decisions decisions - Applied or AMS 360

exclusions1 · Post by **exclusions1** » Thu May 11, 2006 12:09 pm

Sanddog, you've been around a long time, you of all people know you get what you pay for. Not all systems save automaticly especially Nexsure. You can't bounce in and out of clients files without having to save first. In Applied it mimimizes what you are working on so you can open up another clients, and when done just maximize the client you were working on. Nexsure didn't have professional proposals built in, Accurate reports Applied did. I didn't see Nexsure's name in any Best Practice agencies or Acord awards for company download/upload other than greatest increase. My staff said to me that Applied will save them hours a day. Those saving will minimize the cost of Applied. You like Nexsure my staff liked Applied. To each it's own.

PS. I talked to several agencies that went from Applied Systems to Nexsure and because Nexsure was new, promised features never showed up. Those agencies went back to Applied. Those agencies found out newest doesn't always get the job done.

Porter · Post by **Porter** » Thu May 11, 2006 12:53 pm

"You get what you pay for"? This is not always the case. You can go to Farmers Insurance and pay a lot and get less. Is Applied like a Farmers? (No value product with big name and big price). Or is Applied really great? What would I be losing, if anything, by going with Nexsure.

exclusions1 · Post by **exclusions1** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:01 am

Porter - I had 4 of my employees sit in on the 3 hour demo the Applied rep gave. They covered all the bases when I had them add a client of mines policy info in new and complete certs, change req's, proposals, binders etc. Applied seem to handle it smoother and more efficient than Nexsure (less clicks and saves )and AMS. Don't take my word on this, I used references and checked out IIABA's Best Practice survey which had Applied #1 and Acord which awarded Applied #1 in company interface to help make my decision. Ease of use, Applieds 25 year history, record with Best Practice and Acord and the best reason of all, my staff liked it better so they will use more of it. I felt I couldn't go wrong with Applied. Plus most of the CSRs I hire come from an Applied Agency so the learning curve is minimal. Think references, references, references.

Porter · Post by **Porter** » Wed May 31, 2006 1:11 pm

Has anyone every used Hawksoft? Any opinions? I have checked it out. It seems good and priced right.

Porter · Post by **Porter** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:59 pm

I checked Quickfile. 100% online. $928 per year. No monthly fees. It seems ok so far. Anyone have any opinions on them?

JoeIns · Post by **JoeIns** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:02 pm

I have been in the insurance business for 10 years as a direct writer and a broker. Currently I am working on starting an agency specializing in commercial insurance. The brokerage that I work for now is a large national company that uses applied (tam) in our office.

Reading some of the comments here and a couple other threads, along with going to a few agency software websites made me think that XDTI was something worth looking into so I sent them an email.

Here is the response that I received.

Thank you for your inquiry regarding XDimensional Technologies, and our Nexsure agency management solution. As an enterprise-class agency management system product, XDimensional Technologies has decided to market and license the Nexsure product to agencies that have a minimum of 10 users. This may change in the future, but at present, that is where our Sales and Implementation resources are directed. If you have any questions regarding this policy, or the company in general, you can contact our Executive VP of Sales, Bill Hunt, at bill.hunt@xdti.com, or at his direct office line of (860) 658-2179.

So, if anyone with smaller than 10 people in their agency was going to look into this I think we have our answer.

Personally, I can guarantee when my company is larger than 10 people I wont be seeking their assistance.

broberts · Post by **broberts** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:24 am

So what would be the concensus for a start-up agency considering cost/value? as well, it would be easier to start out right than to start out with a susb-system and switch later on.

CN1 · Post by **CN1** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:17 am

Porter, we sat for a Hawksoft presentation 2 years ago. It seemed hokey. I can't imagine they have decent tech support. AMS has horrible tech support. Applied is the best for that. I wouldn't get an online system because is sucks when the internet is down.

Bottom line - I am sure there is something horrible wrong with all of them.

slenard · Post by **slenard** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:19 pm

Wow, it seems the opinions are all over the board on this.

We too are looking at a system as a relatively new agency. We are currently looking into Agency Systems. Has anyone had any experience with them?

We are also looking at Applied and AMS. But, because Agency Systems was recommended by our EZLynx contact, we felt it would be worth our time. EZLynx has been the greatest thing we've done as an agency, so we give a lot of weight to their opinion.

Any thoughts on this company?

By the way, we are primarily a personal lines agency. Also, I understand that Instar is being taken over by AMS. We like AMS, but they seem to have a tendancy to let older systems die and introduce new versions with a new buy-in in order to change. That scares me a little.

pita3333 · Post by **pita3333** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:12 pm

AMS user here...and I love their support! I post a ticket and I have a phone call with a resolution within 1 hour...usually well under 1 hour in fact.

Also online...in two years online...have not had to deal with internet outage but 3 times and was fairly short in duration...if I went inhouse...would have to purchase a server....costed that out lately? (I have) Not to mention the convience of being able to work from home...