Forums

Earnie
I have tried them both and I am not sure. I can not decide.
Bill Cook

Posted By GENEVA on 01 May 2012 02:26 PM

Guys (and Ladies) who know/use both Simbility and Xactimate:

Beside price (simbility is cheaper) what are real differences?  Which is stronger for routine estimating?  Tell me why I would choose one over the other beside price and everyone seems to use Xactimate?  Help!

Ernie    

.....................................................

Between the two, Symbility which is now integrated with MSB Integra Claim(Merging platforms) in my opinion is FAR more user friendly and yes indeed is cheaper than XM8. A version of Symbility in use in the UK purports that average claims can be adjusted and resolved from the desk sans a field adjuster.

However be that as it may, in the CAT industry the choice of estimating platforms is essentially taken away from the adjuster as most carriers insist on using XM8.

 

 

 

 

Robby Robinson 

 

On a roof replacement, what does Simbility include in the replace and what line items need to be added besides the usual felt etc

How much is Simbility?

Posted By rogpayx22 on 20 Jul 2012 01:31 PM
On a roof replacement, what does Simbility include in the replace and what line items need to be added besides the usual felt etc

For example on a 3-Tab 25 year shingle, the replace line item includes:  Shingles, Starter Strip, roofing nails, and labor per SQ.  It does not include ridge cap, valley roll, drip edge, vents or felt.  Example of pricing for the replace function of these shingles (using a San Diego Price List) is Symbility:  $186.42/SQ vs Xm8 $154.26/SQ.

Prior to Symbility moving to the MSB database, line items were more of an A'la Carte.  It is much better.  Roof claim for a 1600 SF home can be done much quicker in Symbility than XM8. 

Posted By rogpayx22 on 20 Jul 2012 01:32 PM
How much is Simbility?

The program is free, there are no contractors or monthly fees.  When you create a claim you are charged $15.00 per claim.

Might I point out that, at $15.00 a claim, Symbility is more expensive than Xactimate, at least if we do any volume of claims. Last year I handled about 300 claims. A professional Xactimate license is $2200 to $2300. A basic license is about $1600. Handling 300 claims in Symbility would have cost $4500. Increasingly I am being asked to use both platforms with occasional requests to also use Simsol. And at the same time fee schedules are being lowered. Because I am in an area where demand for adjusters exceeds available adjusters, I can be very finicky about what claims I take. For those who are not in that situation, I hope something changes soon.

Steve,

I agree with you regarding the cost issue, and would also like to point out the market share issue as well. Xactimate is so entrenched in the industry that more people on both sides of the table understand how it works. We still may have controversy over codes and individual pricing, but I find it is more difficult with Symbility and Simsol.

Don't get me wrong, I love Simsol (aside from the CAD module), it is a great claim handling system and rock-solid, but the smaller market share makes it a harder sell in the field. Since I have to pay for my own software, I have trouble justifying the cost of two systems. It's not just the lease fees, but training, expertise and focus split between multiple systems.

Symbility, in my opinion, is just not ready for prime time at this point. The cost factor is a real tipping point for me.

Dale Strain, AIC

We prefer Xactimate, for a multitude of reasons. Some carriers require it, but other carriers require other software, so you provide what the client wants. That all said, with a few notable exceptionally rural exceptions (like the barrier islands along the eastern Coast and the Gulf or the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma or TX), we can usually find a dozen or more contractors willing to work on Xactimate pricing, which satisfies the questions that are inevitably asked during a dispute on the value of a loss, those being "The policy says 'reasonable cost to repair'. Where is 'reasonable' defined in the policy?" or "Who defines 'reasonable'?". We have found that if one can point to an even dozen willing and able contractors willing to perform a task for a certain cost, that cost can indeed be interpreted as "reasonable", and frankly it doesn't get that far, as no contractor wants another dozen contractors sticking their noses into and possible securing the project that they have closed the deal on. Some systems, due to lower (sometimes ridiculously so) price lists do not yield the same results.

Some platforms are more geared to certain losses than others (Simsol and NFIP flood, for example), but as far as a stand alone platform, we prefer Xactimate. Almost everyone with a reasonable amount of experience is at least somewhat familiar with it, many, many contractors use it (which reduces disputes to scoping issues rather than pricing issues) and overall, the cost at $1,500 per year when compared to Symbility at $15 per claim more or less makes it a winner. I shudder to think of the cost of a banner year using Symbility. At $15 each, a couple of decent seasons could easily run into the 7 figures for some companies.

I would love to see a strong competitor come on the market, but Symbility as currently implemented just isn't it. In addition to the costs, maybe I was turned off by their salesperson that contacted us trying to get all of our adjusters to move from Xactimate to Symbility. I asked the most coveted of all questions that a salesperson wants to hear: "What makes your product better than the one we are currently using and how can it help the company and our field staff?". If I was a pitcher who just left a big fat and slow curve ball just sitting over the plate waiting to be knocked out of the park, I couldn't have set it up better for that guy. It's a question that screams "SELL ME, SELL ME NOW!". The response was "I will have to look into that and get back to you". 

I quit taking his calls and stayed with what works. 

I checked into Symbility a little more closely because I have some clients who are preferring it. The cost is $15 per claim with a monthly maximum of $150. So, the maximum cost per year would be $1800. This places it, cost-wise, between the cost of an Xactimate basic license and an Xactimate professional license. Catmandale and AcceleratedAdjuster have both put their fingers on the primary considerations, however. The cost is irrelevant to some degree. The more important consideration is what the carrier wants or requires. Because Xactimate has such a large market share it is difficult to get around using it. Apparently some are beginning to require Symbility and a few companies require Simsol. Ten years ago you could sort of get away with using whatever program you chose to use, especially on the larger CAT events. So, for instance, I was able to use Simsol during Hurricane Katrina and run circles around those using Xactimate because Simsol was the more user friendly program. But that was 2005-2006. This is now. Increasingly, insurance carriers want to tell us how to write the estimate and then pretend it is an independent estimate. Xactanalysis makes it easy to do this. Presumably Symbility does the same. These are the platforms that will increasingly be used in order to allow carriers to keep control of the claims they assign. It makes sense to have Xactimate and also learn how to use Symbility because there is no cost to Symbility unless and until you use it for a claim. Even then, it makes sense to pick and choose which claims we accept if Symbility is required. A carrier who wants us to handle a claim for a flat rate of $200 where we are going to get 60% and then have $5 deducted for E&O and pay $15 to use Symbility should just be told to go find another adjuster.

Funny, the horrible Symbility sales rep did not discuss the cap on the fees with me, and that was the first thing I asked about, as it did occur to me that just 6 or 7 thousands claims would make the estimating software cost us 100k. I saw it as every bit as expensive as XactAnalysis without any of the benefits. Had the sales guy told me that, and been able to articulate why he thought he was selling a decent product, I might have talked to him more. 

There's a valuable lesson: While we all know a new sales guy has to start knocking on doors at some point, remember that they do reflect on your company. *Makes note to self and kills the master plan to send armies of eager and completely untrained marketing reps to wreak havoc on the planet