RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars?
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/3/2006 8:33:50 PM
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trader
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I predict in the first large storm of 2006 that requires thousands of adjusters my version of FICUS TREE concept will be used by dozens of vendors. The new people who are not ready would do well to work as a FICUS for several weeks and earn a decent wage as they learn. The largest vendors are issuing adjusters numbers by gross lots each week.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/3/2006 9:11:24 PM
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Gale
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Gale
http://www.symbilitysolutions.com/news/news_080306.html
I guess it is over now.
Rick, in reference to your post #41 above you may find it interesting that someone has claimed to do what you suggested in that post. An IA vendor called me 6-8 months ago to say he had a guy building him a claims management system to receive live claims data from PowerClaim XML and Xactimate for starters. I got a call today wanting to schedule a demo. Naturally he started importing PowerClaim XML files first because we offer an Open Standard XML file structure that is clearly open and defined and it is his software of choice.
What caught me off guard was how he states Xactimate is outputting in an XML that is openly defined as well. I was told by a Xactimate sales person a few years ago the carriers was making it a requirement for them. This means with this CMS package as described to me will permit IA vendors to receive live claims data for storage and data mining from the field without having to use the estimating software vendors’ backend. Due to demand he has not started on accepting Simsol estimates yet but since they are now in XML as well then adding the ability to import and data mine Simsol claims should be a straight forward addition to his project.
Of course from what I can understand IC is the only vendor on the market to day that has not moved to an open XML output of claim files but how long can they be a holdout?
The exciting part is a software solution like this would permit an IA vendor to collect claim files from the 3 major auto software vendors and 3 of the better know packages plus now Symbility that Xactimate no longer has them tied up in court. With Symbility estimating software being free they may grow very fast if you can use it without the $5 per claim fee and still get an estimate back to an adjusting vendor or carrier. That kind of a deal could make it hard on the rest of we vendors if long term Symbility learns how to make money giving away estimating software.
Regardless for the IA this should in time lessen the demand/requirement to use just one brand of adjusting software. Maybe we started a trend when we introduced the Open Standard years ago to the property claims handling industy but it would have happened without HRI being around. Progress can only be retarded for so long.
Ray, do you think that the software that I posted about in post #60 above might be in great demand if it can truly manage live claim files from most property estimating systems? Will a FICUS have freedom of choice on the brand of estimating software? Sometimes Yes and sometimes No perhaps?
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 11:01:07 AM
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inverse121
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Gale,
If I understand what you are saying, I could write my estimate in Powerclaim or Simsol which I would prefer to do as I am much faster with those, download my XML, then upload my XML to BrandX and print the estimate to make some carrier executive happy?
I am not saying this would be cheap, but the speed with which I wield Simsol or the old Powerclaim is staggering compared to the two cumbersome Juggernauts. One tile roof would pay for the cost of the extra software that month. And unfortunately it seems I am paying for more than one program anyway during storm season to keep the vendors' clients happy.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 11:15:12 AM
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johnpostava
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Once the industry agrees upon a standard XML file format or the newer generation web service description language (WSDL, pronounced "whizdell") which is basically built on top of XML, the estimating systems still will not "talk" to one another. Each system has proprietary database items, descriptions and prices. Adjusters will not be able to select "drywall" in SIMSOL, for example and then be able to export it to brand X and generate an estimate.
Once the standard is agreed upon, users of any estimating system which adopts the standard will be able to upload to a third party for management reporting purposes. Estimates and best practices can be compared and analyzed. This is similar to what has been working on the auto side for years. The major auto-estimating firms got together (reluctantly at first but prodded by the carriers) and made it happen. Property is way behind when in comes to management reports (from the big carrier perspective). One vendor rules the roost and doesn't seem to want to play (for now anyway). The situation in property won't change until one or more of the larger carriers gets up to the line and makes a stand.
_____________________________
John A. Postava, R.P.A.
President
SIMSOL Software, Inc.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 11:40:12 AM
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inverse121
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Thanks John,
Love your product for residential work.
I worked in finance for years. Everytime a new managing director came in, he wanted his favorite trading or reporting system. Plenty of consultants and programmers made mints "migrating" from one platform to another to another. Usually resulted in the trading desk continuing to use what they were comfortable with and a batch being written to run at night so some risk manager could look at it in his reporting system of choice. This sounds similar.
This all sounds good to me. I sure can work a lot faster on my software of choice during a storm, even though I don't use it as much as I am encouraged (read forced) to use MSB most of the time.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 12:03:44 PM
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trader
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The modification of the unit prices, or the inability to change is what drives carriers to demand only one"brand"
This translates into dumbing down to all the inexperienced people working in catastrophe losses today.
It seems the line will aways creep, jump or fly upward if allowed to by this group of adjusters.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 12:45:27 PM
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inverse121
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Trader,
I have never had anyone question my changes to pricing (although I do use the comment field liberally) when using MSB for my daily work, nor do I really understand the mandate to use it as pricing is left up to me and I generate a PDF to send the file in.
Actually, I had a South Florida examiner recently insist that I was paying too little for roofing in the panhandle ($225) and he upped my price per square to $350, I told him, he was on his own on that one as I was sure my pricing was very fair. He must have been getting paid on a fee schedule, too.
I figure its some manager somewhere that wants it for some reason or another that I will never comprehend or care about. Maybe they like the bold print when you change a price. No big deal. Its just a reporting tool. If I can't be trusted to determine correct pricing to "accurately estimate" the loss, I don't want the assignment. If I could use my software of choice and they could get the report they want to see it, I'm all for that.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 2:06:03 PM
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trader
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What are the similarities between a medical doctor and a nurses aid ? Both work in the medical profession. A vast difference in training.
What are the similarities between an adjuster working daily claims and a cat adjuster? Both work for a insurance company claim departments. A vast difference in training.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/4/2006 9:17:04 PM
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Gale
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Some may want to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Services_Description_Language for a more full understanding of the subject. Web services and claim files both can be described using XML. At the above link you can read, WSDL is an XML-based service description on how to communicate using the web service; namely, the protocol bindings and message formats required to interact with the web services listed in its directory.
At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service you can read, According to the W3C a Web service[1] is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface that is described in a machine-processable format such as WSDL.
When we are talking about web services and claim files we are talking two different subjects. Thankfully this is all technical stuff that runs behind the scene that we do not have to think about it any more than if our car battery has the positive or negative cable grounded. If technology works we can drive it without understanding it.
< Message edited by Gale -- 8/7/2006 2:00:51 AM >
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/5/2006 2:52:36 AM
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Gale
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Chris, the answer is YES from what I learned in a web cast today concerning your question in post #63 above. Personally I think it is going to be a lot of work but if they know how to even open up and import live MSB claim files into a claims management system they may pull it off. The simplest thing in my mind would just be to build a report generator that would create the look of any brand of reports the carrier preferred.
The need to actually import a claim from one brand of estimating software to another as I understand is to gain the ability to upload claims to like Xactnet, ComCentral, PowerClaim Net Services or Simsol ClaimWire so an adjusting vendor would just have to buy one copy of the brand of software needed to communicate with the desired server. While normalizing the data from all the different software vendors today will be a chore, it can be done. The legality has already been proven in court many times over and is now a non-issue. Software companies do not own the data files created by their software nor can they control how the user uses those claim file just as if I make and sell you a hammer and you use it to build a home with it I can not control what you do with the house or claim ownership of it just because you built the house with the hammer I designed and created.
For 10,000 adjusters on a system as described in this post the current software savings could be up to $8 million each and every year. That is direct savings. If you could use a software package that permitted you to be more productive then that would be another gain.
Moving over to the right brain for a few minutes I think the statement in post #64 that reads, “Adjusters will not be able to select "drywall" in SIMSOL, for example and then be able to export it to brand X and generate an estimate.” may support the opposite happening. Just as soon as any of we vendors makes a broad statement like that we are possibly about to be proven wrong. In the same post it was predicted nothing was going to change until one or more of the large carriers make a stand. I can tell you based what I saw today made me glad we are the value player today in the adjusting industry and it was no carrier but a member of a 100+ office IA firm talking about changing the industry and showing how it is being done.
I like otherrs thought change would come about as the result of carrier directives. As the years go by and I learn more about carriers I realize that is not going to happen because as we read in another thread yesterday that carriers often fire or drive out the innovating claims managers. Innovators do not work for corporations as a rule long enough to gain upper management positions therefore the continual brain drain can be detected in the decision making process and I am not just talking about the insurance industry.
It is no accident that most new jobs created in our country come from young companies manned by corporate drop outs.
When I look at what Debbie Ward is doing over at the ClaimSmentor site or listen to Ray Hall talk about the FICUS TREE concept it is clear the driving force in the claims handling industry is coming from the trenches and not the penthouse offices.
Every year (sometimes more than once) I get a call about a solution that is going to be God’s gift to adjusters. Some have a flaw that will keep them from ever growing wings. What we saw today was light years ahead of anything that I have ever seen before or believed I would ever see in the way of innovative claims handling solutions. It is not some pie in the sky by and by solution but something that will be used this hurricane season for both daily and CAT claims. I expect each year it will evolve a great deal for the next five years as they add the ability to import/export claim files from every brand of estimating software.
In 2000 when HRI introduced the Open Standard concept to the property claims handling industry and pulled our copy write protection off of our printed reports to encourage other vendors to develop solutions that worked seamlessly with PowerClaim we were told by at least one other estimating software vendor that we would not have any impact on the industry. Today PowerClaim XML is the most developed around estimating software package in the industry that has live claims data being imported to and exported from by third party claims handling solutions and our Open Standard is what made that happen.
Chris as you experienced with trading desk software solutions it seems like the little guys do win sometimes. If the carriers or estimating software vendors will not make it easy on the adjusters it seems the adjusters are growing tired of being held hostage by either and are creating common sense solutions to stay competitive. The fall out of adjusters now saying, “If it is to be it is up to me!” is having a very positive impact on the claims handling industry as I see it today.
< Message edited by Gale -- 8/7/2006 2:04:49 AM >
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/5/2006 11:20:45 AM
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katadj
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Almost anything is possible, given the opportunity, time, effort and money to accomplish the task.
We put men on the moon, and cannot create soft ware that can speak to each other, ridiculous.
When, we started using PDF format in 1998, it was unheard of, yet in Flood 2000, we convinced the NFIP to use it, and it has been a boon for them and is now "de reigur".
Now ,all of the estimating soft wear programs have that ability included in their programs, so it must have been the right way to go?
I must wholeheartedly agree with Gale, as he has done more in a short time, than any other soft ware producer, that I'm aware of. That simply is because he thinks, "outside the box" and NO is not in his vocabulary, as it is not in mine.
The profession needs every tool, program, idea, concept or whatever to keep pace with this emerging world economy. To do nothing is the BEST example of failure.
_____________________________
"Excellence often first appears as error. It is only in retrospect that wisdom emerges from ignorance and success from failure." Abraham Lincoln
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/7/2006 10:09:49 PM
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Gale
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Thanks Dave, if it had not been for your encouragement and advice at NACA in 1999 we might would not have become a success story. Being a change leader is not all fun and games. When one steps out of the box the bullets, bears and other bad things can come after you. :)
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/9/2006 1:38:17 PM
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Tom_Toll
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Software war? I had to call MSB to get the third edition database, as it did not get mailed to us for some reason. This has happened the last three years. We have to call for something we pay for and should get. The tech I talked to today said this is a random problem. What does that mean?
I have an extensive fire loss to write and cannot until I get the update. Once again MSB has failed. If they continue on the road they are on, they will not be in business much longer. There is no software war for MSB. They have won the war, but lost the battle. They stink.
_____________________________
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/9/2006 3:06:49 PM
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katadj
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Tom, Just run the program at 108% of the total, that should account for any increases in labor or material.
AND, i totally agree with you about their lack of concern for the IA. I was promised 8.02SP three times before i got it.
_____________________________
"Excellence often first appears as error. It is only in retrospect that wisdom emerges from ignorance and success from failure." Abraham Lincoln
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/10/2006 11:28:26 AM
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Russ
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Tom and Dave, I have expressed my concerns to a lot of tech's at MSB over the lack of consideration for IA's that pay yearly for their program and have to call to have an update or new release sent when it's been released. I understand why vendors are changing software.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 8/11/2006 9:03:27 PM
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Gale
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The http://www.catadjuster.org/forum/m_24392/tm.htm tread could be the story that kills this tread about the Symbility/Xactimate law suits. With Symbility having brought suit against Xactware I am sure when ISO came calling Xactware was only too happy to make unwind their legal entanglement.
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RE: 2006 - Year of the Software Wars? - 10/5/2006 2:44:42 AM
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Gale
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The rest of the story.
http://www.cdnx.com/data/lcdb/DOCP/AUG2006/10S0Q01!.DOC Please note this is a Canadian company when reading $ values.
- On August 2, 2006, the Company entered into an agreement with Xactware Inc. of Orem Utah ("Xactware") to settle the prolonged lawsuit that the two companies had been involved in. The settlement agreement ends all claims and counterclaims between the two parties. The settlement provides for a royalty stream on less than 1% of future sales as long as one of Xactware's U.S. Sketch patents remains in place. The agreement also provides for an increase to this rate in the event of a change of control or if a material joint venture is entered into on sales after either of these events has occurred.
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