AMS HEARS ITS CUSTOMERS'
CALL TO ARMS

"AMS will have thousands of additional agencies ready for SEMCI implementation, on current technology platforms and with
a standard, yet flexible, upload solution."

AMS has long been a strong supporter and proponent of SEMCI. We have worked hard to enable our agency customers to take advantage of the efficiencies of electronic data interchange. AMS was a catalyst in the formation of the Alliance for Productive Technology and, as a founding member, has supported the efforts of APT to accomplish standardized, cost effective uploading of insurance transactions from agents to companies.

In 1997, AMS has moved more aggressively than ever before to help bring SEMCI to a larger group of our customers. At the National AMS Users' Group Conference in New Orleans last February, we announced that we will provide a free license for the APT Stand Alone Module™ (used for upload) to 2,000 of our agency customers. To date, over one thousand have signed up!

We have also made great strides toward accommodating the thousands of agents countrywide running all different vendor systems which cannot be made Year 2000 compliant. This means that within the year, AMS will have thousands of additional agencies ready for SEMCI implementation, on current technology platforms and with a standard, yet flexible, upload solution.

We expect these two actions to provide the momentum needed to help carriers recognize that the critical mass is now in place and that a rollout of this standard approach to electronic upload will begin in 1997. We anticipate that AMS agents will have a significant volume of upload transactions going to insurance companies in 1998.

To expedite this acceptance by carriers, AMS has signed an agreement with BWC Systems to facilitate data integration between the APT SAM (upload module) and AMS agency systems. BWC has helped many insurance carriers achieve their current levels of progress by providing the ability to receive and process records coming through APT to the company policy processing systems. Having BWC involved in our development effort will strengthen the data integration we'll be able to achieve while shortening the time period needed. Since companies recognize that BWC knows the needs of both sides of the process, we expect this involvement to encourage carriers to become even more enthusiastic.

The AMS Users' Group is also devoting time and resources to this effort. Another announcement at the National Conference introduced the Users' Group's new Industry Affairs Committee. This committee, chaired by Southgate Jones (a former IIAA president), speaks to the industry with the combined voices of more than 10,000 AMS agency systems users. One of the committee's initial charters is to use this combined voice to actively encourage insurance companies to participate in the SEMCI initiative.

AMS had many discussions with the Users' Group prior to the formation of this committee. In determining the need for such a group, Southgate commented, "In our many regular discussions with insurance company representatives, we are discovering a strong interest in learning more about the real automation problems of independent agents and brokers and in becoming actively involved in the search for real solutions." AMS is excited about this new opportunity for the Users' Group to be recognized as an industry force. We look forward to working with them as they help create momentum and awareness throughout the industry.

Our strategy represents a multi-million-dollar investment and demonstrates AMS's commitment to jump starting a production electronic upload. We hope this will send a clear signal to APT member companies that the industry is finally ready for SEMCI to happen on a large scale. *