Contacts

Use Contacts to look up names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for a customer, company, additional interest, claims contact, bank, employee, email contact, master certificate holder, members of a target list, vendor, recipient list, or other individuals entered throughout AMS360.

In the footer at the bottom of any page, click Contacts.

  1. To start an email message, first select the Category of the Contact you want to use from the drop-down list, and then do the following, depending on which Category you selected:
Category What do I do next?

Additional Interests

Enter one or more letters of the additional interest name. This limits the additional interest names that appear in the grid.

Banks

Enter one or more letters of the bank name and click refresh. The banks that begin with the letters you entered appear in the grid.

Brokers

Enter one or more letters of the broker name and click refresh. The brokers that begin with the letters you entered appear in the grid.

Claims Contacts

Search for the customer and select the claim to display the contacts.

Company

Select the company from the Name list. This filters the contact list to those for the selected company.

Customer/Policy

Search for the desired customer name. Then, select a Policy if desired. This filters the contact list of Names to only those for the selected policy.

Email Contacts

If you use Microsoft Outlook® as your email software, you can select this category to list email addresses stored in your Outlook Contacts.

  • If you do not use Microsoft Outlook, this Category returns no contacts; the grid remains blank.
  • When you select this category, Outlook sends you a message asking "A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this?" If you want to allow this, select the amount of time you will allow access, and click Yes. The addresses appear in the grid.

Employees

Select Employees in the Category field. Employees fill the grid.

 

To quickly find the employee(s) you want to use, you can sort by any column in the grid by clicking on the column header.

Master Cert Holders

Enter one or more letters of the master cert holders name. This limits the list of master cert holder names that appear in the grid.

Target List Members

Select the Target List from the Name list. This filters the names to the members of the selected "Target List."

Vendors

Enter one or more letters of the Vendor name and click Refresh. The Vendors that begin with the letters you entered appear in the grid.
  1. Select a name from the grid and click To> in the Mail Recipients section. The email address for the selected contact appears in the To> box.
  2. Yyou can select one or more email addresses for each of the sections (To>, Cc> [carbon copy], or Bcc> [blind carbon copy]).
  3. To select the recipients in a contiguous group select the first recipient, hold down the shift key and select the last recipient.  If you want to select recipients that are not in contiguous order, select your first recipient, hold down the Ctrl key and select your next recipient, then your next, and on until all recipients are selected.
  4. In the Attachments section, select the file(s) you want to send.
  5. Click Email. A new message opens in your email editor with the names and email addresses prefilled. If you accessed the form either from the Documents or My Documents view, then the document file is attached. Type, "including attachments" if necessary, and send the message.
 

The format in which the email message is saved in an Activity is determined by the setup in the System Configuration section of AMS360 Toolbox > System Administration > Doc360 Setup. If the file type is MSG the email message is saved as unsent. To save it as sent use HTML file type.

The following menus are available in a data entry form. Click each menu item to see detailed information. Note that the available menus vary depending on the form.

If you have Microsoft Outlook as your default mail program the only section that appears is the Recipient Selection section.

Field Name/ Group What is this?

Category

Each Category has different fields available on this form. You can choose from the following categories:

 

After selecting a Category, you must tab out of the field for the names to appear in the list or the grid.

After selecting a Category, you must tab out of the field for the names to appear in the list or the grid.

Category What is this?

Additional Interests

Use to display Interests entered in Additional Interest Setup.

Banks

Use to display Banks entered in Bank Setup and viewed in the Bank Center.

Brokers

Use to display Brokers entered in Broker Setup and viewed in the Broker Center.

Claims Contacts

Use to display Claims Contacts entered in Claims.

Company

Use to display all types of companies entered in Company setup. This category also includes personnel entered for each company.

Customer/Policy without a Policy selected

Default Category

When you select Contacts while viewing a Customer the customer's name also defaults.

  • You are able to use Search and select a different Customer.
  • You are able to display Active & Inactive customers or prospects.
  • You are able to display name, email, phone numbers, and address of the following un-deleted contacts:
  • Customer/Prospect - You are able to display Firm Name, as well as DBA, and First & Last Name of Active and Inactive.
  • Dependents
  • Customer Personnel - Executive, Representative, Broker.

Customer/Policy with a Policy selected
  • You are able to list Customer & Policy/Submission Contacts.
  • You are able to select any un-deleted Policy/Submission of a Customer.
  • You are able to default to the Policy/Submission you opened when selecting Contacts.
 

The Contact form will display information based on the maximum effective date of the Policy.
  • In addition to the Customer Contacts (Customer, Dependents, Personnel), you are able to display name, E-mail,  phone numbers, and address of the following for a specific un-deleted Policy/Submission for these un-deleted contacts:
    • First Named Insured / Applicant
    • Co-Applicants (Co-Insureds)
    • Insurance - Will list the Parent Company on the Policy and all the addresses in setup.
    • Supplemental Names
    • Policy Personnel - Executive, Representative, Broker.
    • Contacts
    • Underwriter
    • Additional Interests

Email Contacts

If you use Microsoft Outlook as your email software, you can select this category to list email addresses stored in your Outlook Contacts.

 

If you do not use Microsoft Outlook, this Category returns no contacts; the grid remains blank.

When you select this category, Outlook sends you a message asking "A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this?"

Select the duration of time allowed and click Yes. The addresses appear in the grid.

Employees

Use to display Employees entered in Employee Setup and viewed in the Employee Center.

Master Cert Holders

Use to display Master Certificate Holders entered in Additional Interest Setup.

Target List Members

Use to display members of a Target List from Target Lists in the Sales Center.

Vendors

Use to display Vendors entered in Vendor Setup and viewed in the Vendor Center.

If you select Contacts from the Customer or Company Center, the Category and Name fields in the Contacts form default to the open customer or company.

Likewise, if you select Contacts with a Policy or Submission open, the Category and Name fields in the Contacts form default to the current customer and policy and displays information accordingly.

Name

Use to select one of the following:

Name What is this?

Additional Interests

Enter one or more letters of the name and click Refresh. A list of names that meets your search criteria appears in the grid.

Bank

Brokers

Claims Contacts

Enter one or more letters of the customer name and click Search. The Customer Search form appears. Choose the customer and click Select. Then choose a claim number from the list.

Company

Select the desired company name from the list.

Customer

Enter one or more letters of the customer name and click Search. The Customer Search form appears. Choose the customer and click Select.

See the Basic Search section of Customer Search for more information.

Email Contacts

Select the contact from the list.

 

Each time you select Email Contacts AMS360 imports and displays your Outlook contacts. They are not stored permanently in AMS360.

Employees

Select the desired employee from the list.

Master Cert Holder

Enter one or more letters of the name and click Refresh. A list of names that meets your search criteria appears in the grid.

Target List Members

Select the desired Target List from the list that appears. All email addresses from the list display in the grid.

Vendors

Enter one or more letters of the name and click Refresh. A list of names that meets your search criteria appears in the grid.

Policy #

This field only appears when the Category is Customer/Policy and you have a customer selected. Use to view policy or submission-specific contact information:

  • Supplemental Names
  • Policy Contacts
  • Policy Personnel (Exec, Rep, and Broker)
  • Underwriter
 

If the Underwriter email address is not set up in Company Setup, then only the Underwriter's name will display.
  • Additional Interests

Fields in Grid
Column Names Information

Type

Indicates where the name is found.

Example For a First Named Insured, the type would be Applicant.

Title

Indicates a title assigned to the name.

Example For a Broker, the title displays Net Broker or Gross Broker.

Firm Name

If a DBA or a second name exists, that name appears. This field is also used for Companies.

Name

The name of the Customer, Dependent, Additional Insured, Personnel, and others.

Email Address

The email address entered for the name displayed.

Summary Information

Displays name, address, phone numbers, and email information for the selected name (line) in the grid.

Mail Recipients

Use this area to select email addresses for a message. Select the name in the grid and click one of the following to add the name to the mail recipients list:

Mail Recipients What is this?

To

The primary recipients of the message.

Cc

The names to "carbon copy" on the message.

Bcc

The names to "blind carbon copy" on the message. These names do not appear to the primary or Cc recipients.

Email

Launches your email software. If you have entered names in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, these names appear in the appropriate fields on the email message.

Clear

Removes all recipients added in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields.

You can delete one name at a time from the To, Cc, and Bcc areas by selecting the name and pressing [Delete] on your keyboard.

Send Using Plain Text Only

Not selected by default. Email format will use whatever your Outlook options are set to.

This check box allows you to force a message into plain text, if you feels it's necessary for a particular recipient.

Log Activity

The Contacts form defaults the Activity Logging Center to Customer with the customer name and policy number identified once a customer and/or policy is selected. Activity Logging always retains this default until you choose to change it.

AMS360 retains customer related information once it has been selected for that session. However, if you never select the customer category this functionality does not apply.

Item What is this?

Center

Required if Log Activity box is checked. Choose from:

  • Bank
  • Broker
  • Company
  • Customer - Default for the following Contact Category selections:
  • Additional Interest
  • Claims Contacts
  • Customer/Policy
  • Email Contacts
  • Master Cert Holders
  • Target List Member
  • Employee
  • Vendor

Name
Name What is this?

Bank

Select the desired Bank/Broker/Company name from the list.

Broker

Company

Customer

Enter one or more letters of the customer name and click Search. The Customer Search form appears. Choose the customer and click Select.

See the Basic Search section of Customer Search for more information.

Employee

Select the desired Employee/Vendor from the list.

Vendor

Policy#

Select the desired Policy from the list. This field only appears when the Center is Customer.

Eff Date

Defaults to the greatest Transaction Effective Date on the selected Policy. This field only appears when the Center is Customer.

Claim, Claim Search
  • Defaults Claim to the selected Claim.
  • Search link opens Find Claim.
  • Field displays Claim information from the Loss Date  and Claim# columns.
  • Selecting a Claim fills the Policy and Eff Date fields associated with the Claim.
  • This field only appears when the Center is Customer.

The following sections appear briefly and then are handled in the background by AMS360 if you have Microsoft Outlook™ as your default email program. For other MAPI-compliant email, these sections display and must be completed for the information to be logged in an Activity.

 

The Activity is logged when you click Email in the Recipient Selection section. The format in which the email message is saved in an Activity is determined by the setup in the System Configuration section of AMS360 Toolbox > System Administration > Doc360 Setup. If the file type is MSG the email message is saved as unsent. To save it as sent use HTML file type
Field Name/ Group What is this?

Activity will be logged for...

Display Only. The name of the selected Customer, Policy, and/or Claim appears, if selected.

Subject

Enter the subject you want to appear in your email message. The limit is 200 characters. (Same as for the subject line in Outlook.)

Email Text

Type the text of your email message.

Use the right mouse button for font and color formatting.

If you open Contacts from eForms Manager, a forms .pdf is attached and appears in the Attachment grid.

Field Name/ Group What is this?

Attachment Description

Optional. Enter a description for the file you are attaching.

File Name

Display Only. The name of the file automatically appears after you have selected it using Find File.

Find File

Click this link to open the Find File dialog box. The most common file types that you can add are:

  • Word© documents (doc)
  • Excel© spreadsheets (xls)
  • Images (gif or jpg)
  • Portable Document Formats (pdf)
  • Text files (txt).

You can attach almost any file except the following types and other files that may cause damage to your database. AMS360 prevents you from adding these:

  • Executable (exe)
  • Batch (bat)
  • Visual Basic Script (vbs)
  • Dynamic Link Library (dll)
Field/Link What is this?

Look in

Choose the folder where the file resides.

File Name

Once you choose the file from the display, the name appears.

Files of type

The default is Word© files. Choose Word files, Image files, PDF files, or All files.

If you attempt to add a file type that is not registered you receive a warning asking if you still want to attach it. If you do attach the file you may not be able to view it later.

Vertafore recommends that you attach only file types that are associated with programs in the Windows Registry.

See Windows Explorer Help for information on registering file types.

Open

After selecting a file click Open to attach it to the Activity.

Cancel

Use to return to the Attachment data entry form without selecting a file.

Delete file after saving

Check this box if you want to delete the file from its original location and save it to the selected location as an attached file to this Activity

What's Next?

For more information about entering company personnel see Company. For more information about entering customer information see Customer.

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