Still to this day agencies are asking for my help in reviewing agency management systems. It’s not easy to wade through the different systems trying to figure out which one will truly provide the greatest financial advantage to the agency. That’s because there are so many things to consider.

 

When I help an agency review systems I look at a lot of things.  Once I understand the agency, what they sell, their market place, their goals and a number of other things I then analyze the agency management systems and their ability to meet the needs of the agency. 

 

Now, you'll notice, my focal point is on areas that deal with a CSR's day to day workload.  I don't spend very much time reviewing "whistles and bells" (those extra's) because when it comes to automating your agency it's the system's ability to effectively and quickly handle your staff's day to day work that will make the biggest difference, the biggest impact in your agency.   Here's are some of the things I’ll look at …

 

 

* The database the system uses. This could be Access, Paradox, Omnis or SQL to name a few.  Believe me, the database used is very important.  Just ask your IT person. 

 

Because the database is so important I’m in the process of writing an article on this very point which I’ll publish soon.

 

* The data-entry windows and how they’re laid out … do they flow fluently?  Does it make sense?  Is doing the data-entry easy?

 

 

* The ability to service more than one client and one policy at the same time.  Because the average CSR will be servicing more than one client at the same time, or will handle more than one process at the same time, can the system accomodate this?!

 

 

Outstanding work like Follow Ups to questions, or endorsements you've submitted, or renewals you're working on but are waiting for someone to do a task before you can finish it, does the system give you the ability to stay on top of these items easily?  With all of the different areas of a system that tracks "work in progress" items, does the system help you stay on top of all of these areas and make sure things don't slip through your fingertips?

 

Too often the agency just accepts that the system handles follow ups and staying on top of different tasks, but it's not until you actually see exactly how the system manages outstanding tasks that you can establish if that systems methods are acceptable to your agency.

 

 

 

For example, when you call the carrier do you have all carrier follow ups at your fingertips so you can handle multiple client issues with the carrier at the same time?  Or when submitting policies to multiple carriers does the submission process give you the ability to send them all at the same time with the right information being included for each carrier? 

 

This is just 2 examples of hundreds of ways a CSR's job could be improved upon and done faster.  What task are you doing many times a day that could be automated?

 

* Can the CSR find what they're looking for?  When the user needs to find a record or a policy, how easy is it to do that?  There are so many ways a CSR or staff person will be searching for a record, can the system find the records in all of these ways? 

 

For commercial lines, can I search by the contact name?  Can I search by the policy number, or even just a partial policy number, but have the choice of either pulling up the client record or the policy?

 

In the same respect, you're constantly adding notes, follow-ups, attachments, correspondence, etc. to the system.  If you need to find a specific note or a specific attachment, how easy is that done?

 

* I spend a tremendous amount of time analyzing the workflow (the steps to process a task) because it’s here where the rubber hits the road to increase an agency’s productivity. 

 

This is also one of the areas where you separate the “glorified database systems” from the true “agency management systems”. 

 

* I analyze how easy the system is to learn and use … is it common sense? Does it flow with the task? Are menu’s easy to understand? Can I quickly find the information I’m needing? 

 

Easy-to-use is the #1 request of the agency, and for good reason!  That's because, for starters, it takes agency resources to train someone how to use a system.  Some systems are so complex it's taking CSR's up to 9 months to effectively use the system … that's just down right unacceptable!

 

Along with analyzing how easy a system is to learn and use, I analyze the training the vendor offers.  Some methods are far better than others, and certain types help the staff retain the information better which reduces the overall cost to training.

 

 

My experience has been that the more single entry the system the more expensive the system because of how much more programming is required and because it’s cutting costs to the agency. Not being single-entry is a huge factor in how many CSR’s you’ll need due to the wasted time of re-entering information already in the system into the system again in another area. That’s not good!

 

If a vendor isn't building into the system workflows and the ability to carry data to other areas of the system so you're not re-entering information already in the system, all you're going to have is a glorified database system, and there are quite a few of these on the market today.  These are the low-cost systems.

 

 

* I review the steps it takes to process different tasks like doing a renewal or handling an endorsement.

 

* Going paperless. If the agency is paperless (or wanting to go paperless), I carefully analyze the systems ability to allow the agency to accomplish this and what the process is to accomplish this. You’d be surprised how different the systems are in this area.

 

* I also review how the system handles downloaded data … does it update policy information, for example. 

 

There are quite a few areas I analyze here because if the system doesn’t handle the downloaded data properly then it’s going to cost you a lot of time fixing the problems created.

 

* I analyze how the system handles personal lines policies, commercial lines policies and packages. It’s truly amazing how very few systems properly handle commercial lines forcing the agency to hire more commercial lines CSR’s than necessary.

 

 

 

It’s quite a process to help an agency review automation systems, especially when you do it thoroughly and do it right.  It's about time the agency is educated on how to compare the differences between systems so the agency can make a good decision on an agency management system. 

 

Unfortunately, because agencies aren't educated in this area (and this industry seems to be very biased) and because of the complexity of management systems and all of the areas you really need to analyze to make a good decision on a system, it doesn’t surprise me to see agencies simply buy the cheapest system. Many figure that this will at least get them started and then down the road they can upgrade to a better system.

 

While I understand why they do this, in reality this isn’t a very good idea for four key reasons: 

 

1)  When you upgrade to a better system you’ll be faced with a data conversion which is an additional cost. 

 

You’ll want to make sure you plan for this by finding out how difficult it is to get the data out of the system you're on and what formats are available.  I know of a few systems that getting the information out of is either very difficult along with being incomplete or is very expensive.  Remember, this is YOUR data!

 

When converting to a new system, how much data in your current system do you want to carry forward to the new system?  Are you able to get ALL of your data?  Is there a cost to get your data?  Don't you agree that knowing this upfront would be a good idea?  Here's why …

 

The reality is, the average life cycle of an agency on a management system is 6.5 years so regardless to which system you purchase you should find out this information upfront.

 

2)  If you purchase a system that's "hosted only" or that you don't own because it's a subscription lease plan, you've just greatly affected what you'll have available to help you make the transition to the new system! 

 

Believe me, vendors who offer these types of systems are well aware of this and hope you'll conclude it's too much of a headache and loss of data to make the switch.  Thankfully there are still some systems that you can own and that you can install on your servers (or have hosted) based upon your needs, especially if you know you're going to be upgrading to a better system down the road.  Let me briefly explain why this is an issue.

 

Back in the old days we'd have the agency take the old system and keep it on the server so the staff could access it as needed.  The staff was continuously referencing the old system, especially in the first year.  They'd reference it for many different reasons …

 

* to fill in the blanks that the data conversion didn't populate or to get the information if they were manually populating the new system,

* to retrieve past term policies since the normal data conversion only converts active policies,

* to access payment history for agency bill clients and accounting details since you never convert accounting data but instead take the ending balances in your current system and make them the beginning balances of your new system. 

 

These are just a few reasons, but should be enough to help you realize how much of a disadvantage it is to your agency to not be able to reference the old system.

 

There's a lot more to this topic of why it's so much more advantageous to own your software so you're able to put it on the server for the staff to continue to reference as needed if you switch systems than what I'm sharing here.  For now I just want to introduce this point to you.  In a future article I'll cover this factor in much more detail.

 

By the way, as a side note, as a vendor ourselves we clearly understand the huge financial advantage gained by only offering a "subscription" plan.  However, they're not always in your best interest which is why I'm bluntly pointing them out here and will be offering a more detailed article on them in the future. 

 

FYI, we do offer a purchase plan so you can own the software.  We have started an blog article that explains the different purchase options vendors use, their advantages and disadvanteges and what we're doing different that's more focused on meeting YOUR needs!

 

The bottom line is, you should be using a system because it's providing you with the results you want, not because a vendor has made it too hard to switch to a new, better system.  Make sense?

 

3)  It’s costing you upfront on your staff hours. My experience has been that the low-cost systems are not very efficient and require more CSR hours to do the total job.  Those additional hours are going against your agencies profitability.

 

You see, it’s easy to write a “feature-driven” system, or to write a glorified database. But it’s the system workflows and proper ways to process a task along with making the system single-entry that make the biggest difference and allow the agency to create a productive and efficient agency.

 

4)  The learning curve. Not only are you now needing to learn a new system, by switching systems you’ll be learning different ways to handle a task. 

 

The problem is the longer you do something one way the harder it will be to learn a different way even if it’s better. It’s the same with any software program … we all get comfortable with the one we use, even if it's not the best solution for us. 

 

For example, in the early 90’s I use to use Lotus AmiPro for my word processing while everyone else used either MS Word or WordPerfect. Even though MS Word really was becoming the standard, it was AmiPro that I was familiar with and therefore I had no intentions of switching because that would require me to learn a new system. Plus, with as busy as I was I simply didn’t have time to learn a new system.

 

Over the years I've heard many agencies say they just don't have the time to switch to the better system because they're too busy to learn a new system even if it is able to help each CSR manage more policies.  The fact is, they can't afford not too!  In future blogs on this topic I'll explain why.

 

Take the time to do your due diligence in analyzing and reviewing management systems.  It will pay off tremendously in the end.  Don't settle for just low-cost.  As you're going to learn in this series of blogs covering "How to Choose an Agency Management System", it's all about the results you gain from the management system. 

 

You're also going to learn and be proven that the upfront cost of a management system is really insignificant, that it's the ongoing costs that make the biggest difference in what the management system cost.  Have you noticed you can't hardly "purchase and own" a system any more, that almost all vendors have gone to a "subscription" based approach? 

 

There's a reason they've done that and in future blogs I'll be disclosing why.

 

In summary, it's the ongoing cost that establishes the true cost of the management system.  Add to this the results you gain from the management system (number of policies a CSR is capable of managing as one) and you establish your Return on Investment (ROI).  I will also be breaking this down for you in future blogs so you understand the significance of these factors.

 

As you can see, there is a lot to this topic.  This is just part 1 of an ongoing series to help the independent agency understand the factors associated to choosing a management system and how each of these factors play a role in helping your agency improve your financial profitability and help your agency get the job done. 

 

In the series we'll continue to break the process down, each of the factors down and show you how to effectively compare systems, including how to compare pricing which can be very misleading these days.

 

But remember, before an analysis can be done there needs to be a clear understanding of who you are as an agency … what Lines of Business do you sell?  Who's your market place?  What's your goals?  What's the budget for automation and staff?  What's the character of the owner?  What's the focus of the owner? 

 

This is the small list!  The point is, you must know who you are as an agency and the direction you're going before you can start the journey of reviewing systems. 

 

 

I hope you found this first blog to be a good opener to the topic of, "How to Choose an Agency Management System".

 

For more information about our agency management systems, you can go to our home page to request information.