Thursday, September 16, 2010

Android Mobile ACORD Forms App Development

Just got back from the Verizon store. What a thrill - not.

But here is what is thrilling. We bought a Droid 2 for our newly formed mobile app team.

I hope we will be the first mobile app for ACORD forms.

The clock has started ticking.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Publish ACORD Forms

We have just added a feature that allows you to publish any blank form in Cap Dat ACORD to your website.

Your Benefits

Let your visitors sent you completed forms
Completed form is automatically added to your Cap Dat ACORD system
The data in the completed form can be used in other forms or other programs

Here is a 3 minute and 2 second video of how this works







Or learn more at Simply Easier ACORD Forms Publish Forms

Friday, May 21, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 10 of 10

Online 24/7/365 Customer Service Made Easy with SehHey - Self Service Certificates of Insurance

After you have made the sale you customer will still need to get things from you.

A Certificate of Insurance is a common need for business accounts. Cap Dat ACORD uses the SehHey collaboration to provide you a great Self Service Certificate of Insurance options.
  • Better customer service
  • Less work for you
  • You are still in control and have a permanent record of all certificates issued
  • Happy customers who can get what he needs anytime he needs it
See how this is done in this video.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 9 of 10

Create a Policy Record Now That You Wrote the Policy

Now that you have turned a prospect into a customer, add the policy information to Cap Dat ACORD.

Policy information makes these features available...
  • Renewal list
  • Commission reports
  • Payments and payment history
See how this is done in this video.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How to Do business Online - Part 8 of 10

Get Your Prospects Signature Using SehHey

Getting signatures online is a constant problem no more using SehHey's collaboration tools. It is easy, safe and secure.
  • Access the documents through the free SehHey account you provide
  • Print the documents needing a signature
  • Sign the documents
  • Scan the signed documents
  • Upload the scanned and signed documents back into the free SehHey account you provide
See how this is done in this video.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

How to do Business Online - Part 7 of 10

Send a Text Message or an E-mail from Cap Dat ACORD

You can send e-mails or text messages to your prospects from the Cap Dat ACORD messaging center
  • E-mails go to your prospects normal email account
  • E-mails contain link allowing prospect to respond inside the Cap DAt ACORD messaging system
  • Text messages go to their phone
  • Permanent record of all are a part of Cap Dat ACORD Profile
See how this is done in this video.

Monday, May 17, 2010

How to do Business Online - Part 6 of 10

Share Applications and Proposals with Your Prospect

When you are ready to present a proposal to your prospect you can share the proposal with them using SehHey Lite Connect. This gives each of you the benefits of online collaboration without the inconvenience to your prospect of making them create yet another account.
SehHey Lite Connect benefits include...
  • Securely share documents, presentations and applications online
  • Allow your prospect to upload addtional documents or other files you may need to close the sale
  • Account access times out after 30 days
  • You can convert this to a full SehHey account at any time in the future when you make the sale and need to provide 24/7/365 online service
See how this is done in this video.

Friday, May 14, 2010

How to do Business Online - Part 5 of 10

Send Applications to Your Underwriter

Cap Dat ACORD's collaboration platform - SehHey - lets you submit your applications to your underwriters in a professional and secure manner. Benefits of using SehHey collaboration include...
  • Avoid Firewall and e-mail attachment size issues
  • Keep private information secure and compliant with privacy laws
  • Keep a single source of all documents and other data or files
See how this is done in this video.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 4 of 10

Complete Applications and Proposals

In working with folks there is always paperwork to complete, proposals and presentations to prepare and give. All this can be done securely and in an organized way inside Cap Dat ACORD.
  • Combine and complete ACORD forms and other applications, upload proposals, pictures, spreadsheets, etc to one single source space where all your team members - co-workers - can see and use the same information and documents.
  • Our messaging center allows you to keep a complete trail of all emails and text messages with the customer or prospect account and lets you share Customer emails with all members of your team for maximum customer service.
See how this is done in this video.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 3 of 10

Reminders - Follow Up and Keep Your Committments

During your conversations with your prospect you will make committments about the next steps you will take and a timeline for those steps. Cap Dat ACORD Reminders helps you keep these committments. You can...
  • Set e-mail Reminders to follow up
  • Assign Reminders to yourself, co-workers, multiple people for any given task
  • Use e-mail Reminders to send scheduled e-mails to clients and prospects
See how this is done in this video.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 2 of 10

Notes - Know What Was Said

As you work with your prospect you will keep notes about meetings and phone calls. Cap Dat ACORD Notes...
  • Keep and archive all notes about meetings and conversations
  • All information accessible to all members of your team - you control access permissions
  • All notes are permanently archived, including each version of every note
See how this is done in this video.

Monday, May 10, 2010

How to Do Business Online - Part 1 of 10

How to Do Business Online

Accomplish the Same Things from Your Online Office with Your Customers and Propsects as You Would if They Were in Your Physical Office

Lets take a look at how Cap Dat ACORD is used to work with a new prospect and turn them into a customer, then how you continue to use it to provide great customer service.
Start with meeting a new prospect.

Customer / Prospect Profiles - Know Who You Are Working With

When you have a new prospect the first step is to create a new Profile. Cap Dat ACORD Profiles...
  • Maintain each customer's data and related emails in an organized, single view
  • Make all information accessible to all members of your team - you control access permissions
See how this is done in this video.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Reminders in Cap Dat ACORD

Today we added reminders to our Cap Dat ACORD service.

Here is a short video showing the service.





Reminders - Follow Up and Keep Your Committments

During your conversations with your prospect you will make committments about the next steps you will take and a timeline for those steps. Cap Dat ACORD Reminders helps you keep these committments. You can...

1 - Set e-mail Reminders to follow up
2 - Assign Reminders to yourself, co-workers, multiple people for any given task
3 - Use e-mail Reminders to send scheduled e-mails to clients and prospects

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Securely and Private Share Files and Documents

SehHey Lite Connect allows you to share documents and files with your customers securely and privately.

Unlike sending files as an attachment to an email, sharing using SehHey is compliant with all existing state and Federal privacy laws.

In the video below you can see how easy it is to safely provide your customer with 24/7 self service access to an Automobile Proof of Liability Insurance Form.





Now you can share securely without making your customer set up their own account access to SehHey.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Email Attachments and Privacy Laws

Are you compliant with customer information privacy laws when you email a PDF or Word document as an attachment to your insured, your underwriters or a bank?

According to Steve Anderson’s The Agency Automation Report, 45 states now have privacy laws regarding how you protect personally identifiable information on your customers and prospects.. That means your state most likely has one in place. Oh - and so does the Federal Government.

Email Attachments and Privacy Laws - Basically Not Secure or Compliant

Are email attachments normally compliant with the new privacy laws? Most of the opinions I hear from various insurance trade organizations suggest that if your emails are not encrypted, then emails with attachments are not compliant.

There is an email encryption technology called TLS which is often recommended. The problem with email encryption technologies as I understand them is that the same encryption has to be in place on the sender's and receiver's email system for it to work. The plain truth is that this is rarely the case. Since the services using TLS encryption cost money, this is not likely to be the case ever.

Two Proven Compliant Solutions

We offer two alternatives - both of which are compliant. Neither of our solutions requires additional technology at either your end or on the part of the person to whom you are sending documents.

The most secure way to provide access to electronic forms, documents, etc is to share them from a secure online site.

Our Cap Dat ACORD and SehHey sites are both such sites. Because the documents you are sharing are never an email attachment, they can be accessed easily and securely, opened, reviewed, modified, saved, printed or downloaded. The data security and encryption are all maintained by and constantly updated by us.

Your Customer Creates Their Own Account Access

The most secure way to share is to invite the person to whom you want to share the documents to create a free account with their own log on and password. You can do this with our service, but many people do not like to have yet another log on to remember. We have made this easier by allowing people to use their Facebook Connect logon. But some folks don't have Facebook.

Secure Guest Privileges Access Through Email Link

The other way we let you share is through our Guest Privileges Connection. With this you send the person with whom you want to share a form an email with a secure token link. The person then only has to click on the link and they are automatically open the form you wish to share. They can then save the form locally or print the form.

Which is Most Appropriate

Guest Privileges Connect is great for sharing things on a limited time basis. A good example is new or renewal applications. Guest Privileges Connect tokens time out automatically, but they are active for more than long enough to allow these types of tasks to get done.

The full SehHey Sharing service is more appropriate for long term sharing such as providing 24/7/365 access to proof of insurance forms, certificates of insurance, change requests and other online customer services.

Protect Your Customers and Yourself

Don’t leave yourself exposed to loss of customer information and customer trust.

Check out our solutions at…

http://www.simply-easier-acord-forms.com/sehhey-for-cda.html

and

http://www.simply-easier-acord-forms.com/email.html

Monday, April 5, 2010

ACORD Forms in the iPad - Part 2

My iPad arrived just about 10:00 AM Saturday. The UPS truck looked like that was all they were delivering that day.

So do ACORD Forms work on the iPad. No - not ours using Adobe Reader to present the forms as fillable PDF forms. to be clear, PDF's do open on the iPad, but not as fillable forms. You can not enter information and save or print it. I have purchased the Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro for iPad. I will test it later and let you know if it changes this.

How does this make me feel about the iPad asks the psychologist?

I still love it, but I don't think it will be a killer device as it is currently set up.

I do think the type of device - a tablet computer - has finally shown us what personal computing will become over the next year or two. But Apple has intentionally limited the iPad so badly - I assume to protect it's other product lines - that as Android based devices are released which do not impose these artificial limitations on their hardware and software, those devices will replace my laptop and my iPad.

Here are the limitations which keep me from loving the iPad...

  1. Browser limitations which keep the whole World Wide Web unavailable to me. The very same web sites I can visit on my iPhone and iTouch I can not see using my iPad browser. Not acceptable in any way. I couldn't order take out last night from my iPad. I had to use my iTouch iPod. This is just stupid.
  2. No USB port. I need to move stuff on and off my iPad without having to get Apple's approval first. That kind of control ended in grade school when I had to get permission from Miss Frothingham to go to the bathroom.
  3. No camera. OK, now I'm just complaining because the other stuff - especially the browser - are so disappointing.

Do I like my iPad. Hell yes. Am I going to keep it. You bet. Will I be buying an Android based tablet when they come out. Probably more than one.

I agree with the reviewer who said they felt like they were holding the future in their hands.

I also understand the reviewer who called the iPad an iPhone without the phone. But I disagree. It is an iPhone without the phone or the full browser.

It is fortunate for Apple they got to the space first. If this device came out after the first well done Android device it would be another Apple Lisa. Oh yes, I have one of those also.

Monday, March 29, 2010

ACORD Forms on the iPad

I have to admit I am pretty excited about the arrival of my new iPad. I think it is the perfect tool for an insurance agent to take with them into the field to work with forms and customers.

Assuming I receive my iPad this Saturday - April 3rd - we will have all the ACORD forms available on the iPad by Monday, April 5th. I will be posting video of how it works about the same time.

Why do I think it is better than a laptop? I think when you are sitting at a table, showing documents to a customer, the iPad is much closer to the experience of actually showing a paper document.


  1. It is one flat surface - a laptop is two surfaces and the screen is limited related to the angles you can view.
  2. Like a piece of paper, you can lay the iPad flat on the table and turn the page to face your customer, but you can still read it upside down. Try doing that with a laptop.
  3. I hope you will be able to have your customer sign their name with their finger right on the screen. Not sure this is available, but wouldn't that be the best electronic signature ever?


I don't think you will use your iPad to complete the bulk of the information in an ACORD form, but making selective changes will be easy.

I know that using a program like our Cap Dat ACORD service, most of the time the things you are doing are not keyboard driven, but are mouse driven. The touch screen is so much better than a mouse you will not believe you ever used a mouse.

Keep a note to check back here on Monday morning to see how I feel after a few days of actually using the iPad with our ACORD forms services.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

15 Most Bizarre Insurance Polices Ever Written

The Business Insider has a great post today on the 15 most bizarre insurance policies ever written. -See post below.

Be sure to click on the "And You Thought Insurance Was Dull" link at the end to see the slide show of all 15 policies.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Track Commissions

You can do basic commission tracking with Cap Dat ACORD. We added this last week.



Over the next several months we will be adding to this basic functionality to allow you to do more - like track the producers share of the commission and run reports based on more criteria.

But a start is always better than no feature. Enjoy.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Import Data from Other Systems

Here is a quick video showing how easy it is to import data from other systems into our Certificate Center.



This allows you to get access to current forms - like the new ACORD Certificates of Insurance - faster and sooner than they may be available in your agency management systems.

A concern may be potential E&O exposure from using another system. We're way ahead of you on that. Everything you do in our Certificate Center creates a permanent log including a permanent image of the actual certificates you have issued. See our earlier posts on our Certificate Center features for a closer look.

Plus, for no extra cost, our Certificate Center includes Self Service Certificates - a secure and private way for you to allow your customers to get what they need from you 24/7/365.