At Applied Net 2023, Jim Zell, senior solution specialist at Applied, shared the ins and outs of utilizing the Applied Epic Renewals Manager to the fullest. Read on for his answers to a few common questions Applied users may have about this valuable tool.

What is Epic Renewals Manager?

Jim Zell (JZ): The Renewals Manager is a standard tool in Epic that aids in automating the renewal process by keeping track of policies due for renewal, and those nearing the renewal date, along with the status of each ongoing renewal.

Is this tool only available to customers using Epic in the browser?

JZ: No, the Renewals Manager is available to all customers who utilize Applied Epic, whether in the desktop application or through a browser interface.

I have heard that the Renewals Manager was designed only for the Commercial Lines staff — is that true?

JZ: The Renewals Manager can be utilized by staff working across all lines of business — personal, commercial and EB. It will help create efficiencies for all sizes of accounts.

Can I restrict what my employees see in Renewals Manager?

JZ: Renewals Manager has two forms of security. One option is to allow all users to see all renewals, allowing your staff to collaborate if needed across plans and policies. The second option is to limit what users can see via the “view others” access within their employee file. No matter which option, you have filtering functions such as timeframe, type code, department, servicing roles and more. You can also save filters as default views when you access the Renewals Manager.

Have the stages of the Renewals Manager been predetermined by Applied in the system?

JZ: No, Applied has given organizations a starting point but the Renewals Manager works best when you customize and add your own unique workflow stages. Sometimes the easiest way to determine them is to ask yourself, “What are the unique steps within our workflow that are the key milestones that we would like to track?” Answering that question in most cases gives you the stages for the Renewals Manager.

Does Download have any impact on Renewals Manager?

JZ: By default, Download does not have any effect on the Renewals Manager. However, you can activate a setting via the browser interface of Epic to allow Download to change the stages based on events you have configured in the Renewals Manager. Once activated, this setting will work with all of the interfaces used to access Epic.

What makes a policy show up in Renewals Manager? Is this hard coded?

JZ: The control for which policies populate in Renewals Manager resides in the policy section of configuration under type codes. While the default is 90 days prior to expiration, you can set a unique number of days for each policy type. Most organizations have a standard per department, but some policy types require additional effort, so customization is completed for each policy type.