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1 Contact me for reprints of this presentation: Karen Simms Simms Consulting, Inc Old York Rd. White Hall, MD

2 What is a Power User? In my mind, and in discussions with agency staff prior to developing this seminar, a power user is one who maximizes their use of AMS360 to run their agency. Several factors play into this: A Power User can Navigate AMS360 Efficiently A Power User Customizes AMS360 to fit their Job Description and needs. A Power User sets up AMS360 for optimum efficiency at the Agency Setup level. A Power User understands and utilizes system tools, both at the User and Agency levels. 2

3 One of the biggest single AMS360 complaints is speed. But there is a lot that a user can do to mitigate somewhat slow system speed. This begins with search options and runs through navigation. Right click on your first new center in order to leave the User Center open. This prevents accidentally closing the last Browser window and having to completely log in to AMS360 frequently. The right click always opens a new window in IE 5. IE 7 users can enable tabbed browsing and have items open in a new tab. Agencies that have IE 7 will need to configure it to take advantage of tabbed browsing. To do this click on the Internet Browser Tools icon, then Internet Options. On the General Tab, click on Tabs, then Settings. Make sure you have checks in Enable Tabbed Browsing, then items 1, 2 and 3 and 5 in the first group, then move the radio button to choose your option for pop ups, then finally place the radio button for opening links to have them open either in a new window, or in a new tab. Many users are unaware that the search options, including customer type and ALL/Active/Inactive options can be permanently saved by checking the Save as User Default box in Advanced Search Options and then the APPLY button. Users are often unaware of the user of the Asterisk * to create wildcard searches, as well as last name, first name searching for personal lines. Links there is no need to change tabs to click on a link for instance, the policy number link will open the policy from any tab where it is displayed. 3

4 The default customer center setups are not optimal for many users. In particular, the tab selection is limited, and the view options should be tweaked. All of this is done from the User Options area. To access User Options click on Toolbox, System Administration, then User Options. Be sure to leave the system in Edit mode (Policy Information area), and have as many rows as you can comfortably download. I find it faster to download 100 rows than to click page 2! Customize tabs by clicking on the Center Tab Order and View Options area. The displayed tabs can be customized for each center to which a user has access both the selection of the tabs and the order are user controllable. Move any tab from the left hand (Available) to the right hand (Selected) side in order to add it to the user s tabs for that center. Use the Up and Down arrows to control the order of the tabs the topmost tab will the default open tab for that center. It is particularly important to do this for the customer center, since the default selection is not very complete for most users and tabs not displayed are often forgotten. Friends don t let friends leave the internal scroll bars active! These internal or center scroll bars can be enabled or disabled by the checkbox in the Display Options area. Once the User Options are chosen, the View Options at the tab level need to be set. To set View Options for a tab, click on the View Options, make changes, then click the Save as User Default checkbox and Apply the choices. Some View Options to consider on Policy View Options deselect the Select First Policy choice to avoid accidentally operating on the first policy, and deselect Underwriting for Dec page view so the property area is less cluttered. On Activity tab, lengthen default time to look back for 365 days. Do NOT save with more than 100 rows defaulted to avoid slowing system. Watch default time period of only Current and Prior month on Register and Payments tabs. Check EVERY tab the first time through to make sure you have optimized it for you and your agency! 4

5 Dec Page View The Starting Point for ALL client workflow When working within the customer center, avoid clicking on the policy number link unless you are sure data editing is required. In every instance, Dec page view offers quicker access to the data, and allows the user to move from the dec page in any needed direction to process customer requests for claims, forms, endorsements, renewals or just data corrections. How Do You Compare? The Compare button can not only compare a policy before and after an endorsement, it can compare two policy terms! To use Compare, right click to select your policy, then click Compare, then View Differences. If the policy has been endorsed, Compare will contrast the last endorsed version of the policy with the version just prior. If you wish to Compare to another term, put the new term on the left and add the old term to the drop down on the right. Then push View Differences. Compare will also display ALL details of a policy by using the checkbox. Document Imaging The document tab allows faster access to documents and direct ing! Drag and Drop automatically deletes FILES, not . Setup option on file delete after saving. Placeholders Front End Scanning and hot folders 5

6 There are many ways to extract data from AMS360, and no one method is always best. 1. Copy data from Dec page view and paste in Word for quick extraction. 2. Right Click on grids to copy data then paste in Excel for quick extraction. 3. Export Data Schedules Icon. Export data schedule or template, or schedule. From Basic Policy you can export premises locations. From Business Auto you can export vehicles and drivers, from Inland Marine you can export Equipment Floater and EDP Scheduled Equipment, and the Transportation/Motor Truck Cargo section can Drivers and Vehicles. 4. An often overlooked method is to use the Summary of Insurance under Quick Reports. This data can be saved to a PDF file, then manipulated with PDF software or simply used as is. 5. Schedules or proposals can be customized and used to extract specific data sets defined by the agency. Data import is often overlooked for NEW BUSINESS. Data can be imported for all of the areas for which data export is available. A blank template can be exported to help arrange data acquired from clients. When data is being imported to existing policies, it is a good idea to begin with an endorsement transaction, so that a separate policy image is created. This both preserves the original data and allows for creation of a change request form. 6

7 Commissions should be set up for companies and for producers. Company commissions often require setup by writing company or even writing company and plan to work efficiently. Direct Bill Options: It is critical that direct bill options be set correctly both in terms of what method of billing will be utilized and what lines of business are downloaded in order to have direct billed policy premium display and even work correctly in the system. Anytime download companies or lines of business change, the direct bill options for the affected company should be verified and the billing options utility should be run. Pay Plans a pay plan should be built for every installment option used by the agency, as it is somewhat difficult to change the number of installments at the invoice level. Take a moment and build generic plans or even detailed company plans for every installment method encountered i.e...quarterly, monthly, pays, etc. When modifying installment billings, there is a neat way to see your changes before they have taken effect! Before posting an endorsement which changes installments, go back to the customer center and switch to the register tab. By opening the line for the policy you are modifying, you ll be able to see your modified installment numbers before you post the invoice! It will double the dates in this display, but this will correct itself once you actually post the invoice. 7

8 Activity and Suspense: Automatic activity logging is a good idea. However, required logging can create lots of just looking type entries, and silent logging also does not allow for user input, and often causes duplicate entries. Automatic suspense is also handy, but again, careful setup is a must to remain efficient and not waste user time unchecking suspense and canceling activity items not really needed. Define activity types and avoid duplication of activity types. Line of business setup affects the operation of AMS360 in two critical ways: form the standpoint of data entry and application creation in eforms, and in terms of the posting of income to revenue groups. In terms of data grids and applications, the most misunderstood item is Commercial Inland Marine. The commercial inland marine data entry form contains grids for equipment floater, installation floater, EDP, motor truck cargo and accounts receivable/valuable papers. If the section is tied to the equipment floater, and multiple data entry sections have been completed, the system will only produce the equipment floater application. It is critical that the IM LOB be tied to Commercial Inland Marine as the app, and I suggest doing it for any LOB that will utilize the inland marine data entry section, as the user may complete multiple sections once inside the data grids. When the system sees Commercial Inland Marine as the app, it will produce applications for all sections which contain data. LOBs are also tied to revenue groups. It is important to groom your LOBs so that any invoiced revenue will flow to the appropriate revenue group on the P&L. If you do not have the Benefits product, it is a good idea to make the Benefits LOBs inactive. Coverages within a LOB can also be made inactive (or added where needed) to keep the list relevant to the agency. Likewise, make EForms inactive for states where your agency does not have any business. Many other Lists within AMS360 can be customized to meet your agency needs. 8

9 The Renewal Tool automates the old paper report based renewal list. By sending the renewal list to the My Renewals tab on the User Center, the tab does for renewals what the suspense feature does for diary items. In addition to just tracking the renewal status of each policy, it allows for comments, marketing (making a submission from a policy in a single click) and even re-assignment of the account. Out of Office Assistant: The assistant allows for re-assignment of 4 types of system tracked items suspense, renewal lists, renewals, and documents. Each category can be reassigned to a different user for follow up while an employee is out of the office. Alerts allow for a user (and a backup) to be notified in the event that certain things happen in the database. These include policy side items and accounting items as well as claims, document processing and even the tracking of licensing. Scheduled reports allow the user to pre-sent certain reports to run on a scheduled basis and be circulated either by or by sending the report to the report tab of the User Center. In the Sales Center detailed lists can be built (and counts obtained) and data can be used in form letters. Do this by building and saving your list, then choosing Target list as the Type, then selecting the list and document to which it is to be merged. Also, certain reports, like Customer List and Aged AR can be merged directly to form letters by choosing File, Create Form Letter from within the report. This data can be exported via copy/paste of the grid or directly by exporting the data using the Export icon. 9

10 Profile questions give the agency a place to store information not currently part of the database for one of 3 reasons: lookup, list building, creation of a form letter. An example of each: Date of profile (mo/year) to have info on the age of the customer data, Christmas List Y/N for list building via the Sales Center, and Number of Employees to pull into a form letter (profile field must first be a part of the merge field list on which the letter is to be based). Notes can be created and saved, then modified throughout the day, including addition of documents, then the entire note can be made into an activity in a button push and the note deleted! A great tip for days when multiple activities will be logged on a single event. Document 360 can be customized to include additional security classes for documents. Customize form letters, including a blank form letter, for your agency. Also, export list data directly with the Export icon in the form letter selection form. This latter allows for custom field lists that might not be part of an export directly from a Sales Center list. Schedules and Proposals can be customized. This is true power user stuff, and takes an investment of time. Begin by working through the field list, then customize the document with text before and after sections as suits the agency, and finally add items to the actual Word template and change fonts, etc as desired. This 3 part editing process will be reviewed in detail in the session on Schedules and Proposals. 10