The Evolution of an Agency Management System

Traditionally, agency management systems come into existence one of two ways …

1.  An agency hires a programmer to write him a program.  Either the programmer (ie, Agency One) or the agency (ie, Policy Manager) markets the program.

2.  An agency owner becomes a programmer and then markets his management system.  This is how InStar got started.

These two methods aren’t the only way, but they encompass how over 90% of the systems that have hit the market have come into existence. 

The problem with the two main methods is most agency owners do not understand proper workflow strategies and how to create a productive agency.  Instead, they are feature driven … I need a database, ACORD forms, notes and so forth, and that’s how they build the system.  The end conclusion is a system with the basic tools an agency needs, but a system that’s heavy in double entry and difficult to use because the tools in the system don’t work together. 

Most systems massively miss the mark when it comes creating a system that will exponentially increase “productivity” in the agency.  AMS 360 is another example of this.  360 is certainly feature rich, but the steps and time it takes to handle a task is 4-6 times longer than a system that was very productive but got bought out.  In our market place, easy of use and the tools to increase productivity are the most important features of a system.

The problem is, to effectively build into a system proper workflows those workflows need to be considered in the very beginning and built into the system from the ground floor up.  With the bulk of the systems being feature driven, it's not until the users start discussing workflows and asking for processes to be put in place to increase productivity that the vendor starts to realize how badly they missed the mark.

And since I'm on the topic, why don't the systems understand the complete life cycle of an insured and address it?  Why don't the systems understand "marketing" and have easy to use common sense processes in place to help you cross-sell and up-sell your insured's?  Why don't they give you the ability to create a formalized renewal process? 

I could go on with questions!

My opinion is, like I already mentioned, they are feature driven and not process/workflow driven.  In addition, I believe you have these head honchos who sit in their big offices who are completely out of touch of your needs and what's really going on in agencies across the country because their too busy playing political games and not focusing completely on what you need in a system.  Instead they are trying to appease other company's and then shove down your throat at your expense why you should have that product too.

If that's not enough, what's up with trying to force you to running your agency management system over the Internet when agencies across the country are saying loudly, they don't want their customers thousands of miles away? 

Without your clients, you have nothing!  It's your clients that pay your salary and your staff's salary.  It's because you have clients you have a business that produces money at all!

And AMS and Applied are spending millions of dollars trying to convince you that running your agency from the Internet where you loose connectivity with 3rd party programs and have an increase possibility of not being able to service your customers because of the Internet going down!  How much sense does that make?

I know their argument.  It's a bad argument that holds very little weight.  But they're running with it.  And not because it's in your best interest, but because they can't seem to write a software program that runs smoothly and without problems on a network, if the truth were to be known, in my opinion.

Survey after survey says agencies want to run their management system on a network.  Why aren't the big boys listening?  Instead they are buying up decent network agency management systems and then forcing their users to go Internet based. 

Not that DORIS was a good system in my opinion, but because of their low cost they had a lot of agencies on it.  Then Applied purchased DORIS.  The price continues to go up and you can no longer get a network copy.  It's only available via the Internet.

Did I also mention that Internet based versus a network version makes the vendor significantly more money?  Huhmm, I wonder if that's another reason.

Anyway, after 18 years of servicing agencies and working closely with them, that's how I see it.  Most agencies I talk with agree!