Insurance agencies all around the world strive daily to be more productive, efficient, and effective in their respective markets. But it’s not always easy to boost these traits organically.
Fortunately, there is a software system specifically designed for insurance agencies that can help you achieve all you want to in your workdays. It does this by automating tasks, organizing data, providing essential reports and analytics, and performing countless other tasks in a smarter-not-harder process.
Let’s look more closely at what agency management software is before exploring its assets, benefits, and providers.
What is an agency management system?
Agency Management Software, or AMS, is a form of Software as a Service, or SaaS, technology that digital companies use to run their businesses more effectively. It helps insurance agencies organize their book of business and daily operations. The software service is designed to work in specific niches of the insurance industry. Some of these niches include life, health, property, and casualty.
What are the features of an AMS?
AMS provides insurance agencies with many different benefits. Some of these features include customer relationship management services, marketing automation, data management, payment processing, and much more.
Here are some of its features:
- Customer relationship management software, or CRM software, helps your company develop better knowledge of–and relationships with–your customers by anticipating their needs, speeding up communications, and protecting data privacy.
- Marketing automation gives you the ability to generate more high-quality leads in a shorter timeframe by automating time-consuming tasks and aligning marketing and sales goals more effectively.
- Data management and storage is another excellent AMS feature because it provides a layer of data security and organization of critical material. Additionally, it allows you to better understand your clients by segmenting them into specific groups for better targeting advertising responses.
- With payment processing systems, insurance agencies can conduct transactions with a significantly reduced factor of human error, lowered labor costs, increased cash flow, and a more straightforward method of operating payment functions.
- Sales team support increases the amount of overall business you can do because your sales team will be enabled to work more efficiently when preparing sellers, developing leads, and training new sales members. It can increase the speed of sales you make while lowering costs as well.
- Detailed reports and analytics allow you to not only understand the data your business processes on a daily basis, but it also provides a level of personalization and proactivity by running that data through detailed analytics to optimize and improve both your and the customer’s experience with your business.
- Business process management, like many other features on this list, exponentially increases your business’s efficiency by helping you manage and standardize your work processes. It helps cut down on the risk of human error and helps you develop a solid work model.
What are its benefits?
As you can already tell, AMS has many benefits that insurance companies should take full advantage of. It simplifies your workload, streamlines communication, and helps your business run more smoothly on virtually every front. Here are just a few of the top ways AMS can benefit you:
- It centralizes customer files.
- It improves E&O documentation.
- It provides extensive reporting capabilities.
- It allows you to download policy information and automate invoicing.
- It provides financial reporting.
- It allows for integration with 3rd party applications.
- It has the enhanced ability to cross-sell and re-market.
- It features improved profitability and professionalism.
- It allows for real-time interactions that make your life easier.
7 best agency management software for insurance agencies
There are many high-quality AMS providers on the market today, including Applied Epic, AMS360, QQCaalyst, Revetree, EZLynx, and Sagitta.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these companies, delving into their unique platforms, features, and a pros and cons list that can help you choose the best AMS system for your insurance agency.
1. Better Agency
Better Agency provides independent agents with the tools they need to successfully run their businesses as efficiently as possible. It’s the first sales-driven insurance AMS of its kind, and it offers customers hundreds of different automation options to make using their system a breeze.
| Features | • Over 100 different automation campaigns for sales, service, claims, and renewals • Contact Management • Sales Tools • Tracking Features • Data Management • Claims and Policy Management • Workflow Management • Contact Management • Data and Analytics • Sales Team Support • Individual User Profiles • Email Marketing |
| Pros | ✅ No long-term contract requirements ✅ AMS can integrate with other tools and systems ✅ More automation options with campaigns than other AMS providers ✅ Short onboarding period |
| Cons | ❌ Add-ons can be more expensive starting out |
2. Applied Epic
Applied Epic is a cloud-based agency management system that connects digital technology with new opportunities to provide customers with better service and agencies with a better way of managing their day-to-day functions.
| Features | • Contact Management • Sales Tools • Payment Processing • Task Management • Reporting & Dashboards • Email Integration • Claims Management • Policy Management • Invoicing & Receipts • Contact Management • Commissions • Accounting Services |
| Pros | ✅Reporting features are excellent ✅Access to complete business and customer integration ✅High-response customer service |
| Cons | ❌ Add-ons are costly, ❌ Inputting information is time-consuming, ❌ Timed notifications are not available for meetings |
3. AMS360
AMS360 has been North America’s leading InsurTech for more than 50 years. It modernizes services and distribution with the help of 20,000 agencies, 1,000 carriers, and 23 state governments.
| Features | • Accounting • Commissions • Reporting & Dashboards • Email Integration • Contact Management • Sales Tools • Payment Processing • Task Management • Claims Management • Invoicing & Receipts • Policy Management • Electronic Signatures |
| Pros | ✅ It’s a very intuitive AMS--incredibly user-friendly. ✅ Integration processes are straightforward so that businesses save hours of input time. |
| Cons | ❌ Its reporting capabilities are not as good as some other AMSs provide. ❌ Reporting on employee licensing data is insufficient. |
4. QQCatalyst
QQCatalyst provides businesses with simplified client and policy management systems and marketing automation features that allow customers and agents to built strong working relationships.
| Features | • Agency Intelligence • Sales Pipeline • Employee Productivity Monitoring • Client Management • Policy Management • Customizable Dashboards • Guided Workflows • Texting Integration • Email Integration • Digital File Management |
| Pros | ✅ Clearly policy records ✅ Multiple simultaneous file uploads ✅ Customizable dashboards |
| Cons | ❌ The platform is not as modern as other AMSs ❌ Direct customer-agent contact cannot be processed through QQCatalyst. |
5. Ravetree
Ravetree is another AMS that helps insurance agents do their work more quickly and efficiently. It features an interface that encourages communication between customers and agents. Additionally, it provides users with intuitive software options that allow companies to focus on small details while achieving their big-picture goals.
| Features | • Clean System • Easy Implementation • Project Management • Customer Service • Straightforward Integration • Support Services • Time Tracking • Date Tracking • Policy Management • Data Management |
| Pros | ✅ Easy to use ✅ Customer service is excellent ✅ Task tracking systems are an easy way to understand what has been accomplished and what is left to do |
| Cons | ❌ Timesheets are buggy ❌ Logging information can take up a lot of time |
6. EZLynx
EZLynx is an AMS that allows agents to maximize on their own potential by allowing them to reach and generate new leads while the system processes day-to-day functions. It’s a web-based system based out of Texas.
| Features | • Text Integration • Email Integration • Data Management • Email Marketing • Policy Management • Quoting • Customer Service |
| Pros | ✅ The site features many additional bells and whistles, but they can be costly ✅ It’s easy to input data ✅ Allows for seamless workflow |
| Cons | ❌ There is no method within the AMS for finding created documents ❌ Customer tracking within the system is difficult ❌ Search functions are subpar ❌ Email marketing is difficult to set up |
7. Sagitta
Sagitta is a web-based insurance management solution that allows your company to grow mainly through acquisitions and other traditional methods. It can be specialized for specific lines of business or insurance.
| Features | • Agency Management • Information Gathering • Data Management • Invoicing & Receipts • Police Management • Tracking Features • Workflow Management |
| Pros | ✅ Information gathering is well laid out and easy to understand ✅ Easy to create and print certificates ✅ Easy to add holders to insurance policies ✅ Easy to keep track of all kinds of information |
| Cons | ❌ The system has many technical issues and freezes a lot ❌ Forms are not up-to-date ❌ Information added to the system may be lost |
Key takeaways
Agency management software is an excellent tool that more insurance companies should be taking advantage of. It provides users with a way to increase their business’ overall performance through streamlining communications, providing data management and analytics, and enabling you to automate monotonous daily tasks.
But more than that, it increases the overall efficiency of your agency so that you can provide the best, most timely service for your customers.
For more information about our insurance management software and how it can make a difference for your business, schedule a call with Better Agency today.