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Glad they are working with you - sounds promising.

My grief when I tried to use MSB was finding the repair item I was looking for.  Getting used to the concept "here is a door, do you want to replace it, paint it, detach it, or clean it"

With Xactimate,  the door items are strictly what a door subcontractor would do - remove, replace, etc. 

With Xactimate, the paint items are all together.  You go there to paint doors, walls, whatever.   It is grouped by trade, not by the object being worked on.

With Xactimate, the cleaning items are all together.  You can clean doors, floors, cabinets, etc.

I suppose it is just what you are used to.  If I had been using MSB for all these years, I could do it in my sleep.  After the 5th estimate with MSB, I found out how to get the repair items I needed, but still preferred the Xactimate database and how it is arranged.  One of the bummer's with Xactimate is the database is SO HUGE it is like a needle in a haystack, but the search feature works very, very well.  And within a category, like framing or whatever, you can hit F2 and search just within Framing, and find what you need very quickly.

MSB has that "advanced search" feature, but so far it has tended to make me wade through 10x more wrong items to find the one I want than Xactimate does.  But I've been using Xactimate for 15 years so I suppose you get comfortable with it's flaws as well.

That works most of the time for me - but occasionally Xactimate doesn't call it the same thing you do. You know it's there but cannot find it in the database.

When that happens to me, I click on the column for item description, so that it sorts the items by their description (not the cryptic code for the repair items).  It's amazing to see what happens when you do that, all of the "seal and paint" items are grouped together instead of scattered, etc. 

The more I stumbled around with MSB the more I missed the ability to "hone in" on what I was looking for.  Of course the reverse is true for someone migrating to Xactimate.  It's hard for an adult to learn a new language...

Bob,Thank You for your support. Allstate settled their differences with me by giving me everything I asked for. They liked the fact I run MSB through Xactware.

THX.

John Blakesmith

Seattle

After having lost thousands of dollars in the Katirina fiasco because of Integriclaim, I felt inclined to take legal action for their comcentral issues, but decided against it. A number of you wanted to take a class action against them because of this. Now, after working for hours on files and having problems again, they resolved the problem of file export/import, but, the files were lost, even after a backup was made, per their techs advice. Their answer, "I guess your just gonna have to do them over again". 10 hours of work down the tubes because of their inferior product.

These software companies that go up in price every year are failing us. I intend to take some type of action against MSB and possibly the entire spectrum of adjusting software for their inferior products that cost us thousands of dollars a year. They are not supplying us a program that works and with prices in the database that are not current. If any of you wish to join this, please advise.

Gayle, your rationale is correct, sometimes we lose at the courthouse, sometimes we win. So you think we should pay $1.600.00 per year for an estimating system that may cost us hours in time and money we could have earned because of their inferior product? I don't, and I am sure most don't. IC was a good system when presented as DDS years ago. Thats the product I would like to see come back. It was dependable, good data base, allowed us to change to the today prices, and reporting was flawless. So you think we should never challenge inferior products!

Gale, I agree with your analogy, completely. However,  I will not roll over and play dead like they would want me to. Monetary loss is monetary loss, anyway you look at it. I understand that estmating systems are complex and problems do arise, however, yoou do not sell that program do an audience if it does not work correctly. They are still having problems with comcentral, ever after four years of knowing there is a problem. I don't accent food being forced down my throat. I can assure you, there is a listening audience out there somewhere, and I will find it.

Thanks Roger, I had heard that, but was reluctant to believe it. I will address that issue also. If we are forced to use a certain product, by a vendor and the vendor is the culprit, then they should be dealt with also.

We have our own claim service in Arkansas, so we are MSB Integraclaim users. You are right that when we work for a vendor who requires IC, then they are the users. In any case, MSB owes, to whomever uses their program, as does Exactimate, a program consistant with prices and ease of use without failure. We pay a ridiculous price for these programs and have every right to expect them to work as the provider has promised and indicated in their literature.

Tom,

In my former position, I was working extensively with MS/B for years attempting to share data between IntegriClaim and a proprietary system.   While I had some say in the matter, the integration went slow because of my requirement of real-time testing.  I relished the opportunity to crash the system because I understand that once it is released to the masses, they will not follow precise directions.  That authority was removed before Katrina and a new crony was hired specifically for that purpose.  The rest is history.  

Since leaving that job I have been using/training on the other system.