, to better manage their connectivity.” TransactNOW is integrated with the vendor's agency management systems, Bunker said.
Charles Landau, AMS Services director of product management, provided an overview of enhancements made to the product line in the past year:
AMS 360: Landau said the vendor overhauled the renewal-management functionality of AMS 360, its most popular agency management system, to make personal- or commercial-lines renewals more automated and paperless. The system produces lists of customers whose policies come up for renewal in the next 60 days–or whatever intervals the agency specifies, he said. Managers can use the new feature to assign expiring policies to specific employees, he said, and to monitor their interactions with clients leading up to policy renewal, to ensure the process stays on track.
Landau said the vendor also is introducing an application programming interface, or API, which he said could be thought of as a “software hook” that enables authorized clients or third parties to pull certain information out of an agency management system's database–and in some cases to update the data. These external users access the API, and subsequently the agency's database, via the agency's Web site.
Landau said AMS Services already had a package product, called “24/7,” that agencies can use to allow clients to do such things as self-issue certificates of insurance via the agencies' Web sites. “But if for some reason they want a custom implementation, they might use the API,” he said. He added that the API also could be used to integrate the agency management system with other systems, such as BenefitPoint, an employee-benefits agency management system available from an AMS Services sister company, or with “a surety bonding application, or a document-management application, or what have you.” In the year ahead, Laudau added, AMS Services plans to add more functionality to the API.
Laudau said the vendor also is enhancing AMS 360's integration with the AMS Prevail Network, a group of premium finance vendors, to make it easier for users to get multiple premium-financing quotes in real time.
AMS Sagitta: Landau said version 7.2 of Sagitta, the vendor's system for large agencies and brokerages, will soon be released. Several steps are being taken to eliminate redundant data entry, he said, including an overhaul of the product's integration with Microsoft Word. The system's ability to use “e-forms,” including ACORD electronic forms, also will be upgraded, he said. In the second half of the year, the system's certificate functionality will be upgraded he said, and API-based, two-way integration with BenefitPoint will be introduced. Laudau said Performance Analyzer, a separately sold program for evaluating an agency's data in multiple ways, will be available to Sagitta users later this year, first on the hosted version of its system and then on the version for an agency's or brokerage's in-house network.
AMS Prime: Laudau said the vendor expects to release version 5.0 of Prime, its system for small agencies, shortly. Instead of using Paradox as a database, it will use Microsoft Access, he said, “a much more industry-mainstream application.” A number of enhancements also have been made to the product's reporting capabilities, he said. Next, the vendor plans to create a hosted version of the system, he added, which currently is available only as a desktop application.
AMS SETWrite: Landau said AMS Services recently released a version of SETWrite, its real-time comparative rating system, that integrates with ChoicePoint's Solutions at Quote product. After a SETWrite user enters a client's address on an application, Solutions at Quote will fill in vehicle identification numbers for any autos owned by people living at that residence, Laudau said. Those people, he added, could include drivers that the agency wasn't aware of, like an in-law that might have access to the client's vehicles, enhancing the rater's usefulness as a front-line underwriting tool. AMS Producer Plus: Landau said this product, formerly known as PS4 Plus, has been overhauled and renamed. The product, he said, is a commercial-lines sales tool applicable to hundreds of types of businesses. It can produce customized exposure survey forms for use in gathering data for submissions and also can be used to create sales proposals, he said. Producers can run the Windows-based application in the field on laptop computers, he said, then synchronize it with a Microsoft SQL Server database back at the agency. In the latter half of the year, the vendor plans to improve the integration between Producer Plus and AMS 360, Landau said, so the information producers enter into the former product can easily be transferred to the agency management systems, where other employees can use it.
Applied Systems Inc.
(www.appliedsystems.com)
In the current versions of its agency management systems, Applied Systems is focusing on improving efficiency and enhancing service, according to Jeffrey D. Purdy, senior vice president of sales and marketing. The vendor's systems are The Agency Manager (TAM), which is designed for mainstream agencies; Vision, which is used by agencies and brokerages with complex needs; and DORIS, a product for entry-level automation. Upgraded versions of all three products are in beta testing now, Purdy said, with general releases scheduled in August.
The current versions of TAM (8.0) and Vision (4.0) have a batch-scanning capability that enhances the document management function already present in the systems, Purdy said. As CSRs or other employees receive documents, he said, they use the system to create a client-specific bar code for each document. All documents the agency receives can be fed en masse into a scanner. By reading the bar codes, the agency management system automatically attaches each document to the appropriate client file. Users pay no additional fee for the batch-scanning enhancement, Purdy said.
Both TAM and Vision are available as in-house or online (hosted) systems; DORIS is a hosted system. On the servers that host the systems, the vendor has upgraded to Microsoft Outlook 2007 this year, Purdy said. Clients using the hosted systems get upgrades at no additional charge, he said, so they always operate on the most current system. Most new users opt for the online versions of the systems, Purdy added. “In the case of TAM users, 92% of new clients do.”
Purdy said Applied Systems has developed new data conversion technology that makes it easier for users of one of the vendor's systems to upgrade to a different one, or for clients using other vendors' systems to switch to an Applied Systems model. “We've added what we call 'exception reporting capabilities,'” he said. Using this software, Applied Systems can convert a sample of a client's files and create a report pointing out any problems in the databases–e.g., numeric characters in alpha fields–before the client converts the entire database. Once clients have this information, some pay to have their data cleaned up before converting to their new systems, he said, while others deal with such irregularities after the conversion, knowing beforehand where the nonconforming data will be.
In the past year, Applied Systems launched its Disaster Recovery Service, Purdy said. All users of the vendor's online systems already have this service, since their data and programs are maintained on servers away from client agencies. Now the vendor offers DRS to customers with in-house systems, allowing them to reserve space on one of the vendor's data-center servers, from where they can access their data following an incident.
Purdy said that customers who call Applied Systems for technical support typically have to wait less than a minute to speak to a technician. He added that the company has extended and enhanced its use of real-time chat for customer support. Customers can open a “chat” window, communicate with a technician, and often have their issues resolved immediately. “About 20% of our 'requests for support' calls take the form of online chat,” Purdy said, adding that clients who open up a chat window wait less than five seconds, on average, before communicating with a technician. The chat service option is available for users of all three of the vendor's agency management systems, he said.
Purdy said a new service is geared to agency networks or clusters in which one central agency holds contracts with insurers with which the rest of the agents or subagents place business. This capability, called broker download, allows the download to be sent to the central agency (acting as the broker) as well as to the producing agency who used the broker to write the business. This capability also is useful for traditional wholesale brokers or MGAs using one of the vendor's agency management systems, Purdy said. “The broker can offer this service to agents as a value-added,” he said. '”If you use me as your broker, I can get you a copy of your data, so you can get a download as well.'”
Lastly, Purdy said Applied Systems has introduced a producer-broker reconciliation module for Vision, which is used by MGAs as well as by large retail agents and brokers. The module enables users to reconcile their broker statements with producer statements.
Choices Software
(www.freeacordforms.com)
Last fall Choices Software introduced “Web Client,” a browser-based version of its Agency Management Anywhere system. (The previous version, “Smart Client,” remains available as a vendor-hosted or in-house system.) Dean Westover, president, said the vendor decided to offer a browser-based version of the system because of the nature of business today.
“More and more people are traveling away from the office, and work via Internet caf? or at the airport while on the road,” he said, and a browser-based system is ideal for them. Another advantage of using the online version, Westover said, is that first-time users don't have to spend an hour downloading the agency management software and then another couple of hours installing it. “We wanted to make it so that someone could come to our Web site and, within a few seconds, be actually using the product,” he said.
Web Client uses Ajax technology, which Westover said “is the hottest thing going right now.” In the past, programs that were developed for use within a browser were sluggish, he said, because the browser and the vendor's remote server needed to constantly interact. Ajax, on the other hand, stores information locally in a cache, he said, so the browser and remote server interact only when the cache needs to be reloaded. As a result, he said, users can rapidly switch screens and applications. The browser-based system “behaves more like a locally installed application,” he said. The other big news at Choices Software, Westover said, is the recent release of Choices Real Time, a product that makes possible certain real-time transactions between agencies and their insurance companies. By storing insurance company passwords and automatically inserting them, as well as client names and policy numbers, in transaction fields, the software streamlines repetitive inquiry tasks, Westover said, saving CSRs 30 to 60 minutes a day. The product gives users real-time access to three kinds of information stored on carriers' computers: claims, billing and policy detail. He said the product will work with any company an agency represents.
Westover said the same real-time capability is available with PDA Client, a free program for clients' hand-held personal data assistants. Clients also can use their PDAs to enter data directly into Agency Management Anywhere, rather than put the data into their PDAs, then synchronize them with their agency management system after they return to the office.
In addition to its agency management system, Choices Software offers ACORD Forms Anywhere, a product that gives users access to the latest version of all ACORD forms. The online version is available for $99 per user per year. The locally installed version is available for a one-time charge of $500, plus $10 per user per month. The cost for the online Agency Management Anywhere system is $150 per user per year. The locally installed version is available for a one-time charge of $500, plus $15 per user per month. The additional charge for Choices Real Time is $39.95 per user per year. Custom pricing is available.
Ebix Inc.
(www.ebix.com)
Last year, Ebix released Client Manager for their EbixASP product, a module that gives users a comprehensive yet streamlined way to access information and perform related tasks. Michael Herron, director of product management, said the next release, which is scheduled for next month, will include Policy Manager, a sub-frame of Client Manager, that will give users access to an account's policy information. On one screen, he said, users will be able to access everything they need to perform any transaction related to a given client and his or her policies; e.g., ordering endorsements, creating ACORD forms or auto ID cards, or issuing binders or certificates.
As with the development of Client Manager, the vendor has been coordinating with the Affiliated Network of Ebix Users as it fine-tunes Policy Manager, Herron said. “It makes navigation a lot more user-friendly, from the CSR processing standpoint,” Herron said. “We've had a lot of positive feedback from the (ANEU) product-development committee.”
An upgrade made in the past year enables users to download commission statements from their carriers, Herron said. Users who don't get commission statements electronically can put them in Excel spreadsheets and import them that way, he said. As a third option, users also can enter such data manually on a screen the vendor created that looks like a spreadsheet, he said. For rating purposes, EbixASP now integrates with EasyLink, a third-party vendor, he added.
Graham Prior, senior vice president of agency management systems, said EbixASP can be purchased as either a vendor-hosted system or as an in-house system. “And we also do quite a lot of what we call 'custom development feeds' for clients,” he said.
Herron said that MGAs using the system often ask for such customization. “The system allows them to build their own user-defined screens for capturing data,” he said. The vendor also assists MGAs with the creation of forms that aren't in ACORD format or otherwise standardized. “MGAs may want to issue their own policies or issue their own forms,” he said. “If they can't provide them to us in electronic format, we will convert their forms and map them for them as custom projects.”
Prior said that in the past year, Ebix carried out a significant upgrade to its hosting environment. The upgrades significantly improved response times for users, he said, and also improved the reliability of the system. “We have more redundancy now,” he said.
QuickFile Agency Management System
(www.quickfile.net)
A move into real-time transactions is among the latest developments at QuickFile, according to Mark Malis, president. Malis said the vendor has been testing a link to the IVANS Transformation Station that will enable QuickFile users to conduct real-time transactions with their insurers via the facility. He said he expects the option to become available this month. Interested users will have to ask their carriers, as well as the vendor, to enable the function. “Then it's ready immediately,” Malis said. “It's already built into the software, so it's basically a matter of flipping a switch.”
Malis said the real-time capability will be available to users at no additional charge, at least through the end of this year. Eventually, users will pay extra, he said, “but I wouldn't expect a huge increase in cost.” He added that QuickFile users also will have the option to decline the feature.
Malis said the vendor also has added security features to its agency management system. For example, once clients' Social Security numbers or federal employer identification numbers are entered into the system, they are available only to employees authorized to access them. Malis said a new “activity screen” enables users to view an interactive history for each client file, as well as to open policies, letters and other documents attached to the file. He said an upcoming system enhancement will be a “data wizard” that will enable users to transfer information they previously entered into any ACORD form to any additional ACORD forms, thus saving them time.
The vendor has enhanced the system's “Rolodex” feature, which Malis described as a simplified contact management program that also can be used to print letters and labels. He said it can accommodate an unlimited number of contacts per insurance company, as well as links to carriers' Web sites. “People who go in and out of QuickFile all day said they wished that they could always have the Rolodex open,” he said. “So we turned the Rolodex into a freestanding application. Now it shows up as an icon in their system tray, next to their clock.”
A couple of years ago, QuickFile launched the Enterprise version of its agency management system, which Malis said enables users to keep their data on the vendors' servers, rather than in-house. Now, he said, the vendor has started work on a Web-based version of Enterprise that will let users move to a completely online system, where the vendor also will host and maintain the agency management system's programs. He said the online system will be integrated with a Web-based version of QuickQuote, the vendor's comparative rating system. Malis said the move will give users a “third alternative” that may eventually replace one of the others.
Malis said QuickFile doubled the size of its training department in the past year. The vendor has a toll-free customer service number, he said, and has recently added live “chat” capability, accessible from the vendor's Web site or within the agency management system. “You can just click a button and ask a question,” he said. As a new option, the vendor is offering in-agency training, Malis said, adding that it also offers unlimited training via telephone, as well as videos, a manual, online help and a monthly newsletter.
Malis described QuickFile's core users as small and midsize agencies. The in-house version of the system operates only on the Windows platform and supports all versions from Windows 98 forward, he said, including Vista, the latest incarnation of Windows. The basic charge for the system is $679, he said, with options-including Enterprise-available at additional cost.
Strategic Insurance Software Inc.
(www.sisware.com)
Earlier this year, Strategic Insurance Software launched Partner XE, an agency management system that has been in development for the past couple of years. It is the first SIS system to give users the option of having their data and programs hosted by the vendor. At the time we contacted him, Mark Miller, the vendor's chief operating officer, said that all clients who had upgraded to the new system had taken that online option.
Among the new system's features are a document-management module that supports “paperless” operations, Miller said, as well as a fully integrated accounting module that's available as an option. “We've organized it (the system) around what agents need to do to grow their business,” Miller said, adding that additional features are planned for upcoming releases, including expanded marketing capabilities; e.g., in-depth campaign management.
Another upgrade planned for Partner XE users in 2008 is the ability to conduct real-time transactions with insurers via IVANS Transformation Station, Miller said. More than 80 insurers conduct various types of commercial-lines and personal-lines transactions with agencies via the facility. “We've kept our eye on Transformation Station,” he said. “As it got to a critical mass, we knew it was time for us to move with it.”
At the moment, Partner XE users can conduct Web-based transactions, some in real time, with about a dozen carriers via the vendor's WebLink and UpLink services, Miller said. SIS will continue to offer those services, which are free to both agents and companies, even after Partner XE users gain access to Transformation Station. Miller said a number of insurers have used WebLink to “test the waters” of real-time transactions. “Once you commit to Transformation Station as a carrier, you're really committing a lot of dollars and time,” he said.
Miller said Strategic Insurance Software has joined the Microsoft Insurance Value Chain, a group of independent software vendors committed to standards-based integration of products throughout the insurance industry. “I think it sends a good message to our users,” Miller said, who added that SIS also works with other such standards-supporting groups as ACORD, the Agents Council for Technology (ACT) and the ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE).
Miller said about 700 agencies use the vendor's agency management systems, which include SEMCI Partner as well as Partner XE. The typical cost of a system is between $55 and $65 per month per user, he said, not including the cost of initial database conversions.
XDimensional Technologies Inc.
(www.xdti.com)
The latest version of XDimensional's Nexsure agency management system, v. 1.9.2, came out at the beginning of the year, said Bob Juracka, president. He said it enables users to conduct more types of electronic data exchanges with more insurers than did previous models.
“We're downloading with more than 140 carriers now,” he said. The range of available downloads varies by insurer, he said. “Our clients are most excited about the direct-bill statement download,” he said.
This year the vendor is expanding its system's real-time capabilities, Juracka said, which will enable users, without leaving the Nexsure system, to connect with carriers' systems to inquire about the status of customer invoices or endorsements, submit businesses, etc. “We have real time with Hartford in small commercial, middle-market commercial and personal lines,” Juracka said, “and we have CNA in testing now for their commercial-lines submission in real time.” Besides those two, other insurers are starting to express interest, he said.
Getting more carriers to offer real-time capability to Nexsure users has been “a chicken-and-egg proposition,” Juracka said, with supply from insurers awaiting demand from users, and vice versa. Nexsure's users tend to be regional, national and multinational brokers who historically have focused on large commercial accounts, where real time perhaps isn't as big an issue as it is for smaller accounts. In April, however, Aon Corp. began using Nexsure for its small- and middle-market commercial operations. That ratchet-ed up insurer interest in real time via Nexsure, Juracka said.
Juracka said XDTI has just released its first “EAI” (Enterprise Application Integration) capability for Nexsure. It enables disparate employees within an enterprise “to interact with the Nexsure database very intimately,” Juracka said. (He defined an enterprise as one of the 10 to 20 largest insurance brokers, “which have hundreds, if not thousands, of users.”) For instance, in an enterprise with both bank and insurance operations, Juracka said, people on the banking side could use the EAI to access the Nexsure database and view a common customer's coverages on the insurance side. An inquiry also could go from the insurance side to the banking side, since the EAI is bi-directional, he said. Another use for the EAI would be to enable an enterprise's corporate general ledger to seamlessly and securely communicate with the Nexsure system's insurance accounting program, he said. “We've never opened up that sort of capability because we're exclusively a hosted application,” Juracka said, “but that's been something that Enterprise clients have truly had a desire to do.”
Juracka said XDTI is revamping the Web-accessible interface that insurance customers use to self-issue certificates of insurance, verify coverage status, etc. Until now, those clients were confronted by a “watered-down” version of the broker's user interface, he said. With the release of version 1.9.3 of the system, due out later this summer, the interface will be more “client-friendly,” he said.