If you are an independent insurance agent, you are probably familiar with the term Agency Management System or CRM. Today, most agencies are using a management system to help manage their day to day activity within the office, but there are some of you who have yet to jump on the agency management system train. Although I would love to tell you all the reasons why you should be using an agency management system, I want to go deeper and talk about why you should be using a system that offers a hosted version.

I work for Jenesis Agency Management System and we just recently decided not to promote our desktop version and focus solely on our hosted version. In the last year, every agency that has signed up with Jenesis has chosen the hosted option and each week we are moving many of our current customers from desktop to hosted. Pretty cool!

There must be reasons why…

• Advantages
  • No need to buy hardware (or a server) – When you purchase a hosted agency management system you do not have to worry about where you are going to host your system. The system’s team will be taking care of that for you. Probably in a large data center somewhere.
  • No need for backup assistance – This goes hand in hand with the bullet above. When your system is hosted, the company is taking care of backing up all your data for you. No need to worry about a tragic loss!
  • You can login from anywhere, anytime – This is a pretty cool point. With a hosted version you do not need to be in your office to access the agency management system. As long as you are somewhere with internet access you are good to go! And if your internet goes out, just link up to your hotspot to continue working.
  • Accessible from your Laptop, Tablet, AND Smartphone – This is my favorite point. How awesome it is to be able to pull your tablet out at a conference or the airport to manage your business without the hassle of a laptop.
  • Faster & automatically updated – Most of the time Hosted versions operate much faster and provide better service. Not to mention your system is automatically updated to the most equipped version over night!
•  Disadvantages
  • Cost extra –  But there could also be cost savings. Confusing, I know. You are saving money on data backup, no expensive server is needed, etc. I listed this as a negative reason as to why someone may not choose to move to Hosted, but I believe that all of my points listed above greatly outweighs this one small disadvantage. We all know you get what you pay for.

In closing, I want to encourage you to explore all of your options when choosing the correct agency management system for your agency. Don’t be afraid to spend a little more than you budgeted for. My advice to you is to always go Hosted. Less worries and better features.