Agency Management Sytems - Applied Epic Vs. AMS360?

[Koedred]

this is for KrisCook if still around. We are an agency that also went from Vision to EPIC(Failure). We are not huge (45-50 people) So we don't have need for all those "customizable" reports. And for an example. it recently took me 3 hours to create a report in EPIC(Failure) and to do the same report in VISION took 1 minute and 43 seconds. EPIC(Failure is a HUGE waste of time and money for our agency. If we were not so "in" now with excess training and such. It really SUCKS that the online training videos are closed now. I don't understand why. Other issues, too many to list. No list of Additional Insureds. And they can't be automatically added as in vision. You have to exit out and go back to the "Contacts" and add them. The TRUE problem with EPIC(Failure) is that it is a program made by people who do NOT have clue what the end USER (Those of us that actually do the work) need to do. It is a HUGE finger pointing program, making the keeping tracked of who does what, and when more important than getting good service to your clients. It a system designed to point fingers in the event of an E&O issue. Do we REALLY need to do that????????? Well???????? No. People make mistakes sometimes. That's why we have insurance. Granted we never want to use it if we can prevent it. But EPIC(Failure) does nothing to help this. I only wish we have seen this postings sooner. EPIC is a disgrace. It is EASILY 10yrs behind what VISION could do. I only wish we could go back.

 

[KrisCook]

this is for KrisCook if still around. We are an agency that also went from Vision to EPIC(Failure). We are not huge (45-50 people) So we don't have need for all those "customizable" reports. And for an example. it recently took me 3 hours to create a report in EPIC(Failure) and to do the same report in VISION took 1 minute and 43 seconds. EPIC(Failure is a HUGE waste of time and money for our agency. If we were not so "in" now with excess training and such. It really SUCKS that the online training videos are closed now. I don't understand why. Other issues, too many to list. No list of Additional Insureds. And they can't be automatically added as in vision. You have to exit out and go back to the "Contacts" and add them. The TRUE problem with EPIC(Failure) is that it is a program made by people who do NOT have clue what the end USER (Those of us that actually do the work) need to do. It is a HUGE finger pointing program, making the keeping tracked of who does what, and when more important than getting good service to your clients. It a system designed to point fingers in the event of an E&O issue. Do we REALLY need to do that????????? Well???????? No. People make mistakes sometimes. That's why we have insurance. Granted we never want to use it if we can prevent it. But EPIC(Failure) does nothing to help this. I only wish we have seen this postings sooner. EPIC is a disgrace. It is EASILY 10yrs behind what VISION could do. I only wish we could go back.

Holy cow you guys have it bad! We disabled all that workflow nazi stuff. And I haven't heard anything about Applied University being down - it hasn't been but a few days ago that I pulled up one of the classes and watched it. Surely if it's down, they can tell you when they'll have it back up and running.

While I'm not convinced of Epic's superiority over Vision, I have to hand it to Applied's tech support. They always have an answer for me. It might not always be what I want to hear, but that's another story.

When I want to design a report, I do not hesitate to check in to their Office Hours and get one of them to hand-walk me through it. I think the report designing software they built into Epic originated in the Jurasaic period, and I get a little frustrated every time I work with it. There are lots of tips and tricks that you can use to get things to line up and look right, but I forget what they are in between times that I have to use them. Applied's tech people will dial into your system while they talk to you on the phone, and will set it up for you if you need them to.

If you have a suggestion for a program modification, you have to post it in their forum to be up-or-down-voted by other users. I have found on at least one occasion where a feature I needed badly was upvoted and commented on by several users who also needed it, only to be met with a very snide company rep who as much as said it wouldn't even be considered. And this was something Vision did out of the box! Needless to say, I've spent lots of time really frustrated with Epic and furious with Applied.

So all in all, I understand your frustration. I don't work with certificates, so I don't know about the additional insured problem. I would say, though, that before you shoot someone, just call their tech people and make sure there's nothing that you are overlooking.

You are welcome to get in touch with me if you need to blow off some steam. I do the accounting for my agency, so I am most familiar with that side of the program. I'm less acquainted with the policy and certificates end of things. I do a lot of invoicing, and a lot of reporting. You can get me at (extra spaces here so this post won't be flagged) k cook at hra risk services dot com.

We WERE sold a bill of goods by the sales people, when we were thinking of moving from Vision online to Epic. They told us that the software was redesigned from the ground up, based on a completely different architecture. I believe that was pure bull. And the last thing I will gripe about, as long as we are griping, is how Applied treats us as though it never met us before when we sign up for some additional service. They won't do a darn thing until they see the money. Never mind we have a relationship with them going back to 1999. That's a bad way to do business, at least here in the south, where people keep their word.

Thanks for commenting. I hated to see this thread die.

Best of luck to you!
Kris 3/7/2016