your insurance office vs. act! 2008

[GreenSky]

Most of the people I know doing all this insane research into CRMs don't have any data to enter anyway.

That certainly would apply to our "friend" in Sacramento!

Rick

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

Al,
For as tech savy as you are you should know that your Iphone is not very secure and should not be used for important thing like client info. Haven't you seen any reports on this?

 

[joshril]

HA HA - ChickenDinner14 actually hit it on the CRM head "Make more calls, worry less about the computer = more money."

However - if you have the mental ability and patience (at night ... when you can't call prospects/future clients" to become familiar with a CRM tool, it's worth it). It CAN save you a lot of time searching for status (a delivery requirement, etc.) and if configure it just right, your CRM tool can send out a few automated emails to compliment your phone calls and voicemail's.

Here are a few things that annoy me with i-Relay - I would like to see 100% independence. Some of the technology is still owned and controlled by a parent company. If you want something custom to compliment your workflow, you will have to wait a very long time or it will be extremely expense. This is the case due to the parents priority over the written code. If that does not bother you, great CRM tool. However, I do know that i-Relay continues to work on making their application more user friendly 'easier to customize.'

You want a CRM that will import in lead data, allow you to run a quote OR re-run a quote within the system and, based on the quote, pull down carrier applications and check the status of your submitted application all in one place.

If you calculate the amount of time it takes you to:

a) Open up your quoter (run a few comparative quotes) 'one browser window'
b) Save to .pdf and email/fax the illustration to your client 'separate program'
c) Open up another website to pull down a carrier app and required forms 'new browser window'
d) Pre-fill in the application and send it to client for signature 'separate program'
e) Obtain signature, send to upline and open up another browser window to track status

Bottom line is ... each step takes time and each step requires a different computing function! Trust me, if you track this flow it takes time. But if you can invest 5+ hours (of your down time) to really learn a CRM that is truly built for the insurance agent and integrates in status, quoting and applications into one browser window - it will pay dividends!

And what CRM do you say you use that will do all of this?

 

[onlineagent08]

i-Relay will do the trick! Your upline needs to be using some form of InsureSocket(Agency Integrator) or AgencyWorks for an agent to really use the integrated status feature and delivery requirement option.

They can integrate in carrier apps/forms and I think they finally completed integrated quoting. They can also pipe in your favorite quoter to the i-Relay application (that is if you prefer your current quoting system over theirs).

 

[Guest]

Al,
For as tech savy as you are you should know that your Iphone is not very secure and should not be used for important thing like client info. Haven't you seen any reports on this?

Nothing in the world is totally secure. Not your house, not your car, not your pocket... nothing.

I hate to give you a scare but it is far easier for someone (even me!) to hack into your home computer or your office network than for you or anyone else to sniff out and decrypt data being sent via either the Edge network or wi-fi from an iPhone, Treo, etc.

Think about it. If it were so insecure would you see all the corporate clones and drones sitting in airports using public wi-fi and hitting their CRM databases?

Don't believe all you read in the media.

Al

 

[onlineagent08]

Nothing in the world is totally secure. Not your house, not your car, not your pocket... nothing.

I hate to give you a scare but it is far easier for someone (even me!) to hack into your home computer or your office network than for you or anyone else to sniff out and decrypt data being sent via either the Edge network or wi-fi from an iPhone, Treo, etc.

Think about it. If it were so insecure would you see all the corporate clones and drones sitting in airports using public wi-fi and hitting their CRM databases?

Don't believe all you read in the media.

Al

Just remember that it is easier for someone to "sniff" your data (sending you a Trojan variant "spyware") to your PC than it would for someone to sniff encrypted cell packets. With that, if someone is out to capture data, they are going to look for the least common denominator (unless you are being targeted specifically).

This is a really interesting topic and something that I have a lot of knowledge in. Has a thread (specifically) been created on security in general?

 

[Chkndinner14]

My question which I have absolutely no clue to the answer. Desk sharing, Zoho and programs like this. I see no problem in doing a presentation via this method.

But.... when you move over to application and start typing SS #, health conditions etc..

How secure is this?

This is not a VPN application if I am not mistaken.

 

[Guest]

But.... when you move over to application and start typing SS #, health conditions etc..

How secure is this?

Well, it depends on how you keep your data. For example, if I need to have an SSN I will encrypt it via a some kind of algorithm, perhaps where letters represent numbers or via any of the many encryption engines out there. That said, I don't have any need to keep SSNs, or even health conditions on my clients. I might know that a client has memorrhagia but do I need to log that? I don't. It is on the application that I can download form the carrier site if necessary. And if I get a paper application which I scan, I can easily encrypt it.

If you take proper precautions, web-based databases are more secure than anything you have on your desktop. A hacker can break into your home network a lot easier than he/she can to a well-secured ISP such as Pair.com or Alentus.com or Dreamhosting.com etc. Even AOL is more secure than your home computer. If I can get your IP, I can probably break into your network unless you have done a decent job of protecting it as well as your data. If you are running WinXP it is all that more easier... as opposed to OS X or Linux.

As I said. There is nothing 100% secure. If you want 100% secure then use YIO or a similar desktop program (ACT) on a machine that is never connected to the net. All you have to worry about is some disgruntled employee of yours who has a grudge to settle with you, gets on your network and copies all the data.

Al
Mutual of Omaha

 

[midwestbroker]

Choosing a CRM program is like choosing a car. If you have 3 kids, then a 350Z with only 2 seats may not work for you, but that does not mean it is not right for the next person.

 

[Steve]

I bought YIO about a year ago prior to joining a captive group. With that group, I unfortunately was better served by a program that was common with others in the organization.

I am about to go independent, and I look forward to using YIO again. I own ACT as well, but I will be using YIO. It serves my needs very well.