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Cedar Rapids, IA

Headquarters

3 Years

As an Applied Customer

Additional Info

Employees: 20+
Offices: 1

 
 

Limited resources cause big challenges

Skogman Insurance, a sixth-generation, family-owned agency, prides itself on building lasting relationships with its clients and providing a level of service that is only available through a small independent insurance agency. However, being a small agency comes with its own challenges. Smaller staff size means producers are spending time juggling multiple clients and all of the tedious tasks that come with that, such as summarizing emails and conversations.

It’s not just producers feeling the time squeeze though. All staff members have a lot on their plate and need to find ways to become more efficient. This extends to the Operations and Accounting staff, who needed to find faster ways to handle day-to-day reporting and billing tasks, respectively. “Agency bill has been a particularly sore spot at our agency because we have one accountant that handles the insurance arm of our business, as well as the other entities, so she doesn’t have time to create and send invoices for every client. We also didn’t have a payment portal, so we had to direct customers to a different website. She asked us to find a better way to handle the agency bill process,” said Lisa Anthofer, Operations Manager.

 

I love Epic Browser and have had a very enjoyable experience with our Applied platforms. Being able to integrate these platforms has created a level of connectivity that saves us time and makes our staff more efficient so that our small but mighty team can operate with the efficiency of a larger agency.

Lisa Anthofer

Operations Manager, Skogman Insurance

 
 

Technology to create efficiency

The agency chose Epic Browser, a fully browser-native version of Applied Epic, the most widely used and fastest-growing agency management system in the world. Epic Browser provides customers with automated capabilities for each stakeholder within the business to better manage operations and relationships with insurer partners and insureds. Additionally, Epic Dashboards, embedded analytics capabilities natively within Applied Epic, and Applied Pay, the only natively integrated digital payments solution built specifically for insurance, were chosen to streamline operations, saving staff time and increasing productivity.

 
 

A browser-based platform to save time and enable connectivity

Epic Browser provides Skogman Insurance with the foundational management system it needs to run its P&C business efficiently, with all the added automation benefits of a browser-based AMS. “I think Epic Browser stands out because it is easier to use and provides features not available in the desktop version. You can easily access it from your browser without needing to close out of other programs,” Anthofer said. The spell check and email summarization features have been real crowd-pleasers for Skogman Insurance, with staff seeing tangible time savings. One team member has reported saving up to two hours a day because she no longer needs to go into individual emails and summarize the content. “It's hard to put into words how much it does help our agency save time. What once took 2 or 3 minutes now takes a single click,” Anthofer added.

Another benefit of Epic Browser is the connectivity it enables with other platforms. “One of the bigger benefits of Epic Browser is being able to integrate Applied Pay. You cannot access the full capability of Applied Pay from the desktop version of Applied Epic, so it was important that our agency was on Epic Browser,” Anthofer said. Applied Pay allows Skogman Insurance to provide clients with a branded payment platform, making it easier for them to pay premiums without the confusion of navigating multiple websites or emails that come from the agency’s accountant. “The payment email comes from our agency, rather than our accountant. It gives our clients peace of mind because it’s clear who they are communicating with to make their payments. The payment portal works seamlessly for our clients who are not on agency bill because it takes them directly to their carrier website to make the payment. No extra URLs or explanations needed,” Anthofer said. Applied Pay has also helped Skogman Insurance establish a more streamlined agency bill process, saving their accountant time. The cloud-based payments hub integrates with Epic Browser to enable full-cycle accounts receivable capabilities and automated payment reconciliation, reducing the manual effort for Skogman Insurance’s accountant.

The implementation of Epic Dashboards has significantly improved the day-to-day reporting Anthofer needs to conduct to keep a pulse on what’s happening across the business. Epic Dashboards democratizes access to the vast data captured in Applied Epic, organizing it into insightful visualizations tailored to help leaders and team members across the agency understand trends within an agency’s book of business, employee workload balance, and preferred carriers. “My experience with Epic Dashboards has been wonderful! I can go into the platform on a daily basis to look at production reports to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing. I can easily pull monthly retention reports without having to navigate through complicated templates. Everything is right there in my personalized dashboard,” Anthofer said.

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