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Integra is easier to master. I downloaded the X-act 25 program and am trying to learn it. It has a steep learning curve, to me anyway. It does look like a fair program though, once mastered.

I did not address Powerclaim or Simsol as it was not part of the question

DS

I will chirp up for Simsol & PowerClaim. Both are can be mastered before the aforementioned two. I know a few vendors/carriers that will accept any software program. Most of these folks want heavy experienced adjusters for commercial losses only, Many of these vendors also do a lot or residentual flood/wind coverage.

I know for a fact you can send your notes to India and get an estimate back in xmate within 36 hours. All the software is a "tool" and one brand is not "better-more accurate-more accepted by the public, then another.

My choice is Power Claim and I have never lost a job, because I would not use one of the other three.

I'm with Ray in that Simsol beats Integra or Xactimate hands down.  Power Claim may, as well.  I know for a fact that both Simsol and Power Claim try much harder to fit adjuster needs.

But, since that is not what you asked, I can give you my perspective on Integra and Xactimate.  I have just completed an assignment where, for seven months, I was required to use Xactimate for some claims and Integra for others.  Integra takes longer to set up the claim and requires more information to create a claim file.  However, once you have entered the data, you will be able to create a more complete claim file within the Integra program.  Xactimate takes a very short time to set up the file, but you will need to use outside programs such as Word and Excel in order to complete the file and report.  Sketch is a little persnickety as well.  Where Simsol's CAD will allow you to make almost any type of diagram you wish, Xactimate will not let you input rooms in the order you wish or put walls wherever you need.  If all you need to do is an estimate for coverage A, then Xactimate is faster.  If the file requirement is more than that, Integra is more user friendly. 

Remember that Xactimate, though required by several major carriers, is at heart a contractor program adapted for use by adjusters.  IntegraClaim is an adjuster program based on the former Boeckhs and DDS platforms, both of which were also adjuster programs.  That may very well explain the ways in which they vary.

Now if someone could explain to me why any claim executive would choose to require Xactimate over Simsol, I might understand one of the great mysteries of corporate thinking.

Who was it that said if you are going to stay in the claims adjusting business for over 50  years, you must change with the times and be flexable ? Well it may have been me as I leased Xactimate 25 this past week. I am learing from scratch and would like to find someone in Houston who could let me come to them in the AM and assist me on my First and Final Reports from the day before. This will be a pure barter program on any type of Insurance Claim , including ride alongs on Commercial  property & liability claims as well as Homeowner Losses in the metro area.

 rayhall@kingwoodcable.net

I like Xactimate only for the reason about 5 years ago I purchased the product, what helped me was the knowledge of construction both new and remodeling, I have been a certified contractor in Florida for years, I am trying out  Sim & Power and what I have found is that the price lists are not current as they are in Xact which changes each quarter, If your familiar with construction and the local building codes of the area that you work in you'll be able to come up with a good deal for the insured, when I started I was working on supplements and redoing estimates for a public adjuster. It was not hard to redo a estimate, not blaming any one, but when you can do your estimate precisely per building code , up to date prices and methods of construction you seldom have a problem, My son who has a construction company usually gives me the copies of the insurance estimates, I review them and point out the problems that are there both in Xact , Interga and Simsol, in fact I trying out Simsol and Power claim on a trial basis. Xactimate runs me $ 115 plus tax per month and now they have a option where you can have Xact 24 & 25 on the same machine for an extra $ 50 per month, it seem if you upgrade to Xact 25 you can not use your Xact 24 records, does anyone know this to be a fact ?

I have had good and bad with Integra tech support. I had to learn MSB for a new account, and had grief finding how to add labor for odd tasks like temp brace framing during major repairs - so I called them and talked with 2 people, they said it couldn't be done. After I got off the phone I found where the pure labor was hidden in another category with the minimum charges.

I had been using Xactimate since 1993 so the different program has things where you aren't used to looking, and I understand that. But their tech support people should know where to find labor items.

With Xactimate you can insert a line item anywhere you want by clicking on the item below it, then press "insert" key. I did that out of habit on MSB and got a "divide by zero" message and the program froze. I lost my entire estimate. So I called tech support, they just said "don't do that" but had never heard of the problem. I asked how to save an estimate as you work, and they said the only way was to basically quit that claim and then re-open it. There should be a File -> Save. If there is one, their Tech Support couldn't say where it was.

When I started working with the dimensioning window on MSB, I felt like I was in a time warp, like the old DOS days of Xactimate ver 5.8 or the Bluebook "best" software.

I asked Tech Support about this new version of MSB that Tom was talking about that was supposed to be a huge advancement - and the tech support guy I was on the phone with hadn't heard about it. But I assume they will make improvements, I'm sure it will get better.

Yeah - I have seen people at storms that look like they are living that nightmare. Not a good time to learn software. Send off for the $30 training disk and go through all the tutorials. Then you have a fighting chance of keeping up with the overload of storm claims. Especially if you can do daily claims between catastrophes, cuz you gotta use it or you will forget.

Since my original post on this topic so many years ago, I have worked with multiple incarnations of Xactimate. I have also learned and used Integriclaim, PowerClaim, SimSol, and Symbility.   After working over 800 hail claims in Symbility, I find that Symbility is very easy to learn and use.  I haven't abandoned Xactimate (yet), because so many carriers require it.  BUT, I like the ease of use in Symbility, the photo-labeling is easier, sketching is easier once you figure it out, and they use the MS/B pricing and selection system, so it's like having a beefed up version of old Integriclaim with some Xact-ish features.

Since my original post on this topic so many years ago, I have worked with multiple incarnations of Xactimate. I have also learned and used Integriclaim, PowerClaim, SimSol, and Symbility.   After working over 800 hail claims in Symbility, I find that Symbility is very easy to learn and use.  I haven't abandoned Xactimate (yet), because so many carriers require it.  BUT, I like the ease of use in Symbility, the photo-labeling is easier, sketching is easier once you figure it out, and they use the MS/B pricing and selection system, so it's like having a beefed up version of old Integriclaim with some Xact-ish features.