I got some great feed back on my blog Reflecting On User Group Meetings. Thanks to all that commented at this blog, on facebook and via twitter. I used a picture in the previous post that showed the audience bored and asleep. I have attended many user group meetings where, while no one had their head on a table they were dosing or not paying attention. In order to get a different result you must plan what and who should attend.

I am on my way to a user group meeting. I have been to many of these over the years. User groups vary in size and the structure of their meetings. Generally they are structured on the premise of providing information and training to their user base. Some user groups do a better job at this than other do. Does this picture look familiar.? Have you ever felt like this during a session or several sessions?

Last week I attended my first Apple school session. My One-On-One session was great. Rachel, my instructor, was knowledgeable, had great teaching skills and was fully engaged in our session. However, it was a challenge to keep my people watching habit under control and pay attention to why I was there.

One of the big issues I find that every agency I work with has is how to capture conversations the producer has with clients, underwriters, etc.  In some agencies producers aren’t allowed to log into the agency management system to enter their documentation into an activity.  Other agencies that do have producers logging into their system don’t get better results.  Unless a producer has a laptop configured for access to the agency management system, the chances of them to entering this information is nil to none.  Even for those producers with laptops and access to the agency management system, only a minority of them will update the system.

I have previously outlined what I think are a number of issues relating to agency management system vendors not taking proper care of the software and not being future thinking.  I also covered what I think are the issues agencies have in resolving issues with their agency management system.

For the past few days I have been talking about the blind spots of the agency management system vendors.  While I feel that they haven’t moved far enough fast enough.

Agencies spend thousands of hard dollars on agency management systems.  They waste thousands of dollars in using them inefficiently or not using them to their maximum potential.  What leads to this waste?

For the past two days I have beaten up on you pretty badly.  I know that some of you are making progress, but it seems so very slow and it seems like no innovation is happening.  What I do find is that when a vendor does have something new is that vendors struggle to get the information to their client base in a meaningful way.

I know that usually the information is sent to them prior to release and again at the time of the release.  I know that in some cases the user group also communicates as well.  However, often there are many items in the release notes and the agency is usually just looking to see what has been fixed or an item they are interested in.

As promised in yesterday’s post today I am going to talk about Real Time and future enhancements.  I recently read a blog that said if you are just keeping up with technology you are behind.  You must be looking to the future and anticipating what your clients will need and want.

At a recent industry event they asked each of us to tell them what we wanted to hear about and get out of the event.  I said that I wanted to hear their thoughts and planning on the use of touch screen technology. 

In the past few weeks I have been asked by two different sources for information and opinions on issues with agency management systems.  One of these inquires was about Real Time, client portals and new functionalities.  The other was about systems being current with ACORD forms.  My response to each spurred me on to write about this issue.

This will take more than one post.  Your clients have a lot they want me to discuss with you.