iPipeline Financial and Insurance Solutions vs. Vertafore Agency Platform

In my opinion, its a necessary evil. It gets the job done most of the time, but does have finicky parts that take some getting used to. If a carrier utilizes this platform, you really have no choice but to use it, I believe. In my opinion it has prevented us from going with particular carriers because of anticipated issues.

It is user friendly. Vertafore needs to offer more free new user training - the videos are helpful but not as good as a real person.

Incentivized

• ensures apps are submitted "in good order"
• Has access to all carrier forms in one portal
• prepopulates forms based on questions answered

• Documentation of products/features
• Support response time

Incentivized

• must have a very good internet connection. It can run slow and even freeze and kick you out of the system if working on wifi
• Some questions require specific answers before allowing you to move to the next screen. i.e. if you enter bank information, but don't have the correct banks current legal name it won't accept it. I have had to call customer support while with clients to rectify this.
• When trying to collect signatures the system will "think" and load for a very long time. Getting out and back in will work to fix it sometimes. We have had to call customer support and have them manually move to the next screen so we could collect signatures.

• notes function does not automatically show user entering note
• need ability to search activities (I think this is coming soon)
• too many premium fields in policy data

Incentivized

When I have needed support they answer quickly and fix the issue

Its very good. They have teams for each software product they offer. They have specific teams available for specific tasks such as data migrations, upgrades, etc. The employees they hire for their support teams are always knowledgeable about their products and are good to work with. They also speak clear english which is a plus when details matter and an incorrect or misunderstood word/phrase could cause issues.

Incentivized

Firelight is typically used to Annuity applications. It is arduous and long, but makes sure all forms are complete. iPipeline Financial and Insurance Solutions is much better in my experience because all forms can be signed at once, whereas Firelight will sometimes populate forms that need to be printed and uploaded, defeating the purpose of the online app.

We selected Vertafore Agency Platform after considering it's ability to provide detailed reports on everything from line of business to company comparison. We also visited another agency that was using Vertafore Agency Platform and received positive reviews from them.

Incentivized

• Being able to access forms in one system is the biggest pro.. Going to each carrier individually would be a nightmare.
• Once you elect a carriers forms, there is an option to e-apply right there on the spot from the forms section. That is sometimes useful, it doesn't always carry over the correct agent information for a smooth submission
• Forms are always updated as soon as the carrier has updated their forms.
• IGo e-application is helpful most of the time.

• On the IT side, their support teams make my life easier by taking care of issues that come up.
• The numbers I've seen for support appear high, however, I myself have nothing to compare this to - maybe they are average.

Incentivized