At Applied Net 2023, Terry Robinson, executive vice president for technology and strategy at Morrow Insurance, participated in an expert panel: “Agencies’ Experiences Using New Dashboards in Applied Epic.” Read on for his answers to a few common questions Applied users may have about this valuable tool.

What are the new Epic dashboards?

Terry Robinson (TR): The Epic dashboards bring together several key metrics into a pulse dashboard with the ability to drill down into each metric for further analysis. The pulse dashboard combines graphs, charts and numeric data to help users evaluate their data. Previously, the user would have to run multiple reports to determine this information. Users can also filter most dashboards by department, employee, timeframe, premium or commission and whether it is estimated or billed to create a custom view applicable to their needs.

How is this different from the dashboard on the home screen?

TR: The dashboard on the home screen reflects the sales status of the individual user or sales team defined by the opportunities in Epic. The new dashboards contain information on activities, book of business, retention, carrier business, expiring policies, sales, opportunities, payables, receivables and more.

Does everyone see the same dashboard?

TR: No. The agency’s system administrator controls which users have access to which dashboards. The dashboards are designed and are assigned based on the user’s role in the agency. The current available dashboards are principal/owner, department manager/servicing lead, sales manager, and IT/operations manager. The accountant dashboard is in pilot. The account manager/servicing rep and producer dashboards are still in development.

How has the pulse dashboard impacted your employees?

TR: The initial rollout was for our department managers/servicing lead. There is one person other than me in our agency who understands the report builder and queries enough to create and modify the Epic report builder. The pulse dashboard not only creates the summaries but brings multiple summaries together, so you have an overview on one screen rather than across multiple reports. One of the ongoing issues for servicing personnel is workloads. There is no one magic measurement that tells the whole picture, but with the drill downs and filters it is easier for the department manager to get a picture of each servicing team member’s workload by examining revenue, policies, clients, overdue activities and work efforts.

How steep of a learning curve has Epic dashboards been for your agency?

TR: The dashboards are intuitive. After about 30 minutes our department managers were comfortable using them.

What was an unexpected benefit of using Epic dashboards?

TR: When I started looking at the dashboards, I realized some of the numbers shown were wrong. The dashboards helped expose incomplete and incorrect data in our management system. These have been a great help in improving our data quality.

Are these tools only available to customers using Epic in the browser?

TR: Yes, Epic Browser is required to access the dashboards.

How do I get access to the dashboards for my agency?

TR: To get access to the dashboards, your agency must meet the following requirements:

• Currently licensing a pro/premium bundle
• Using the browser interface of Applied Epic
• Must be on a cloud environment and are prompted for a password (not using Epic Active Directory authentication) when logging in to Applied Epic
• Minimum of September 2023 release of Applied Epic Application Serve

If you are not sure if your agency meets these requirements, check with your system administrator. If you meet the requirements, visit this link to begin your agency setup process.

If you enjoyed this article, learn more about the new Epic dashboards through the December 2023 ACN webinar: Advancements in Applied Data. All webinars are free to ACN members — discover membership benefits today.