The Critiquing of Version 0.921
Posted by Bradley Chesnut on September 26, 2009 under Agency Management Systems, Desktop CSR, TIME System | 
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Since my last blog on critiquing the system when I critiqued version 0.7 back in May, we’ve had a tremendous amount of improvements to the system. If you read my last blog about covering "The Process of Writing a Management System" you know we’re now doing the front-end programming. That’s why it’s an exciting time… we’re seeing the pieces come together.
We're now at version 0.921. When I got version 0.91 I was jumping for joy. Then I did something for a select number of agencies that dropped their jaws to the floor they were so impressed.
To show some key people what we're creating, I did the first overview video I've ever done of the system.
For those I shared this video with, they all were saying the same kind of things … "Impressive beyond words", "Exactly what I'm looking for in a system", "I love how I can have multiple windows opened up at the same time" and other gloating comments like that. For most of the people I shared the 37 minutes of video with, this was their first real look at the system. The system was unquestionably far more impressive than they expected!
It all started by logging in which brings us to the Client Find window for the Desktop CSR. For the TIME System (will be released roughly 4-6 months after the Desktop CSR),depending on the users position with the agency and user setup, upon logging in the user will go to either their My Activities Page, their Management Hub page or to the Client Find window.
At the Client Find window I demo'd how easy it is to find that needle in a hay stack. That's because we built in over 34 ways to find the record (client, prospect or suspect) you're looking for. Watching the process and seeing how easy it is to find the record you're looking for and seeing how powerful our Find windows are jump started the overview video and got everyone very excited.
Then I blew everyone away. I showed them how they could open a Client Hub Record, task swap back to the Find window to find yet another record and open it up also. I showed how I could keep doing this as many times as I wanted to open up as many records as I wanted, and not just Client Hub records. I could also open up a staff record (Staff Hub), a carrier record (Carrier Hub) or any other Hub I wanted and have multiple windows opened up all at the same time. Nice, very nice!
At the Client Hub I then broke down the window to show why we designed it the way we did. It's logical and common-sense and had the viewers of the video continue to sit on the edge of their seat not wanting to miss a thing. Of course, with so much to share I have to admit I was also talking pretty fast too. Regardless, the design of the Client Hub is to help you do your job faster and more efficiently.
At the Client Hub I showed some of the amazing functionality our users will have at their fingertips. I showed them how they could more effectively service their clients without spending wasted time wading through information to find what they need to service them. This was another of those jaw dropping things I showed in the video.
One of the people who watched the video was telling me that about the time he thought it couldn't get more impressive I showed something else that had him once again shaking his head in total amazement! As he stated, "This is the kind of system you dream about but don't expect to experience. You really out-did yourself with this system."
The video was so captivating it was the shortest 37 minutes anyone had ever spent. The only bad part about the video was everyone wanted to see more.
The 37 minutes of video was broke down to 3 separate video's. Between them I showed the Client Hub, explained its design, explained our Service Tools, showed some amazing features when adding a new record, stepped through each of the carefully selected Tabs for the client record, and then for the clincher I showed the policy layout and design. Those who saw the video saw how fast and easy it is to pull up a package policy and have access to all sections. It was an "awe" moment!
Before I end this blog, let me share a few things about the Tabbed area of the Client Hub. They are a strategic design element to the Client Hub to make key information more readily available.
We carefully selected what would be included and the functionality each Tab would have. For example, we have a tab called "Contacts". Depending on whether the record is an Individual Record or Business Record determines what columns you'll see. By having Contacts in a tab you don't need to open up another window just to see the contacts for the record or get their contact information (phone #, email address, etc.). You can also add or edit a contact from here.
While you can't do everything available with a contact from the Contact Tab, having the contacts and their contact information readily available will be very advantageous in helping you service your client. For the more advanced features associated to a contact you'd go into the Contact Service Tool.
To further help you better and more quickly service your clients, we put Locations, Drivers and Vehicles in the Tabbed area. This way you don't need to go through the additional steps of opening up a policy to access these items. Take a Vehicle record for example. You can see the full vehicle detail information. If you need to pull up the policy for more information, it's just a hyperlink away. And, depending on whether you're on a Personal Lines record or Commercial Lines record will determine what information you'll see. You'll like what we've done here.
The fact is, the more information we put at your fingertips and the more functionality we offer you in these areas, the less steps you'll need to go through and the faster you'll be able to do your job so you can move on to the next insured that needs your help.
Realizing the fact that by putting more information at your fingertips requires less steps to access it, we were still very careful not to convolute the Client Hub window with non-essential information. We realize how important the "layout" of the window is and how this is a key part to creating a common-sense and easy to use system.
Like I've said all along, "Just wait until you see what Insurance Automation Consultants can design for an agency management system… you won't be disappointed".
We are Insurance Automation Consultants and agency automation is what we do!! I can't wait for you to have a demo of this system yourself and see just how amazing of a system it is.
At our home page for our agency management systems you'll find product information.
