AS THE market becomes softer and margins are stretched thinner,it's more important than ever for agents and brokers to make wiseuse of technology. Vendors, aware of clients' need to operate moreefficiently and effectively, continuously turn out enhancements totheir agency management systems. To help readers evaluate thelatest products and system upgrades, we recently contacted eightmajor agency management system vendors. Following are some of thehighlights of their current systems and anticipated offerings.

AMS Services
(www.ams-services.com)
Version 2.0 of AMS 360 is scheduled to be in beta testing at aboutthe time this article appears, according to Bill Bunker, seniorvice president of product management and marketing. Among itsfeatures is Doc360, a document management program.

“Doc360 goes beyond simple file attachments to actuallyproviding a true archiving and retrieval capability,” said CharlesLandau, AMS director of product management. AMS is still partneringwith third-party imaging systems for the scanning capability,Landau said, “but we're definitely providing some documentmanagement functionality with this release.”

Version 2.0 also will provide enhanced vendor-payablefunctionality, Landau said. “Users will be able to enter invoicesas they receive them from vendors, track them by invoice number anddate, and pay them in a way that matches their cash-flowrequirements,” he said. Landau said Version 2.0 offers enhancedintegration with SETWrite, AMS' separate real-time personal-linescomparative rating product, which was introduced last year. Version2.0 users will be able to easily transfer data between the twoproducts, he said. About 50 carriers now support SETWrite, Bunkeradded.

In the past year, AMS has added several functions to Sagitta,the vendor's system for large users, Bunker said. He noted thatagencies in that market segment, including bank-owned “foundation”agencies, continue to get larger. “They have a different set ofrequirements from your average insurance agency,” he said. To meetthem, the vendor has enhanced Sagitta's security capabilities,Bunker said, and has made the system more customizable. “We've alsomade a number of enhancements to facilitate multidivisionalreporting,” he said.

AMS expects to release an upgrade to Prime, its system for smallusers, in the near future. The biggest change, Bunker said, will beits incorporation of the widely used and supported Microsoft Accessdatabase for the storage of client records and all other data.

In March, AMS announced a new product, Performance Analyzer,which is available for an additional charge to users of AMS 360. Itis expected to be available to Sagittta users by the end of thisquarter.

Bunker said Performance Analyzer goes beyond the typicaloperational reports or spreadsheets found on all agency managementsystems. “It gives you a much more dynamic environment for slicingand dicing and changing the way that you're viewing the data,”Bunker said. “One second, you can look at it by producer, then flipthe data around and look at it by carrier, or by carrier andproducer. You can look at claims and incidents against revenue forparticular customers to see who's profitable and who's not. … Youcan see trends much more quickly than you could if you were justplaying with a spreadsheet.”

AMS also offers AMS Benefits, a system for agencies that havegroup benefits operations. Bunker said an enhancement made to theproduct in the past year enables users to provide benefitsadministration services to their benefits customers.

Bunker said AMS continues to make enhancements to itsTransactNOW product, which facilitates real-time transactionsbetween insurance agents and carriers. In the past year, “we'veseen an increase in transaction volume of over 150%,” he said.

Finally, Bunker mentioned that AMS is in the process ofintegrating its formerly separate operating units into a singleentity, which he said is expected to improve service. “If you're anAMS Rackley (rating) customer and a AMS Services customer, you'llget the same, integrated experience” for both products, he said.benefits administration services to their benefits customers.Bunker said AMS continues to make enhancements to its TransactNOWproduct, which facilitates real-time transactions between insuranceagents and carriers. In the past year, “we've seen an increase intransaction volume of over 150%,” he said. Finally, Bunkermentioned that AMS is in the process of integrating its formerlyseparate operating units into a single entity, which he said isexpected to improve service. “If you're an AMS Rackley (rating)customer and an AMS Services customer, you'll get the same,integrated experience” for both products, he said.

Applied Systems
(www.appliedsystems.com)
In its latest releases of its agency management systems, AppliedSystems has worked to reduce agents' errors and omissionsexposures, said Jeff Purdy, senior vice president and nationalsales manager. The vendor's chief products are The Agency Manager(TAM) and Vision, a system for large agents and brokers. Version8.0 of TAM and 4.0 of Vision are in beta testing and scheduled forrelease this summer.

One way the vendor has reduced users' E&O exposures is bymore closely integrating both systems with Microsoft Outlook, Purdysaid. The systems enable users to automatically attach e-mails sentto clients to the clients' files. Automatically triggeringdocuments as a result of an activity ensures agents that internalE&O procedures are followed, he noted.

Another feature that will lower the odds of E&O claims isdocument management, Purdy said. “With so many offices goingpaperless today, and the requirement for agents and brokers tomanage multiple sources of information–whether a fax or inboundpaper mail, or paper generated as a result of activities within thesystem–we've enhanced both TAM's and Vision's ability to managedocuments electronically,” he said.

Both TAM and Vision are available as hosted (ASP) systems or asin-house systems. About 75% of new TAM users are hosted, as are atleast a majority of Vision users, Purdy said. “As our client baselook to upgrade their technology, many select the benefits of theASP model.”

Purdy said Applied also continues to make strides withTransformation Station, the agency-carrier Internet data exchangeproduct it developed for IVANS. In the past year, the number ofinsurers using the system has grown by 40% to approximately 100, hesaid. One added capability, which is called Agency Alerts, allowsinsurers to transmit past, current or future actions into theApplied Systems management system. Some carriers have used thisfeature to notify CSRs of impending cancellations for nonpayment,while others are using them to alert agencies of up-sell andcross-sell opportunities for existing policies, he said. “There isa lot of interest in expanding the use of alerts.”

Purdy said carriers also are using Transformation Station'sreal-time quoting capability in a more extensive way than before.“More carriers are looking at predictive underwriting, as opposedto older “table-based” rating and underwriting methodologies” hesaid. As a result, he said, they are using Transformation Stationto obtain more data from agency systems, then run it through the“black box” rating engines that reside within their own systems.All this has enabled agents to make greater use of the quotetransaction, he said.

In the past year, Purdy said, Progressive Insurance Co.activated 5,400 independent agents selling insurance under its“Drive Insurance from Progressive” brand. “This is a great messageto the marketplace about the industry acceptance of TransformationStation,” he said.

A couple of years ago, Applied Systems purchased DORIS system.Until this year, DORIS had continued to run as a stand-aloneentity, but now it is being integrated with the Applied Systemsoperation, Purdy said. “DORIS is an extremely well-respected brand,and the product has been very successful in the market segment thatit was built for,” Purdy said. “We absolutely are maintaining thebrand and the product, and will continue to add features to theproduct, where appropriate.”

Asked where he sees DORIS fitting into Applied's product line,Purdy said the system is targeted at agencies smaller than thoseserved by TAM. “We are going to offer the DORIS clients a migrationpath to TAM or Vision, if they require it,” he said. “If theydon't, they can maintain the DORIS product.” He added that Appliedalso has been working with carriers to get DORIS certified fordownload and other services via Trans- formation Station, “so wecan bring more interface functionality to the DORIS clientbase.”

Choices Software
(www.acords.com)
Choices Software long has been known as a vendor of ACORD formssoftware. In 2004, it expanded into agency management systems,announcing its Agency Anywhere system, in beta format, at the 2004ACORD Conference. At last year's conference, a fully operationalsystem was introduced.

Dean Westover, president of Choices Software, said AgencyAnywhere is a “forms-centric” system that can be used to automateclient files, conduct invoicing, track expirations, manage “to do”lists and handle other common agency management system functions,while not providing anything extraneous.

“Our primary objective was to create a system simple enough thatanyone in an agency could learn, and feel confident using, in a fewdays,” he said.

Choices Software can host the system, or users can purchase anin-house version. The system uses Java open architecture, oneadvantage of which, said Westover, is that it is“cross-platform.”

“Most of our users are on Windows XP,” he said, “but AgencyAnywhere can work with Linux and Macintosh as well.”

Westover said Java standards also promote ease of use fromremote locations via the Internet–hence the system's name, AgencyAnywhere. “We decided that it would be good to focus on … agenciesthat have multiple locations or that require access sometimes fromhome, on the road, etc.,” he said. An advantage of using Java forthis purpose is that it doesn't have a built-in cost per user, assome multi-location network systems do, he added. “By using Javaopen standards, we're able to deliver the multiple-location usageat a more competitive price point,” he said.

A recent upgrade to the system enables users to access it inreal time from a hand-held personal data assistant, Westover said.Thus, a user can enter information directly into the system using aPDA, rather than enter data in a PDA and then synchronize it withthe agency management system back at the office.

Choices Software also is making Agency Anywhere more modular.Many users prefer to have the system customized to their specificneeds, Westover said. “If someone issues a lot of certificates,” hesaid, “we can give them a specialty module that lets them havetheir customers self-issue their certificates” via theInternet.

Westover said Agency Anywhere's technology largely eliminatesthe process of receiving forms revisions and system upgrades viacompact disk. For instance, Westover said, by clicking a buttonwhile working with an ACORD form, a user can see if a newer versionof it is available at the Choices Software Web site and, if so,download it on the spot.

Agency Anywhere, along with the vendor's ACORD forms product, isavailable for a one-time charge of $500, plus $99 per user peryear, Westover said. For an additional charge, users can add amodule for self-issuing certificates of insurance.

Ebix
(www.ebix.com)
The latest improvement to the EbixASP system is the Client Manager,a module using the Microsoft.Net platform that gives users acomprehensive yet streamlined way to access client and policyinformation, and to perform related tasks.

Michal Herron, product manager, said the new user interfaceresulted from the vendor's interaction with the Affiliated Networkof Ebix Users, the system's users group. “We spent several monthsjust making sure that it had all of the functionality that theyneeded,” said Herron.

The Client Manager was the first major upgrade to come from thevendor's collaboration with the users group's product developmentcommittee, Herron said, but it won't be the last. For the nextmajor release, he said, the committee is requesting the downloadingof commission statements. “Right now, our system can do automaticinvoice entry through download, but a lot of people hatereconciliation,” he said. “They'd rather just download thestatement.”

EbixASP integrates with most document management systems butdoesn't have a preferred one, said Graham Prior, senior vicepresident of agency management systems. “We find that in addressingthe document management requirements, you need to be dealing with areasonably large agency before they can actually afford a documentmanagement system,” Prior said. Consequently, Ebix has madeenhancements to its system that “enable people to uploadattachments … without having to go through the process of buying adocument management system,” Prior said. “So we have a strategy forthe small agencies as well as the larger ones.”

Users “can upload any document they want in any format,” Herronadded, “but a whole integrated document management system–we findmost clients don't want to pay for that.”

EbixASP users can conduct real-time transactions with insurersvia IVANS Transformation Station. Separately, the system enablesusers to conduct direct real-time transactions with some carriersthat do not use Transformation Station, Herron said.

Most EbixASP users pay the vendor to host their data andprograms, but Herron said several clients are self-hosting it. Thecost for the vendor-hosted system is $85 per user per month, Priorsaid. The price for self-hosting the system various with a client'scharacteristics, he said.

InStar
(www.instar.com)
InStar, which for years functioned as an independent agencymanagement system vendor, was acquired by AMS in May 2005. TomHatcher, InStar's vice president, said the transition has gonewell, and that the InStar brand and product are going to bemaintained.

“We have a full development staff,” Hatcher said. “We have fullsupport staff. We have our objectives. It's really clear what weneed to do: Focus on making our products and services better forour customers.”

Hatcher said InStar fits well with the rest of the AMS productline. “We fill a market segment that strengthens AMS totalofferings,” he said. InStar serves agencies ranging from one-personshops to those with 65 users and seven locations. Hatcher saidwhile there is some overlap between InStar and AMS 360, he alsosees InStar as a “bridge” to that product for some users.

Hatcher said the primary focus over the last year has beenimproving InStar's workflow, mainly by reducing the number of stepsneeded to navigate through the system, and adding features,including a PDF generator, to increase agency efficiency. InStarImaging, a document management system that was in beta testing lastyear, is now part of the product, he added.

Another improvement provides the capability to maintain multiplecontacts for prospects or clients, Hatcher said. “You can say,'this is the president; this is accounting.' You can have anunlimited number of e-mail addresses, phone numbers and mailingaddresses per contact.”

In the past year, enhancements also have been made to thesystem's download capabilities, Hatcher said. For instance, thesystem can be used to download information from “Write Your Own”flood insurance companies as well as from the North Carolina BeachPlan.

Additional improvements have resulted simply from being acquiredby AMS, Hatcher said. For instance, InStar is now the only agencymanagement system that can conduct real-time agency-companytransactions via AMS TransactNOW or IVANS' Transformation Station,he said. “So you have (access to) more companies and more ways toaccess data in real time,” he said.

Another benefit of the acquisition, he said, is that InStar isnow integrated with the AMS Prevail premium financing network. “Sowith just a right-button click,” he said, “an agency can send dataout across the Web, get a quote from multiple premium financevendors, select one and print the premium finance agreement.”

Quickfile Agency Management System
(www.quickfile.net)
One of the newest enhancements to the QuickFile system enablesusers to create their own editable forms, said President IraSaunders. He said agents use this function to create clientqualification forms, data-gathering forms, etc. Another new featureallows users “to print, fax or e-mail any document (e.g., an ACORDform) or item contained in the software,” he said.

A change in the system's imaging section enables users to groupACORD forms or other documents into a single packet, enabling themto be handled collectively, Saunders said. Agents use the “drag anddrop” method of combining multiple forms or multiple pages of asingle form into one document, then print, fax or e-mail it or saveit in a folder, he said. Previously, he said, all forms wereorganized and clearly labeled in a client's file, but there was noway to group them.

Saunders said the system now has an improved commissioncalculator. It can be customized to calculate commissions forproducts on which agents have worked out unusual compensationarrangements with their insurance companies, he said. The systemnow also integrates with the Dymo line of label printers, he said,enabling users to print shipping labels directly from the system.Those agents who still use paper files also use the printers tocreate labels for file tabs, he added.

Saunders said QuickFile can generate the great majority of ACORDforms, but continues to add new ones as users request them.

Last year, for instance, the vendor added about 30 forms, hesaid. The system also now has fully integrated bitmap signaturesthat users can affix to ACORD forms, he added. Users can createblank ACORD forms or ones automatically filled in existing policydata or even data from a prior year, thus reducing duplicate entry,Saunders said. Last year the vendor introduced an ASP model of itssystem, called the Enterprise edition, according to Eric Finstad,QuickFile's regional sales manager, “I'd say that probably a thirdof all new clients who sign up with us are going for that,” hesaid. Hosting services include storage and retrieval of scannedimages, he added. As with most hosted agency management systems,users can access their data from any location and enjoy thesecurity of redundant data backup, Saunders said.

Another focus has been on company downloads, which QuickFileoffers through a separately sold module called QuickDownload. “I'dsay maybe two-thirds of new agents who sign up with us implementthat,” Finstad said, adding that the system can acceptpersonal-lines and commercial-lines download from “literallyhundreds” of carriers. Saunders said that enhanced downloadcapabilities have probably been the most significant enhancement tothe system over the past year. He said the system automaticallydownloads information into clients' files and performs othertransactions on autopilot. “It will create an ACORD formautomatically, if necessary,” he said.

Looking ahead, Finstad said a priority will be improving thesystem's capabilities to execute transactions with carriers in realtime, via IVANS Transformation Station. “If you asked us what ourproject was for this year, that would undoubtedly be it,” hesaid.

Finstad said the vendor also is developing a “Web jump”capability that will enable users to view carrier informationwithout exiting QuickFile. When viewing policy information in aclient's file, a user will be able to click a button “and it willlaunch you directly to the Internet site for that carrier and takeyou directly to that client and straight to that policy,” hesaid.

The QuickFile system sells for $629 per year per office, Finstadsaid, with no additional charge per user. The company downloadmodule costs an additional $149, and online hosting is availablefor $150 per year.

Strategic Insurance Software Inc.
(www.sisware.com)
Strategic Insurance Software's new Partner XE system is expected tobe nearing launch about the time this article appears, according toMark Miller, SIS's chief operating officer.

The vendor's current system, Partner 6.2, is not offered in atrue ASP hosted format, Miller said. Partner XE, on the other hand,can be purchased as a hosted system or users can install the systemon their own local servers, he said.

“We took everything that we learned through Partner over thepast 10 years and went back to the drawing board,” Miller said.“What resulted was a much more scaleable solution (i.e., a systemthat can easily and economically accommodate a large number ofadditional users and multiple locations).”

Compared with Partner 6.2, Miller said, the Partner XE systemoffers stronger support of commercial lines, a more powerfulaccounting package, tighter integration with Microsoft OfficeSuite, and a more streamlined navigation system. Partner XE hasgreater document imaging capabilities, he added, but also willintegrate with third-party document management systems.

For the past year, SIS has used a series of “Web events” to keepclients informed about the new system, Miller said. A majority ofPartner 6.2 users have expressed interest in migrating to the newsystem when it becomes available, he said. “We're excited todemonstrate how well it performs and are expecting to generate alot of new interest from the marketplace.”

Like Partner 6.2, Partner XE will enable users to conductreal-time transactions with carriers via the vendor's WebLinkservice. Among other things, agents can use the service to sendinsurers electronic payments; quote and submit business; and viewdec pages, billing status and claim status. As of last month,Miller said, the service could access 12 carriers: Arbella, Celina,EMC, Grange, Integrity Mutual, Ohio Casualty, Drive fromProgressive, State Auto Insurance, Westfield and FrankenmuthMutual.

Last year SIS released its Data Service and Print Serviceproducts, which are geared primarily to carriers. The Data Servicetransforms AL3 to ACORD XML, and vice versa. Carriers can use thePrint Service to enable their agents to access any P&C ACORDform as well as company-specific applications and supplementalforms, via the carriers' Web site. “You feed it AL3 or XML (data)and you can produce a PDF of a form,” Miller said. Besides offeringthe Print Service product to insurers, he added, “We've hadinterest from large agencies that want to use it internally.”

XDimensional Technologies
(www.xdti.com)
XDimensional Technology's Nexsure agency managmement system isaimed at national and regional brokers and large agencies,according to President Bob Juracka. He defined the typical user asa member of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, whichendorses the system. Juracka said the latest major enhancement tothe system was the addition of a “market analysis” function, whichcan help brokers document that they made a diligent search of themarketplace on a client's behalf and demonstrate why the brokerselected the quote the client received.

Investigations over the past two years into broker behavior byNew York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and other state attorneysgeneral and regulators have underscored the desirability ofcreating such documentation; but until recently the process wasmanual, Juracka said, “and I think many would admit that the laborinvolved made it impractical.”

Juracka said that for a given line of insurance, a Nexsure usercan activate the market analysis function to compare different“iterations” of coverage. A broker might submit a risk to three orfour carriers. Each would be given its own marketing record withinthe system. The market analysis tool creates “an unlimitedside-by-side column view of all of these would-be policies, maybecomparing them against the in-force policy.” Juracka said.“Wherever there is a difference (in limits, deductibles, rates,etc.), it highlights it in red text. Users also can compress theview, to show only coverage differences.”

At the end of the analysis, the broker is prompted to select awinner, and provide additional detail backing up the choice,Juracka said. The completed analysis is then permanently attachedto the client's file.

“If two years down the line, someone asks, 'Why did you sellthis policy? It cost more than some of the others,' you can go backto the market analysis and … say, 'The policy was a little moreexpensive, but it provided a much better combination ofcoverages.'”

Nexsure uses the Microsoft .net operating system and ACORD XMLstandards. Since its inception, it has been offered only as an ASPsystem. “It's not something that we're close-minded about,” Jurackasaid. “We just have not had a client that has decided to take itprivate.”

The Nexsure system gives users the ability to conduct real-timetransactions directly with carriers, Juracka said. No translation“middleware” is required, he said, adding that Nexsure “natively”wants to communicate in ACORD XML, which is used for most real-timetransactions. Just about any kind of transaction can be conductedin real-time via the system, Juracka said. Without the need for anintermediary to enable such transactions, he said, “It's up to theagency and the carriers they represent to decide what they want totackle.”

XDimensional Technologies is majority-owned by the HartfordFinancial Services Group. Recently Choicepoint bought a minorityshare of the business. One result is that Choicepoint's menu ofservices is being embedded in the Nexsure system, Juracka said.Without leaving it, users authorized to do so by their carrierswill be able to seamlessly access Choicepoint's MVRs, creditreports and other products, he said.