Agency Management Sytems - Applied Epic Vs. AMS360?

[jpratts]

Hello Sphinx,

I'm with an Agency of 50+ located in Southern California called Hoffman Brown Company. We have been using the Epic online product since July 2010. We have had nothing but a great experience with the product and company. Their people are very helpful and responsive. When comparing the Epic product vs AMS 360 we found AMS to be more cumbersome requiring more effort to accomplish everyday tasks. When setting out to upgrade our office management software our goal was to become the most efficient agency possible and we didn't feel as though AMS 360 was the best solution to accomplish this goal.

Today in 2013 the program has come a long way since we integrated. We came from a very old MS-Dos based system called Delphi, and even this was not an issue for Applied Systems to merge our data to our new Epic online system.

I would imagine that merging from a newer management system would actually be easier because the data is stored using up to date technology.

I'd be happy to speak with you to share more about our experience and the procedures we took to ensure the migration process would be a success.

 

[EugeneM]

Ams had a bad reputation in the past.... AMS became known as Vertafore... I personally used to sell this system before I owned my own call center. AMS has come a long long way. The systems integrate with Rating Systems and other plug ins.. A lot of it has to do with what you would like to accomplish. Do you plan on using their rating systems and plugins because those are Carrier specific so you might want to find out what other agents that sell the same products are you are using.

both applied and ams are good ways to go. Just make sure they are compatible with the insurance carriers you represent.

 

[Deanovich]

I agree with jpratts. we just converted to EPIC last year for 2 offices one on tam and one on vision. We are 35 users and happy we made the change. I miss tam because it wasn't workflow oriented. But we have been using the system for 9 months now and would not trade it to go back to TAM or Vision. If you are serious about migrating I would be willing to provide more insight if need.

 

[margarets]

We just bought Epic in January, after a pretty extensive search and final comparison with 360. We thought that either system could do the functions that we wanted, but for my management team, we really liked the Epic culture, and my opinion has not changed since we purchased Epic. We have not yet converted, but have begun the process with a July LIVE date.
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Has anyone hired outside consultants for Epic to assist with your conversion? I'd be interested in hearing about that experience and getting names if you have them...I'm in CT

 

[Sphinx]

Thank you everyone for all the info, again we are going from AMS 360 to Epic, live date of May 2013. I will keep everyone updated on how the transition goes and appreciate all the feed back. We have a lot of support as the agency we merged with has over 500 employees already on the system.

 

[marybeth1024]

If anyone has any updates on this topic it would be extremely helpful, due to a recent merger we are going from our AMS360 v5.5 to "their" Applied Epic and from what i've seen on paper, I'm not sure it's going to be a smooth and easy transition.

I hate to tell you but you are right. The agency I work in just went from AMS to Epic the beginning of April. It's horrible....we are all having problems with it. From what I understand, one of the reasons my agency switched was because they claim there are "less clicks". That is not true at all, I am clicking so much that I have a twitch! With AMS360, at least when you look at an account, you see the name, policy #, status, premium - well you know. With Epic, everything migrated over says renewal (can't change to active) and I still don't know where you find the premium. Maybe it's me but I don't find this system user friendly at all. Everyone else here seems to like it but not me.
Mary Beth

 

[jtmgolf00]

My only comment would be to allocate more for training costs than the vendor recommends. That is particularly important when you are using the "big boys"

 

[KrisCook]

Thank you everyone for all the info, again we are going from AMS 360 to Epic, live date of May 2013. I will keep everyone updated on how the transition goes and appreciate all the feed back. We have a lot of support as the agency we merged with has over 500 employees already on the system.

To resurrect an older thread, how's it going, Sphinx?

Our agency is still using Vision, but because the bond side and the claims side claim it doesn't have the functionality they need, we are looking at AMS360 and EPIC. All the conflicting opinions are making my head hurt. As a past user of AMS360 and a now-current user of EPIC, you are in a great position to advise me. Please don't spare the detail!

 

[jtmgolf00]

To resurrect an older thread, how's it going, Sphinx?

Our agency is still using Vision, but because the bond side and the claims side claim it doesn't have the functionality they need, we are looking at AMS360 and EPIC. All the conflicting opinions are making my head hurt. As a past user of AMS360 and a now-current user of EPIC, you are in a great position to advise me. Please don't spare the detail!

Who does the better job of moving your data?

 

[KrisCook]

Who does the better job of moving your data?

Is this question for Sphinx? I hope he comes back. I have a pile o' questions. I've seen a couple of AMS360 demos, but none from Epic yet.

I'm about ready to just stay with what we run now, which is Vision, hosted on our own server in-house.