TECHNOLOGY
AMS Services launches a new management system and real-time inquiry capability to help agents work smarter
By Nancy Doucette
Pictured in the conference room at AMS Services' Windsor, Connecticut, headquarters are some of those involved in bringing AMS 360 and TransactNOW to market. They include (seated from left): Mike Krassner, vice president of sales; and Paul Gallagher, vice president of development. Standing from left are: John Day, senior vice president; Dave Shea, president and CEO; and Hugh Anderson, director of interface and integration solutions.
Somewhere in every agency owner's game plan is a rendition of these three goals: to be more profitable, to interface with more carriers, and to manage the agency more effectively. Dave Shea, president and CEO of AMS Services Agency Markets, learned that first-hand as he visited with AMS customers around the country since joining the vendor in July 2002. Shea says that those goals can now be accomplished more readily, thanks to the new AMS products that he unveiled during the AMS Users' Group 27th National Conference this past March. And, he continues, judging from attendee reactions, users seem to agree.
While one of the products was in development well before Shea arrived at AMS, the other was set in motion based on those initial customer visits. Both are based on current technology, although Shea emphasizes the value of the solutions to agencies as the most important point.
AMS 360™ has been in development for a couple of years. Described as the next generation of AfW, AMS 360 is a "brand new management system built from the ground up," according to Mike Krassner, vice president of sales for AMS Services. New though it is, AMS 360 retains the "heart and soul" of AfW, according to Shea. "AfW is a market leading product; we didn't lose sight of that in developing AMS 360."
Krassner elaborates: "Even though we used elements of the AfW database, we re-architected the indexing system. We re-architected the user interface. So this is a built-from-the-ground-up system. From a development standpoint, AMS 360 is new."
And to emphasize the newness of this management system product--in a subtle way--AMS chose to name it AMS 360, rather than something including AfW. "With AMS 360, we're addressing across-the-business needs for agencies--and that's very different from what management systems have done in the past. Therefore the change to AMS 360," Shea explains.
Employing Microsoft's .NET technology, AMS 360 is able to make the most of Web services and the Internet, while providing new tools and improved workflow in the process. "While .NET is an important tool, it's the means to a potential end," Shea says. "In between, we as a vendor have to develop the tools, the workflow, the functionality that customers need to be successful. If we don't do that, .NET is meaningless. The technology isn't what we're delivering. The solution is what we're delivering. AMS 360 has set the standard for solutions in this market."
In addition to the creative efforts of the Bothell, Washington-based software development team, headed by Second Vice President Doug Dixon, the development process also involved the 20-person AMS Users' Group AfW Research and Development Committee. "We were included every step of the way," notes Mike Randles, chair of the committee during the development of AMS 360.
Paul Gallagher, vice president of development, explains that this development effort was indeed different from others. "In the past, we'd ask the users' group to share its needs and we'd share what we were working on. With AMS 360, we asked the users' group for their help with the actual development of the product. We wanted them to stay close to us the whole way." Occasionally that meant daily conversations about a certain aspect of the product, allowing for adjustments along the way. "Through this process, we're able to deliver exactly what the users are looking for."
Randles, who's been involved with the R&D committee off and on for about 10 years, says the level of user involvement this time was unprecedented. "AMS included us not just on the idea side but on a hands-on basis. We had a communications area at the AMSUG site where AMS would post a screen sample and ask for our input. Then they'd ask us to compare that first rendering with another and choose which we preferred. The 20-member committee represents agencies of varying sizes from around the country ... from a three-person shop to an agency that has 100 locations. Additionally, we had on-site meetings, conference calls and WebEx sessions.
"In the past," he continues, "months might pass between us sharing an idea and when the preview was ready. Time was lost if the development effort wasn't exactly as envisioned. This time, no time was lost. The development process went faster and was more accurate."
Randles says AMS invited input from the R&D committee "from scratch," asking early on for the group's dreams and wishes with respect to management system capabilities. "They didn't want our Cadillac or Lexus dreams," Randles says with a laugh. "They wanted our Land Rover and Rolls Royce dreams. AMS wanted us to really stretch and go in directions where management systems hadn't gone before."
What resulted is a system that anticipates what the user wants. "Unlike previous management system products where the user would say: 'give me this,' or 'tell me that,' AMS 360 says to you: 'Here's what you need to know and here are the things that you need to be aware of,' so that you can manage your agency by exception," Krassner explains.
From a management perspective, Randles says this capability would be helpful in staying on top of bank accounts, for example. He says "alerts" could be set up in the system to inform key people when an account gets to a certain balance. For instance, if the balance drops to $5,000, the alert would be activated so funds could be transferred. He says alerts will also help key people keep track of production goals with specific carriers. Suppose the agency wants to write 100 policies a month with XYZ carrier. The alert would be activated if that goal weren't met. "This is different from setting up a suspense that reminds me to check to see if we've sold 100 policies for XYZ carrier," Randles points out. "Agencies have never had such a powerful tool to help them manage their business." Some alerts are built into Version 1 of AMS 360--principally in the financial area. The R&D committee is working closely with AMS to develop a full alert system. Once that's complete, users will be able to activate an alert for essentially any activity or predefined milestone, as well as select how and to whom that alert will be sent.
Krassner notes that managers no longer have to run full reports to get the details they're interested in. AMS 360 offers a "quick report" feature that provides real-time line of business information for a specific carrier, for instance. The information is displayed as a chart or graph. He says managers can get quick reports on the agency's personal/commercial split, or the top producers with a particular carrier and how much business they've produced. Managers can manipulate the date range or make a year-to-year comparison.
The system's "smart buttons" anticipate the steps in certain accounting transactions and carry out tasks in the background so the user doesn't need to understand the accounting ramifications. For instance, if the agency receives an NSF check, Krassner says just about anybody can handle the transaction because the system does all the reversing entries behind the scenes.
"AMS 360 enables tasks to be reallocated," Randles points out. "This product hasn't simply enhanced workflows; it's changed workflows," he continues. "Agencies can rethink tasks--who's doing what. Because the AMS 360 product is so intuitive, individuals who haven't done certain tasks in the past now can."
AMS 360 is designed around "centers" that relate to the various parts of an agency's operation: customer, financial, banking, broker, user, employee, company, sales, and vendor. During the setup process, the agency determines which employees have access to which centers. If an individual doesn't need access to the financial center, for instance, that center isn't displayed on that individual's screen.
The sales center in the AMS 360 product includes some new functionality that enables managers to make decisions about the sales efforts that they're embarking on, Krassner explains. Market penetration, for example. AMS 360 enables managers to look at a target list and plot on a map--with a pushpin icon--every person who meets the criteria the manager has defined. So if the effort is to up-sell these individuals, the producer clicks on the pushpin--which provides a hyperlink to the customer's account--to get more information. Or if the appointment is already set, the producer clicks to launch a Web service--Microsoft's MapPoint®--to get directions.
And while the Internet provides access to tremendous resources, the issue of security can't be ignored. Krassner points out that AMS' ASP products are protected behind multiple firewalls. "Everything that we send across the Internet is SSL encrypted," he explains. "An agency's data isn't going out there raw."
AMS 360 is available now as an ASP version for new AMS customers only. By mid-2004, the product will be available to AfW Online customers, and finally to AfW in-house users. User interest in AMS 360 in the demo area at the conference seems to have translated to a surge in customers moving to the online version of AfW, according to Dave Shea. "In the 30 days following the unveiling of AMS 360, more customers moved from in-house to online than any other comparable period in the history of the product."
Real-time inquiry
In asking the R&D Committee for its big dreams and wishes, it was no surprise that "true" single entry was among them. "I want to be able to click on a policy number, click 'inquire,' and get a company billing," Randles explains. "In AMS 360, I'll be able to get it. It's integrated with other AMS management systems, but it's embedded in AMS 360."
The "it" that Randles is referring to is one of the other products that Dave Shea unveiled at the conference: TransactNOW™. TransactNOW enables users of AMS management system products to stay in their management system and conduct interface communication with carriers by connecting with the carrier Web site. The TransactNOW launch offered two transactions--billing inquiry and claims inquiry--through eight carriers--Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Encompass Insurance, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Kemper Auto and Home, Progressive Insurance, SAFECO Property and Casualty Insurance Companies, The St. Paul Companies, and Travelers Property Casualty.
What's key here is that logins and passwords are input once. Of course they have to be updated according to carrier requirements--but the time-consuming task of inputting logins and passwords each time a user visits a company Web site is greatly reduced.
AMS customers simply go to TransactNOW.com and download a browser plug-in--similar to downloading an Acrobat Reader. The user creates the TransactNOW master login and password. A box opens and there's a list of all the available carriers. There's a space for the user login and password for each of those carriers. Once that information is in place, it's encrypted and TransactNOW is ready to use.
"TransactNow is a Web service," Mike Krassner points out. "The integration of TransactNOW into AMS 360 delivers a practical interface workflow. It lets agencies integrate with TransactNOW in a truly seamless way." And while TransactNOW isn't embedded in the other AMS management system products, its integration nonetheless streamlines the workflow.
"During visits with many customers shortly after I joined AMS," Shea recalls, "it was clear that carrier/agent communication was an area that AMS needed to focus on. We realized the existing options in the market wouldn't allow us to implement at the speed agencies required. Therefore, we wanted to find an interface solution that was practical and that could be deployed quickly to carriers and agents. That focus set the stage for our development effort resulting in TransactNOW."
Shea credits John Day, senior vice president of carrier industry relations, and Hugh Anderson, director of interface and integration solutions, plus AMS's partner BCF Technologies, with getting TransactNOW to market in such short order. Day joined AMS in October 2002. He's spent "a lot of years" in the insurance automation area--and he's been involved in all segments of the industry--agent, consultant, company representative, and vendor representative. Anderson joined AMS soon after Day. He's another veteran of insurance automation--with extensive knowledge of the carrier community. By January 2003, Day and Anderson were taking their concept to carriers.
Development of TransactNOW also relied heavily on user input, according to Shea--specifically, the SEMCI Reform Petition that the AMS Users' Group posted at the AMS Users' Group Web site. Some 2,100 users--about 29% of the organization's total membership--signed the petition. The petition called for, among other things, real-time inquiry via a streamlined workflow resulting in a seamless process.
The quick report feature in the financial center of AMS 360 provides a snapshot of information that affects the bottom line. "Managers no longer have to run full reports to get the details they're interested in."
--Mike Randles
In addition to signatures, the petition asked signers to provide specific agency data to illustrate the impact of their business on the carriers. As he examined the findings of the survey, Day says, he was able to learn which carriers were most important to AMS customers and which transactions took up the greatest amount of the agency's time. "Turns out that 60% of a CSR's time is spent on billing and claims inquiries," he reports. Based on figures reflected in the survey, it's estimated that AMS users collectively process 106,000 billing inquiries and 74,000 claims inquiries daily. "Rating and quoting represents about 10%. The majority of the remaining time is taken up by endorsement activity." Knowing what transactions are important to AMS users and which carriers they do the most with enabled Day to deliver a product that's meaningful to the customers.
"AMS wants to focus on interface leadership," Shea explains. "TransactNOW will help us get there rapidly. We're still supportive of IVANS Transformation Station, IVANS WebSEMCI, and direct ACORD standard XML. We'll make those interfaces where carriers want them."
But what does this array of options mean from an agent's perspective? Some carriers prefer Transformation Station; some prefer TransactNOW. Hasn't the process just gotten more complicated?
Shea says no. "While we can make TransactNOW integrate more easily than some of the other methodologies, whether the user is doing an inquiry through Transformation Station or TransactNOW, our focus is enabling the communication with the carrier as seamlessly as possible."
Mike Krassner explains that users of AMS 360 see a small TransactNOW icon beside the policy numbers written through companies that participate in TransactNOW. The symbol doesn't appear next to a policy number if the carrier isn't participating in TransactNOW--which also speaks to any workflow concerns about figuring out which carriers participate in TransactNOW and which participate in Transformation Station. He points out that the TransactNOW workflow is simple and straightforward. The user clicks on the carrier name. A dialog box containing two check boxes appears. The user selects billing inquiry or claims inquiry. The user doesn't have to enter a policy number, log in or enter an ID. The information is available, real-time, in about 10 seconds.
"TransactNOW is attractive to carriers for a couple of reasons," Shea explains. "The solution takes advantage of investments carriers already made so there is little development. In addition, the solution for a carrier can be deployed rapidly once they have agreed to adopt TransactNOW. The long development cycles of some options are eliminated. That makes sense for our carrier partners. Our agencies get a seamless, practical workflow implemented quickly.
"Again, the issue isn't the technology employed. It's the solution delivered--solving the problem. And the problem is communication between carriers and agents. Eight carriers, two transactions--those are steps toward solving the problem. We'll add more carriers and transactions as quickly as possible," Shea says.
"The technology isn't what we're delivering. The solution is what we're delivering. We as a vendor have to develop the functionality that customers need to be successful."
--Dave Shea
In the first 30 days of TransactNOW's being available, 1,000 agencies signed up for it. By mid-April, about 1,000 inquiries a day were being processed. And in response to user requests for a seamless process, TransactNOW uses a style sheet to present the inquiry information. An AfW user, for instance, sees the inquiry information in an AfW view. So even though the information is being pulled from the carrier Web site, the user experience is consistent with the management system view. And once the CSR has responded to the client billing or claim inquiry, the CSR closes the TransactNOW window and is still in the management system, ready to resume the task that the CSR was working on. "It's the practical, effective workflow users have been asking for," Day says.
The software that hooks up the management systems to the carrier Web sites is run from AMS's College Station, Texas, data center. And with a high number of agencies already having always-on, high-speed connectivity, agency technology requirements are minimal, according to Day.
In the TransactNOW booth in the demo area at the conference last March, AMS customers eagerly added more carrier names and transaction requests to a wish list that's serving as the basis for the ongoing TransactNOW development effort. At the ACORD Conference in May, AMS announced the availability of the policy view capability and added more carriers--this time focusing more on the regionals.
Day says AMS is working with the newly formed TransactNOW R&D committee on getting endorsement activity added to TransactNOW. Part of that effort, of course, depends on its being available at the carrier Web site. If things go as planned, though, Day says AMS will be able to show some good endorsement activity--and add more carriers to the list of those supporting TransactNOW--at the IIABA InfoXchange in September.
"We're starting to see some things come to fruition that we've been dreaming about for the last 10 to 15 years," Mike Randles concludes.
"AMS wants to help independent agencies increase their revenue stream and profits," Shea explains. "AMS 360 delivers functionality that helps agencies be more effective. TransactNOW addresses the transactions that have taken a CSR from 10 to 20 minutes each and makes it possible to conduct these billing and claims inquiries in seconds. These tools create more efficiency for the agency, and that's just the beginning!" *
For more information:
AMS 360
Contact: Tim Tracey
Phone: (860) 602-2158
E-mail: ttracey@amsworld.com
Web site: www.ams-services.com
TransactNOW
Contact: Hugh Anderson
Phone: (860) 602-2506
E-mail: handerson@amsworld.com
Web site: www.ams-services.com