Nov/Dec 2009 
...As we look back, it has been a tough year. It’s been a year full of events that have made us all stop and reflect and maybe re-evaluate what we’re doing.
Editor’s Note: The following was excerpted from the speech of Mark Layden, COO, Applied Systems Inc., at the opening session of the 2009 Technology, Education and Networking Conference in Kansas City, Mo., on October 14
I was talking with one of our colleagues last night and casually inquired, ‘How’s business? How’s it goin’?’ And with a big smile on her face she said, ‘We’re good. We’re flat.’
...Well, if the economy weren’t enough, we have a lot of other things preoccupying us... So what do we do in times like these?
We’re staying home. We’re talking to each other. We’re beginning to listen to each other.
Frankly, that’s the theme of what Applied Systems has been doing since we were together at last TENCon. At times like these, we draw on our resolve, our experience, on the strength of our community. And in the end, we are stronger...
So my intent today is to... demonstrate that your trust in us is well placed and to highlight our collective strength…
First, let me tell you that as always, we are confident and optimistic. Your partner is fiscally sound and we expect to meet or exceed our financial plans for this year—but it hasn’t been easy...
Like you, we’ve learned to do more with less. We’ve kept the number of our employees flat. But we’ve reallocated some employees, changing their focus from internal projects to projects that will most help you, our customers...
We’ve also been listening to you—a lot—and other credible members of our industry… We’re talking to you in lots of ways: Traditional ways like the ASCnet Product Advisory Committee... lots of agency visits...a strong beta program that…gives us good feedback.
Our customer support team is gathering new information about you so, again, we can learn better, listen more. Soon, as you log onto your client portal [at appliedsystems.com], we’ve got some innovations coming—it’ll look prettier, and it will ask you some probing questions about how you do business because we want to be there for you as you change and evolve the way you work.
...We’ve recommitted to fundamentals…you said ‘quality over quantity.’ You told us that, if necessary, we should put less emphasis on new features and concentrate on stabilizing the features and functionality that we already have. So we did.
In Canada... I’m happy to report that TAM 10.4—again, focus on stability—will be in beta testing by the end of this month. We expect to deliver that in January, and it delivers functionality that includes tight integration with CompuQuote.
Where’s TAM 11? Because we’ve listened to you—and again you told us without a doubt to focus on quality—we took our time, got the 10 series right, and we’re taking our time developing TAM 11 to make sure there are no future issues. TAM 11 is being carefully developed, and it’s coming to a theater near you in 2010…
We’ve heard that lots of you are interested in Epic…so we’re making a significant investment and commitment to assure you that, if and when you want to move to Epic, you will do so in an easy and efficient way...
Every day, more and more agents and brokers new to Applied Systems are adopting the Epic system. In August, we announced that Willis Group Holdings, one of the world’s largest brokers, has committed to Epic, planning to unite all of its offices on this single platform...
In time, you’ll be hearing that other very large brokerages are using Epic. But to tell the full story, Epic is for agencies and brokerages both big and small… We’re prepared to serve all of our customers...
We also want to move from teaching you how to use our systems to how to do business using our solutions… We’re developing new technology and business intelligence techniques to better understand you and your business...
...You tell us all the time what great customer support we have... We’d much rather you spend your time talking to your customers than talking to us. We aspire to make our support techs into the technology equivalent of the Maytag repairman—sitting next to phones that never ring.
If we do our jobs right, we’ll dazzle you—not with spectacular fireworks, not with new bells and whistles—but with the silence of excellence...
To read the full speech text, please go to www.ASCnet.org/AppliedSpeech09.