We all know the story of Goldilocks and the three bears: Goldilocks tries out the bears’ food, chairs and beds and settles in to the items that are “just right.” When it comes to your agency management system, you need to be Goldilocks (minus the breaking and entering, of course). Don’t settle for a system that doesn’t offer all you want, or that gives you more than you need. You should be able to only pay for what you’ll use and cut out the “fat” of superfluous add-ons that will only add cost and weigh down your processes.
Some agency management systems may try to thrill you with all the bells and whistles—social media plug-ins, integrated mail merge, customized policy views, to name a few. While these may be useful tools to some agencies, they may not be useful for you. When presented with all these additions, think about whether or not your agency will use these capabilities and if so, how often. Even if a social media plug-in sounds like something you want to use, if you don’t have marketing personnel to use it you’ll be wasting your time and money.
You should be wary of providers that try to talk you in to capabilities you don’t need. Ultimately you should look for a provider with personalized customer service who will be honest with you about your agency’s needs and capabilities. No matter what capabilities you choose, make sure you educate yourself on how to use them so your investment doesn’t go to waste.
As you take a look at different capabilities offered, below are a few your agency will likely want and use:
- Integrated accounting
- Mobile access
- Email integration
- Electronic signature verification for E&O compliance
- Consistent automatic back-up
In the end, it all comes down to ROI. Is your investment in additional capabilities going to yield results? You should only commit to paying for the things you’ll be using often. We at SIS recognize your agency is unique and allow you to choose which capabilities to add to Partner XE, while offering the freedom to add on additional capabilities later as needed. To talk with one of our experts, contact us at 800.747.9273 or [email protected].
