An Interview with Justin Honey
Justin Honey recently started his own insurance agency in Greenwood, Indiana. Currently, at a 90:10 ratio of personal lines to commercial lines, Honey is quickly growing his business in a tough market. He chose Partner XE as his agency management system. Affordable pricing, reliable functionality, excellent scalability and outstanding customer service are key reasons why he selected Partner XE. Honey explains, “I don’t want to switch management systems in a few years. I want something that’s going last and be with me for a long time at a reasonable rate.”
As for functionality Honey says “Partner XE, is a perfect fit. It has exactly the features I need and seems like it will be easy to train a CSR or train a producer or an agent on. I like that aspect of it a lot.”
SIS: What factored into your consideration of adopting an agency management system?
Justin: It happened in two phases: We started as a Brooke franchise, which came with a Brooke management system. It was a primitive, but somewhat workable system. After Brooke filed bankruptcy, I went on my own, and I knew I needed a system. I just went with something cheap. I ended up with an okay system, but it had glitches and it lacked capabilities. It was pulling up customers, handling documents and basic functions, but that was all.
When I began growing more in commercial lines business I realized that I need a management system that could handle the commercial downloads. With the system I was using everything had to be re-keyed and manually input. That’s a problem for an agency growing commercial lines.
SIS: When you started looking for an agency management system, did you find pricing to be an issue?
Justin: I laughed when I heard some of the prices our there for management systems. I heard numbers like $10,000.00 up front and $400 or $500 a month. Coming up with that kind of investment just isn’t doable for an independent agent like me. So I was very pleased when I learned that Partner XE was affordable and had all of the functionality that I needed.
SIS: As you began writing more commercial business, how did you arrive at the conclusion that you had to change systems?
Justin: And as I said earlier, commercial downloading was crucial. I needed to have a system that would download from the carriers. Another reason I started looking for a new system was the lack of reporting functions. The system that I was using didn’t have any way to track renewal business for an agent.
In addition to that, their client management system had a few quirks with it. It was basically policy level, so each renewal is a new entry. Every time it downloads a new policy term it re-inputs the client again. That means that I can’t go into a client and see all their renewals or see all their policies. If I search for John Doe and he’s been with me for ten years and has 20 auto policy renewals, I would have to search through 20 listings for John Doe to see which one’s the current one. I can’t just pick John Doe and then look at his policy history. That doesn’t work well for a growing agency.
SIS: How did you find the purchasing process?
Justin: I researched information and pricing for AMS 360 & InStar, Nexsure’s XDimensional, Applied TAM and then SIS’s Partner XE. It was pretty frustrating. I couldn’t find any consistent pricing from your competitors. Each time I talked with a company I got a different quote. SIS was different. My sales representative was very friendly. I was especially impressed with his willingness to help me find a solution rather than just sell me a product. I appreciate that.
SIS: What was it like to be on the phone with these various companies?
Justin: I’ll say they were generally friendly but I am worried that their customer service probably is not going to be so good. I bought one product from another company and now it’s hard to get a return call, or even a return email.
SIS: What did you use as criteria for making your decision?
Justin: One important aspect was financial. Partner XE was the most value for the price. When I looked at upfront costs and the cost to add users, Partner XE won out. I don’t want to switch management systems in a few years. I want something that’s just going last and be with me for a long time at a reasonable rate.
Another aspect was functionality. For example, one system seemed very complicated. I was afraid that it would be near impossible to train someone on the system. But the Partner XE system seemed very easy to use, yet had a lot of capabilities, including the specific ones that I needed as far as reporting, customer access, downloading. A system doesn’t need to be complicated to be good.
Partner XE is a perfect fit. It has exactly the features I need and seems like it will be easy to train a CSR or train a producer or an agent on. I like that aspect of it a lot.
The Scanning functionality in Partner XE allows me to scan info directly into the system and attach it to a client. With some of the others, you need to have actually already scanned in a document and then you have to upload the file. That adds an additional step. Since I run a completely paperless agency that was a big thing. I realized it would take me twice as long to scan in every document, which would only be more time consuming as I grow. Partner XE has the Doc Box where you can scan the image in the system and then drag and drop. I love the drag and drop feature.
SIS: What other features are important to you?
Justin: Reporting. It’s easy to set the parameters for different reports. I like that. I like that it looks a lot like Outlook®, because I’m an avid Outlook user. And the customer management modules or boxes also seem very easy to use.
SIS: What do you think about moving forward with SIS and Partner XE?
Justin: I feel like SIS wants me to succeed, and I feel like SIS will be very responsive. Based on all of my communications so far, I know that if I have a technical problem or need help pulling a report or something of that nature, SIS will be here to help me. It’s nice to know that I am not in this alone.
Having an affordable agency management system that works well and is backed with good support. That’s what matters most to me, and I think that’s what I’ve got with SIS and Partner XE.
