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Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 195
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 7:11 pm: | 
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Our new release, PowerClaimXML has been mailed out to all of our current PowerClaim users. By this week each PowerClaim user should have their new CD so call if you have not received yours. This version includes Captioned Reports, Contents Database and a Property Valuation Report.
One new underlying feature that I am very excited about is the additional new feature that you can Download from our website under Updates if you have a version of PowerClaimXML already installed on your computer. It will leave an icon of a Space Shuttle on your Desktop that will permit you to simply and quickly download new future updates in just a matter of minutes even with a slow modem connection. With DSL or Cable it is under one minute.
If you would like a to try PowerClaimXML free for 30-days just select Free Trial after clicking to the Downloads page at www.powerclaim.com or email me at gale@powerclaim.com or just call 1-800-736-1246. Thanks.
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mark salmon
Registered User
Username: Olderthendirt
Post Number: 203
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 09, 2002 - 9:57 am: |
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If we had been ment to esimate with mouse and key board, then we would have been born with a third hand or at least a prehensile tail. |
Chuck Deaton
Member
Username: Chuckdeaton
Post Number: 34
Registered: 3-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 08, 2002 - 11:08 pm: |
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For about 30 bucks you can buy a SanDisk USB reader. Win98 will recognize it as an additional drive and you can transfer your photos to PhotoAdjuster or DDS.
Mount a USB hub in your vehicle and you can plug in the SanDisk, DeLorme and a Printer and attach it to your laptop with one cable. |
Dale Strain
Registered User
Username: Catmandale
Post Number: 19
Registered: 1-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 08, 2002 - 2:02 pm: |
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Ghost,
I know this is a tangent, but still related to computers and how we use them.
If you are trying to use the USB and cable type connection from camera to laptop...I recommend you just give it up. I finally settled on a USB reader for the media itself(CompactFlash or other)and have the laptop see the media as a drive for upload. Or you could try an adapter to PCMIA since it's a laptop.
I went the whole route, downloading WinXP drivers and patches and changing settings and swilling fine Scotch whiskey...didn't happen.
Good luck. |
Ghostbuster
Registered User
Username: Ghostbuster
Post Number: 303
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 08, 2002 - 11:52 am: |
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OK, let's start off with those insultingly cutsie icons up top that strain my eyes trying to discern what they are. They make me think I am at a McDonalds cash register.
Then, it used to be simple to make and use a macro. I continue to have no idea how to do it tho I have been shown countless times.
And, philosophically, with 5.8 they had it right. All it needed was a few basic forms added to it, like a photo sheet, or maybe a statement of loss. If anything, it needed some minor tweaking. Did we do that? Noooo, we had to go and reinvent the wheel and put corners on it then glue it to the axle with over complication of the whole program.
These reasons are just for starters...
P.S. I have just spent the entire weekend trying to get my laptop and new digital camera to like each other, and it ain't been a happy courtship so far. I continue to persevere. |
Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 194
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 07, 2002 - 11:59 pm: |
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Jim, there are more than a few in the CAT world still using DOS packages like EZ-Bid, CMS, Boeckh, Simsol and others by choice. Windows will never offer as simple as a solution as DOS just like the most stripped down car today is much more complex and expensive to maintain than that straight six, three speed on the column 1960 Biscayne Chevrolet with no computers, no electronics except for tube radio, no seat belts, no 5 MPH bumpers (just metal bumpers bolted to a steel frame that ran bumper to bumper). You could do a major tune-up in 30 minutes yourself for less than $10 for parts.
Government regulations has not effected adjusting software that much but ego driven techno developers have been able to turn simple into complex and get the powers to be to pay for it. It all started out in the “labs” to be a great thing to save time and money but in your view and those of others it seems to have run amuck some where along the way.
We are considering a CAT version of PowerClaim at some point since we have several users (IA’s and adjusting firms) in the CAT world. The fact is if software helps speed up a CAT adjuster’s performance then it will do the same for the non-CAT adjuster. We are told we are the quickest to learn from scratch but slower than several DOS packages in the field. One CAT adjuster was happy when he learned he did not have to use the mouse when entering line items. He was not the first that thought all Windows programs required clicking on drop-down lists do everything instead of using the tab and enter keys.
Jim, Windows programs are a lot like these new computer controlled cars that are going to do what they are programmed to do regardless of what the drive may wish to do. The same is true when programming in the Windows environment, the developer’s hands are somewhat tied by development languages that do so much behind the scenes and out of control of the developer.
Regardless of these issues the developer that listens to you in the trenches instead of stroking his own ego should make the CAT adjusters more pleased than seems to be the case.
What are 3 things about 5.8 that just seem to stand head and shoulders above Windows versions of adjusting software? We know you and others are serious and are challenged to see if there is a way to create a Windows version that gives you both the power and speed you need. Don’t tell others but PowerClaim has a lot of room for improvement as well. |
Jim Flynt
Registered User
Username: Jimflynt
Post Number: 331
Registered: 6-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 7:54 am: |
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For your information, Ghostbuster, Russ Lott, myself and I am sure many others STILL have Xactmate 5.8 loaded and usable on our computers.
It was, is and always will be the best software package ever written for adjusters bar none, and all the software vendors can brag about their latest most up to date features 'til the cows come home, but you'll never touch nor beat 5.8!
I suppose 5.8 and a few of us DOS loving Dinosaur Adjusters truly are relics of another more prehistoric age <Sigh> but 5.8 truly allowed us to write dynamite estimates.
(Message edited by jimflynt on June 09, 2002) |
Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 192
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 1:51 am: |
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Ghost, one of the staff pointed out (while I was out on the road) your post mentioning Xactimate 5.8 (I have been on the marketing road for several weeks now and was working in the Dallas/FW area this past week in conjunction with TAIIA’s semi-annual CE event).
It seems like maybe you are addressing the DOS vs. Windows issue. It is just about impossible to make Windows developers out of DOS programmers but even if that hurdle can be crossed in time there is the pressure from the DOS legacy user to keep the old DOS look and feel in the new Windows product. I though maybe the ability to turn your clock back and keep using some of the DOS based estimating packages was what made them still attractive to some CAT adjusters.
PowerClaim users (former Xactimate users) tell us that an adjuster can be up to speed in 1/10th of the time using PowerClaim when compared to Xactimate. While we at HRI have no plans to produce a 5.8 look alike you are welcome to look at what some former Xactimate 5.8 users have moved to today because of our functionality and of course the lower cost does not hurt.
In fairness to Xactimate, PowerClaim is geared for the adjusting industry and not contracting as it is. Unlike Xactimate, PowerClaim was designed upfront to quickly and cost effectively move claims to and from the area of loss without the use of addition proprietary software which took 2 - 3 years for any other vendor to emulate.
Since Xactimate sales staff have told me they are 50-50 split between contractors and adjusters that means it is impossible for them to put all of their eggs (commitment) into the adjusting industry as we have done. Ghost, week before last we where able to get a 700 adjuster carrier that is still handwriting to agree to evaluate PowerClaim for their adjusting software needs. Another 400 staff handwriting carrier has started to scale into using PowerClaim company-wide.
The IA’s using PowerClaim are aware of our long term commitment to that market because they are the driving force behind any software package staying current (technically speaking) in the market place long-term. The carrier market is important to IA group because the carrier market provides the volume that permits an adjusting software firm to be profitable (keep its doors open). The day of the one-man software firms that could survive with a few hundred IA’s using their software are long gone because of today’s technical and cost requirements to create and maintain a world class adjusting software.
Ghost as you know there are politics involved with what software is preferred by each carrier. Typically the claims manager may play the deciding role and is the reason you can even see large firms using different software in different parts of the country in both property and auto losses. Today every major carrier in the US has accepted PowerClaim estimates even though some are tied in one or more ways to Xactimate or some other software package.
Now that Open Standards based on XML are becoming a reality in the world of property claims, “brands” of adjusting software will mean less and less to the management of all carriers in the future because not one of them are excited about supporting proprietary claims databases that limit their ability to operate as profitable as possible. After 11 Sept 01, value is one thing that has become more important to every carrier in the world.
Xactimate 5.8 seems to have been better than sliced bread to a few adjusters but I am sure it is history but our commitment to you and your industry is to insure that PowerClaim is the most easy-to-use full function software on the market and at a price that shows integrity rules the business of the company.
Ghost you are welcome to a copy of PowerClaim so you can tell us where in your view PowerClaim is short of what you miss about Xactimate 5.8. Of course even when PowerClaim meets your expectation it does not mean that it will be an option for you to use on every CAT you get a call to run claims. Our current users that have used Xactimate do expect PowerClaim to become the most used adjusting software on the market but that is based on common sense ruling the day, which both you and I know, is a very optimistic view of the world to come.
As some may remember at one point, I spent a lot of time making a lot of noise  about PowerClaim and what it was going to become along with what was going to happen with some of the competition but that was before we had much pudding for any “proof” to exist. Those that have been following PowerClaim know there is much more “proof” in the pudding these days and the current changes in the competition is public knowledge.
That means my time is more profitable spent these days telling the industry decision makers what my staff as done and will do to reduce their property claims handling cost and give them more valuable service at the same time. We are thankful that they are listening and moving to PowerClaim. We are thankful also to CADO and all of its readers and members that have been a driving force with both the positive and negative slanted posts because both have helped us achieve what was once mainly talk. With time and a great staff even the impossible can become possible is still my belief and my goal for PowerClaim.
(Message edited by gale on June 09, 2002)
(Message edited by gale on June 09, 2002) |
Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 191
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 20, 2002 - 6:56 pm: |
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We will be in Scottsdale, AZ this Thursday and Friday (May 23-24) for the 65th Annual NAIIA (National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters) Convention. Our PowerClaim booth number is 25 so please stop by if you will be attending. |
Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 186
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 06, 2002 - 7:24 pm: |
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We are looking forward to being with the Frontier Adjusters in Las Vegas the 8th – 10th of May (this week). Any CADO readers please stop by our exhibit if you will be in town for that annual convention. |
Gale Hawkins
Member
Username: Gale
Post Number: 184
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 9:54 pm: |
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Donna and I really did enjoy getting meet so many at the PLRB this week and as expected it was our most productive tradeshow yet. There were a lot of carriers and adjusting firms represented that were looking for adjusting software. Some had hundreds of staff adjusters still handwriting.
We also had a good time visiting with the other software vendors. Steve Vedder getting a carrier to leave Xactimate to move to his Adjusting Wizard created a buzz at the tradeshow where Steve indicated over the last year they have seen a 70% growth in users. Simsol had added some beauty to their line up at their 2X booth and it was an honor to meet David Bennett as well as other new tradeshow faces. The Xactimate 4X booth was impressive but we beat them out in the teardown race but in all fairness how long does it take to roll up a 2 X 8 foot banner compared to a display covering four booths. Donna and I did get to spend a couple hours on Sunday evening visiting with Scott Wiens. Scott is a really nice guy and we did enjoy learning from him first handed his take on the industry. It sounds like he is helping his company do what it takes to offer a top-notch product with every increasing better service, as is our goal as well.
By the way I did win the “Most Unique Attire” award again this year.
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Eric Carlson
Registered User
Username: Ecarlson
Post Number: 5
Registered: 6-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 04, 2002 - 10:32 am: |
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Wray,
Sounds "great". How about providing us with a web link so we can check them out? They don't show up on any of the search engines yet.
Thanks,
Eric |
Wray Decker
Registered User
Username: Wraydecker
Post Number: 3
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 04, 2002 - 12:45 am: |
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We are looking at GreatClaim Software,it is very friendly and could be the answer. |
Gale Hawkins
Member
Username: Gale
Post Number: 183
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 03, 2002 - 2:44 pm: |
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We plan to be at the PLRB this coming Sunday and Monday (7 & 8th of April) so if you or your firm is represented please stop by our PowerClaim booth so Donna and I can get to meet you.
For those of you wanting an early version of the new PowerClaim XML release you can download it from www.powerclaim.com now. By the end of May we plan to have a few more features ready for a release that will ship to all current users.
The major difference between PowerClaim XML and PowerClaim 2000 is that a new Caption Report Generator and Contents database have been added. Thanks.
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Gale Hawkins
Member
Username: Gale
Post Number: 179
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 8:35 pm: |
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Thanks to all that stopped by our booth in Galveston at the TIIAA. To some it was wet and cold on the island but it was better than the 18 degrees we had when I left KY for TX or the 10 degrees we are to see tonight. By the way I got an email from TX while I was in TX but when I replied late last night it was returned so please try again or call me.
The PLRB is next on the radar I think so if any of you will be in CA next month let me know or at least stop by our booth.
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Gale Hawkins
Member
Username: Gale
Post Number: 177
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 11:36 am: |
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Roy the post on the Xactimate thread is one of several that I should have never posted. It was late and John D was making a case for a reply but I should not have let him lead me to post where he requested. It is not right to all parties especially Xactimate and you Roy. I was actually sick yesterday and should have never been on CADO at all. If you will pull this and any others you choose I will appreciate it. Thanks to John P for being big help once again. And he is correct on the R&R issue. It is wrong for me to let Jim F’s verbal attacks of others that come to our defense to stress me out and do apologize to Jim over my remark about him and I am sorry to each reader that my many words offended. For any that will be at the TIIAA meeting in Galveston I can tell you in person if you will stop by our booth. |
JimLakes
Registered User
Username: Jimlakes
Post Number: 65
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 9:30 am: |
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To John and All,
John I for one appreciate the post that you have made here.
It speaks volumes on your thoughtfulness of other human beings and “competitors.”
I could not add anything to your statement that would be any better so will simply say, “for those that this statement was directed at, please read and ponder the words of a person who did not have to post, did not have to enter this fray, did not have to try to help his competition, did not have to care about you, did not have to care about your employees’.”
So make good use of it and use the mans kindness to your advantage. I would very much appreciate one of my competitors stepping up to the plate for me when I made a stupid mistake and help me out.
In these times when work is slow and everyone has some spare time on their hands we should as an organization and a profession be looking for ways to help educate and teach, as Roy has started on another thread.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jim Lakes, RPA
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D Wong Whey
Registered User
Username: Dwongwhey
Post Number: 72
Registered: 10-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 9:12 am: |
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Excellent post John. Your measured and considerate words show why you are considered a CLASS ACT by the many adjusters who know you and the few adjusters who don't.
I have always admired the way that you, Scott Wiens, and Xactware have gone about creating marvelous software products and growing companies, while resisting the temptation and refusing to lower yourself into trying to tear down your competition in the hopes of building yourself and your product up.
If only others could learn from your principles and example.
(Message edited by dwongwhey on February 27, 2002)
(Message edited by dwongwhey on February 27, 2002) |
John A. Postava
Registered User
Username: Johnp
Post Number: 22
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 8:20 am: |
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Gale:
I read your post on the Xactware thread. I felt an overwhelming need to respond (for your employees sakes)...
CADO is known only to a small (but growing) number of adjusters from the carrier side (many of my insurance carrier clients are unaware of the site until I tell them about it). However, it is a site that is visited by almost every cat and independent adjuster (and public adjuster) I know (and probably many I don't know). Years ago when SIMSOL was a small company we grew by word-of-mouth from adjuster-to-adjuster. I respect your education but that statement notwithstanding, you are not or never have been an adjuster. If an adjuster likes a product he or she will tell 10 other adjusters. If an adjuster doesn't like a product he or she will tell A 100 OTHER ADJUSTERS! The readers of CADO can make or break you. As you say, you have invested alot of your time and money (as well as monies from friends and family) in the hope of a profit. If you wish to make a profit for yourself, your family and your trusting friends, you need to take a break from CADO and maybe the business for a while. Your 2AM post tells me that some R&R (and I don't mean "Remove and Replace") is needed. I am very well aware of what it takes to build a sucessful software and adjusting company and I have to tell you that you are literally killing the goose that could someday lay your golden egg.
Rest some, re-focus on your core product and treat adjusters with some respect. Property adjusters may not be rocket scientists (I am sure as hell not one - my brother is!)but they are great folks to know and I am proud to call many of them my friends. |
D Wong Whey
Registered User
Username: Dwongwhey
Post Number: 70
Registered: 10-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 6:33 am: |
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Gale if bull excrement and horse manure were music, you would be a symphony.
(Message edited by dwongwhey on February 27, 2002)
(Message edited by dwongwhey on February 27, 2002) |
John Durham
Registered User
Username: Johnd
Post Number: 36
Registered: 9-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 9:50 pm: |
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ADJUSTERS:
If you are here on the Power Claim Thread, you may want to go over to the Xactimate Thread, and watch Gail try and weasel out of answering a question of why he would disparage a honorable man like Jim Flynt. We are not going to let him SPIN some bogus answer, and will hold his feet to the fire for an apology and a plausable explanation. REMEMBER, this man, throwing rocks at adjusters, depends on adjusters to sell his software.
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Eric Carlson
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 11:32 am: |
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I received a response as a private message which I have tried to reply to but the message gets returned. The suggestions were basically as follows:
1) When a claim is transferred between two adjusters, automatically add all of the database items, etc. into the system the claim is being transferred to.
2) Allow entire rooms/areas to be copied with all line items.
I will respond in a following post. |
Eric Carlson
Registered User
Username: Ecarlson
Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 11:41 am: |
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In response to the suggestions in the previous post:
#2 is already a feature of PowerClaim. You can create as many duplicates of a room/area as you like with all dimesions, line items, etc. included. You can duplicate an area within the same estimate or you can pull it from another estimate.
#1 is a little trickier. From a technical standpoint it would be very easy to add items into the database when importing a claim. My question is how the user would like to handle items that are actually the same item but maybe spelled or named differently. For example you might have 1/2" Drywall in your database and someone might send you an estimate with 1/2" Sheetrock. Any suggestions as to how you would want the system to handle this? Or do you think it would not be a problem worth putting the time and effort in to deal with?
Thanks for your input. |
Eric Carlson
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 12:07 pm: |
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I would like to take the opportunity to thank all or our users and anyone who has even taken the opportunity to review PowerClaim in the past. Since some of the participants in this forum seem to want some content with a little more meat to it I want to give everyone an update from the development side of PowerClaim.
As of next week we will be shipping a version of PowerClaim that includes a Captioned Report Generator (which is basically a word processor that allows you to create templates of letters/reports/etc. that are commonly used in the adjusting process) and also a basic contents database which we will be enhancing greatly as we go through the year.
Even more important than these new features is the change which we have recently made in our software development process. We have adopted a style of programming called "Extreme Programming" which we feel will provide great benefits to our customers. There is not time or space here to educate everyone on all of the details of this method of software development but I would like to focus on one feature of this process that might be interesting to our customers and other participants in this forum.
The first and most important rule of XP (not Windows XP but "Extreme Programming") is that the customer determines the business value that is to be delivered by the software. This means that instead of the programmers sitting around dreaming up "cool" new features to put in the software the customer chooses the features that are most valuable to him/her and these are the features which get put into the software first. This sounds fairly basic but unfortunately it is not always the norm in software development. We are currently finding out our customer's priorities by "feature requests" that come in through our sales and support departments.
However, I thought that since we have this wonderful resource of a software users forum that we could also use this as a method of connecting with our customers and other interested parties to let them determine what direction we take in our development efforts.
Anyone who is interested in giving us some input please feel free to post here or email me directly at eric@powerclaim.com .
Thanks,
Eric Carlson
President and Lead Developer
Hawkins Research, Inc. |
OldFashioned
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 2:06 pm: |
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Gale, after reading the first paragraph of your January 29, 2002 post I have come to the following conclusion:
Jim Flynt is a visionary who had the right idea!
NOW if we could only limit yu to posting here, we could probably get more meaningful post from others, such as Flynt, Lakes, et al.
Tired of Captain Hype
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Gale Hawkins
Registered User
Username: Gale
Post Number: 165
Registered: 12-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 1:00 am: |
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TomS thanks to Jim Flynt when he was involved directly with CADO he had the idea of setting up a place where we vendors could post about our products, events, etc. Actually his idea was to control the posting by one or more members. 
Back in the days before many adjusters from the present and now former camps of adjusting software vendors rated us at the top of the heap and for good reasons, I was quite aggressive in some of our marketing efforts. Speaking something into existence out of the void is a new experience for me and quite hard to do I have found. I am thankful my Father was there to speak the really important things into existence long ago so it is possible for us to do it on a smaller scale today.
Actually if you go back a few years in the forums you will see where some of the software vendors tried to take advantage of my trusting Kentucky farm boy nature. We had to take our financial losses once or twice and move on. As it turned out our losses were our gains in the long run as it seems. I will not bore you or Tom Toll with those details again.  I do think God for great staff because some have been me since our hardware days who like our investors would like to have quit in the early days because of the pain but they were able to walk by faith instead of by sight.
TomS we were able to learn before some that adjusters are just as eager to buy adjusting software, as the general public is eager to by car batteries. Most curse the day they are “forced” to spend the money for either.  By offering a higher quality adjusting tool for 60% less in direct cost savings and perhaps even more in indirect cost, it is changing the way many view technology in this industry. We are thankful that we have been able to get into the position to save the carriers millions in claims handling cost at a time when losses have been extra large and their investment returns have been extra low.
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TomS
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 11:21 am: |
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This thread is solid bromo-promo, way to go Gale, the whole thread and every message is Power claim.
What a great idea. Marketing 101 to the max.
Don't know about the thread, however, I now know more about Power Claim than I did. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 11:38 pm: |
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In the post below that was posted on 16 Oct 01 is a press release prepared for Scene Genesis which I posted at the request of Scene Genesis. I have just learned from a current PowerClaim user that is part of a very large nationwide network of independent adjusters, appraisers, and insurance claims professionals that they had been left with the impression by Scene Genesis that they had taken control of PowerClaim and this had affected their decision in a positive direction because PowerClaim is a known and trusted name by members of that network.
At first I thought he was joking then I thought how could he believe something like that then I realized both DDS and Boeckh were purchased a venture capitalist backed firm in 2001 so why not believe one more had sold out.
We at Hawkins Research, Inc. maybe should have sold out but to date all of the offers have been by firms that were without cash.  Actually getting to this point has been a struggle, which is no secret to readers on CADO but it would take more than any outsider would pay at this exciting stage to get control of PowerClaim with the inside buying that is going on currently. Actually DDS investors running for the exits did raise questions about the viability of the whole industry especially after Boeckh went at a fire sale price according to the industry grapevine.
Scene Genesis did after initially agreeing to a simply cross sell agreement of our services in a nonexclusive relationship, come back and proposed that we give them an “exclusive, irrevocable, right to reproduce, display, use, sell, lease, market, or otherwise transfer PowerClaim in the North American market”.
In fairness to the original family that started Scene Genesis this language that basically asked for our company without compensation was the work of the man recently brought on board to get the company shaped up according to my understanding of what he told me. There is no partnership between our two companies due to the current differences in the business practices of the new manager and those of ours.
Thanks to the http://www.propertyclaimXML.org Open Standard that Scene Genesis supports, their claims handling software package can send assignments to PowerClaim that will populate PowerClaim with the notice of loss information and then receive the finished claim back to their website.
Actually it is very cool and a huge savings over the Xactnet solution. So by all means call us at 1-800-1246 and Scene Genesis at 1-877-253-9894 and we will explain how you can get more for less by embracing the vendors developing around the PropertyClaimXML Open Standard. Other vendors already on the Open Standard are Sundial; a stand-alone claims management solution and GClaims; a detailed web-based end-to-end property solution when used in conjunction with PowerClaim. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2001 - 10:53 pm: |
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For immediate release
Media contact:
Randi Minetor
Minetor & Company, Inc.
716-473-3792
1-888-781-2816 numeric pager
randi@minetor.com
Scene Genesis and PowerClaim Team to Create a Universally Compatible
End-to-End Property Claims Solution
TAMPA, FL, Oct. 8- Scene Genesis, Inc. and PowerClaim, Inc. are working cooperatively to offer an end-to-end solution for property and casualty insurance professionals. The partnership makes it possible for claim adjusters and insurance companies to assign or receive tasks, collect claim information, create estimates and close claims without employing a different software package for each insurance carrier.
Insurance companies can use the tools offered by SceneAccess.net, the online claim management solution offered by Scene Genesis, to create a network of preferred adjusters, contractors and other service providers who communicate using the same software tools. Using SceneAccess.net, insurance companies can send out assignments to individual adjusters, estimators and others. When these service providers receive their assignments, they have the choice of using either PowerClaim adjustment software or SceneAccess.net to collect the claim detail and complete the adjustment.
Thanks to a new agreement to use open XML standards in the construction of their applications, SceneAccess.net and PowerClaim have made it possible for adjusters and insurance carriers to import estimate information directly into the claim file from any of the leading estimating software programs. Adjusters and other service providers no longer need to purchase multiple estimating packages to work with a variety of insurance companies-using SceneAccess.net or PowerClaim, adjusters can create the estimate in the application of their choice and import the data seamlessly into their front-end software. The data arrives flawlessly, and remains “live” for updates or edits.
When the file is completed, adjusters send the information back to the insurance company through SceneAccess.net, no matter which software package was used to create the file. The insurance company then receives information that can be placed directly into an existing data program and used to run management reports, without time-consuming data entry or additional conversion steps.
The Advantages of Open Exchange
“By introducing the PowerClaim/SceneAccess.net Network, we provide carriers with a new level of freedom and functionality,” said John W. Blake, Jr., president of Scene Genesis. “This solution allows insurance carriers to build their own networks of online service providers, without the restrictions imposed by proprietary software. Insurance companies can choose any adjuster in any area, make assignments, track progress, receive the claim file, and then use the data to run management reports and track performance.”
“Our network will interface with all software packages that have added the property claim XML Open Standard input/output option,” said Gale Hawkins, CEO and director of marketing for Hawkins Research. “By partnering with SceneAccess.net and opening our software to the free exchange of property claim information, we have given adjusters and carriers the freedom to do business with whomever they choose. Plus, users move to a new level of functionality, with more options and more ability to generate useful information than ever before.”
The PowerClaim/SceneAccess.net partnership offers the following advantages over proprietary claims adjustment packages:
Task Assignment
Insurance companies can choose adjusters and other service providers and make assignments to them using the Network, based on rules each insurance company establishes for its own use.
Assignment Reporting and Management
Service providers can keep insurance companies informed by entering updates into the SceneAccess.net task assignment center. Insurance companies can access these updates and stay abreast of the provider’s progress.
Easy Interface to and from the Carrier
Thanks to the XML Open Standard use by the PowerClaim/SceneAccess Network, insurance companies can feed information about assignments to service providers easily by logging into the SceneAccess.net Web site.
Business Process Rules
Insurance companies can customize the assignment interface so that it directs the completed assignment to the right examiner. Using role-based access control (RBAC), the Network provides absolute privacy and security for all files. Others cannot see the information unless the system administrator provides them with password access.
Better Views of Claim Scene
SceneAccess.net provides adjusters and insurance companies with the ability to view an image, zoom in on details, turn or even reverse the image to negative for unparalleled views of damage.
Report Creation
Users can generate reports electronically and send them to insurance company examiners through the Web, eliminating the need for time-consuming, costly paper documents.
A Living File
Claims adjusters and insurance companies can update files in PowerClaim easily, add documents or photos, and send this additional information on to the insurance company’s examiner.
Archival Storage
The completed file can be stored electronically on SceneAccess.net, where it remains in a totally secure storage facility for an amount of time designated by the user. All files are accessible using SceneAccess.net for as long as the user requires.
For additional information on SceneAccess.net, visit http://www.sceneaccess.net or call Scene Genesis at 877-253-9894. Information about PowerClaim is available at http://www.powerclaim.com or call 800-736-1246. Sundial Software can be reached at http://www.sundialsoft.com or at 888-840-6116. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2001 - 3:09 pm: |
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Mick I am glad you are trying PowerClaim but I wish you would at least give us a call since you downloaded over the weekend. I have received another call so I know the phone system is currently up even though we are experiencing some violent thunderstorms this weekend.
I have replied to you email request for a Site Key that came in following your email stating we had killed all of your databases.
In the past 3+ years that PowerClaim has been sold we have yet to kill any databases, even the ones that ship with PowerClaim but I will not state that PowerClaim has not done it for the first time because I have too many years of experience with computers to say something can not or did not happen until at least we have looked at the condition you described here on CADO.
We will figure out what has happened after you are able to give us a call. If XP has thrown some new curve balls to the developers we need to know it sooner than later. My goal is that you will see that my staff is second to none over this issue and that you will be very excited to consider the use of PowerClaim for any of your property adjusting software. Being the most easy to learn and 60% less expensive than your other options is not a factor if PowerClaim is not usable in your environment but I bet once we actually get to reach you or your IT staff the issue will not be the mountain it seems at this point.
Just in case my emails do not reach you our phone number is 1-800-736-1246. I am leaving to attend a funeral currently but will check both our after hours and email messages later this evening.
Gale Hawkins, CEO and Director of Marketing
1-800-736-1246
gale@powerclaim.com
www.powerclaim.com
Hawkins Research, Inc.
1304 Chestnut Street Suite E
Murray, KY 42071 |
Mick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2001 - 10:10 pm: |
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I just downloaded and installed PowerClaim 2000b6 and it has rendered ALL my MS Access XP databases COMPLETELY unusable, not to mention that the program itself woould not run, bt kept giving me an ERROR 36!?! I have no idea how they bult their application so that a demo of it can so completely destroy another application, but I'm at a complete loss to find a solution. I've uninstalled the demo, and it didn't help. I've reinstalled office XP and it didn't help. Thanks for blowing up my system. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 6:44 pm: |
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Please visit our newly redone website. There is more to come but Phil humored me and went up with what you see yesterday. Let us hear from you with your input on this site.
If you are visiting us for the first time please download the latest version of PowerClaim and see how it can do more for your company than your other choices today.
We are working to bring more good things to the adjusting industry so just call if you have needs that are not addressed on this site.
http://www.powerclaim.com
Thank you.
Gale Hawkins |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2001 - 12:26 am: |
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Hello from Hawkins Research, Inc.
PowerClaim 2000 Release B Revision 5 is ready. You can download it from http://www.powerclaim.com by clicking on the download page and/or we will put you a CD in the mail or just call us at 1-800-736-1246 or email me at gale@powerclaim.com
Since this version is more contractor friendly, the Estimate – Contractor choice prints without all of the insurance related information, we will be glad to ship an extra disk if you know a contractor or adjuster that you will personally hand a copy. Now that we officially have a referral program in place you can earn PowerClaim Bucks that is good for free PowerClaim or digital cameras and the like. The complete info is on the web site but please call us at 1-800-736-1246 with any questions. I am sure some of you will never pay for PowerClaim again.
The new Supporting Documents feature is hot and only available in PowerClaim. It permits truly paperless files for the first time in the world of adjusting software. Anything that can be thrown on a scanner now will go inside of the file that you email.
I want to thank each one of you for using PowerClaim and for your input over the years. PowerClaim is what it is today because of your input. As the landscape of adjusting software developers continues to change we are committed to keep enhancing PowerClaim to meet your current and future needs and keep it priced right. The referral program will help keep down the cost of PowerClaim and can provide a direct benefit to you. Thanks again.
Gale Hawkins, CEO and Director of Marketing
1-800-736-1246
gale@powerclaim.com
http://www.powerclaim.com |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 10:16 pm: |
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Not a correction actually but more information could be used in a statement I made in my last post on this tread. When I stated, “…in fact only Simsol was thought to be a financial viable company our research indicated and they only had a DOS version on the market at the time.” was not to imply that Simsol was behind the times in 1996. In fact DOS was king at that time in the estimating world and Boeckh was the only major name with a Windows program that I remember. It was a 16-bit application that was later replaced with reason by a package from their then most aggressive competitor. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2001 - 12:59 am: |
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Just as an update we at PowerClaim have NO price increase planned and are preparing for the fact that market forces may even lead to a lowering of our current prices in the years ahead.
This week I learned that staff member from a former competitor in the adjusting software business that has yet learned the ways of his new employer has on the behalf of his new employer been intentionally making untrue statements about the business practices of Hawkins Research, Inc.
We are now touched by the changes in the nature of untrue statements we are hearing today. First the false statements where more like, “They are too cheap to be any good.” or “They will go broke because they aren’t charging enough”.
The one I heard this week from the same camp was, “They are going to raise their prices when they get the market cornered.” Now we know we are getting somewhere when a corporation of their size acknowledge our leadership in the industry.
It is exciting to learn a conglomerate that large thinks a good marketing message is, “Keep paying us 250% more for underdeveloped, overpriced, hard to use adjusting software for the next several years because sooner or later PowerClaim will be just as sorry of a value as we are today.”
Again PowerClaim pricing was determined by market research a couple years before the first copy was ever sold. Our research showed 50% of adjusting firms in 1996 were not using any of the then current adjusting software vendors’ products because of its cost.
When asked what the adjusting firms considered a fair and affordable annual fee to be the number was $500 and that was how our pricing was set. Had we not been able to bring it at that price you would have never heard of PowerClaim.
In 1996 we realized there were no true leaders in adjusting software market and in fact only Simsol was thought to be a financial viable company our research indicated and they only had a DOS version on the market at the time.
With this information we realized as a professional software-developing firm we had a real shot at being the most used product in ten years or less so we set a goal to do it in eight years. Learning the adjusting industry’s software needs was a chore we knew but doable.
As it turned out our software skills developed by having created quite complex software for several different industries enabled us develop at a faster pace and get out in front technically speaking.
Having to learn the adjusting software needs on the fly was a chore but because PowerClaim was not developed for our use it evolved into a more flexible software package we are told by PowerClaim users that have used the other packages. The contractor/adjuster turned software developer knew what he wanted and in many cases that is what he developed and then stopped.
After we got into the PowerClaim project we realized it was going to be very hard but that if we could stay the course we would be the top rated and then the most used adjusting software. We are far from the most used software today but many tell us that we are best rated adjusting software at any price.
Total commitment from the top down has been the secret of our success to date. When I sold my farm and tractor to raise capital to keep the development going in the early days the two that initially started with me on the PowerClaim project had no doubt about my resolve and they both stayed steadfast even when there were no human hope that we would survive to say nothing about being the number one most used adjusting software package.
Thanks for all the prayers, emotional support and technical input from you CADO members. Several of you came by our booth in New Orleans in January of 1999 and told us not to get discouraged because we were closer than we realized to being a contender. Tom Joyce who I have yet to meet has been an encourager of ours for several years by email. We have also learned so much about the industry and the other software developers from reading CADO. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 30, 2001 - 8:55 pm: |
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Thanks to everyone that came out to CADO 2001 and also to Roy and staff for making it happen. About 40 attending the convention went for the free year of PowerClaim that they earned by just showing up in support of CADO. We are thankful for all the kind words that have been said by you concerning PowerClaim now that you have actually loaded and been shown how PowerClaim works.
We have had some vendors saying you get what you pay for when you buy PowerClaim. My staff and I totally agree with that in a factual way even though it was meant to hurt our business with firms at the time. The plus side of that now is how surprised these firms are when they finally see PowerClaim for the first time and learn it does what the other adjusting software does that is selling for 250% more.
As you think about it any adjusting software package has to do the complete job regardless of what its vendor charges. I mean like it can’t just print 5 pages of a 12-page estimate or just print 35 photos per estimate and stop if you need 50 photos printed.
Thanks to request from adjusters in the field, I think all of the other adjusting software vendors will agree that PowerClaim has set the latest standard in the number of easy ways to send complete paperless files. Our Open Standard output enables you to continue to use your current claims management system. In the event a firm wants to discontinue using PowerClaim they are free to do so.
We will do our best to see that no client will ever want to leave but technically you will be free to do so because you are not locked into a proprietary claims database that you can’t open with any other software when you choose PowerClaim.
Call us at 1-800-736-1246 or email me at gale@powerclaim.com to take a free look at how PowerClaim will reduce your claims handling cost and grow your firm at the same time. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 23, 2001 - 2:49 pm: |
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I am sorry some cannot make it to CADO to claim your FREE year of PowerClaim. Of course we would like to give the whole world PowerClaim because we think it is even greater than sliced bread. The goal of giving up to $50K of PowerClaim away free ($120K - $150K if you compared it to the old industry pricing structure) is to get more adjusters to the first CADO convention. You do have to fill out a PowerClaim form and pick up the CD at our booth to get your free year deal. I am sorry you cannot make it but please hold your emails and phone calls requesting an exception to this offer.
What we will do for CADO members that cannot attend (hopefully you are working so you will have the money to buy PowerClaim soon ) is to offer all dues paying CADO members that call us at 1-800-736-1246 or email me at gale@powerclaim.com by the 30th of March a quarter (90 days) of PowerClaim FREE (a $149 value at PowerClaim rates). You must ask for the FREE quarter (90-days) deal when you request your copy of PowerClaim. Remember that deadline is next Friday. Thanks for your interest in CADO. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2001 - 11:04 pm: |
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How to get an extra shot at winning a DISTO at CADO?
How absolutely to insure you get PowerClaim free through March of 2002?
1. Register and get in your payment ASAP for the CADO convention.
2. Stop by our PowerClaim booth and fill out your information on a form we will provide at the booth.
3. Pick up a PowerClaim CD that will also contain FREE training video tutorials.
4. During the convention or immediately after you return home or where ever call us at 1-800-736-1246 to register PowerClaim.
We will also be drawing from the forms that you need to fill out at our booth for the DISTO drawing at the end of the Expo time (please leave your business cards but they will not be used in the drawing for the DISTO). This is the PowerClaim DISTO, not the CADO DISTO that will be given away as well.
We will have our first PowerClaim training section starting at 12 noon so those Knights of the DDS Round Table that will be meeting with King Scott at 1 PM to “talk about common changes our users would like to see” will each have a long list of changes fresh on their minds.
Seriously let us know as you come by our booth that you are interesting in FREE hands on training with PowerClaim. Bring your notebooks and cell phones so we can activate your copy of PowerClaim for your free year on the spot. This way you will be able to knock out your first claim on PowerClaim in one of the 55-minute training sessions Wednesday afternoon. The ONLY criterion for admittance is to be there.
Folks this is a good time for all to see if PowerClaim is only smoke and mirrors or really meat and potatoes. Some of you have beefed about not liking estimating software that controlled how you used it. I think after 55 minutes you will come away saying PowerClaim is absolutely the most flexible and easy-to-use adjusting software you have ever done a claim on. If not then I will get on the plane and high tail it back to Kentucky. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 09, 2001 - 7:35 pm: |
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If you are going to be attending PLRB in Atlanta stop by the PowerClaim booth on Sunday and Monday two days from now.
At CADO we will be offering our complete PowerClaim training course FREE. The first class will start at 12 PM on Wednesday and the class will be repeated every hour on the hour as needed.
Please stop by our booth and get your $479 copy of PowerClaim FREE through March of 2002. Bring your computer and we will call back to the office and get your copy of PowerClaim authorized before the training starts. We can do some one-on-one training Tuesday evening as well if there is any interest at that time. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 1:35 am: |
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PowerClaim has been requested by CAT firms to offer a monthly lease option to fill a void in the CAT adjusting industry. We had avoided doing this in the past since our quarter pricing was in line with what a major player at that time was charging per month but since so many have grown accustomed to a monthly rate we now offer one as well as our yearly rates.
The following is a volume breakdown price for 30 days of use:
Number of copies, 30-Day Price, Annual Price*
1, $59, $479
2 – 9, $49, $429
10 – 24, $45, $379
25 – 99, $39, $329
100+ , $35, $279
Although this volume pricing applies to adjusting firms we will also offer the option to individual adjuster using a credit card so they can start working claims for only $59 up front with no contracts to sign. If you expect to be on a site for two months or more you may want to go with the quarter option for only $149. If you plan to be working over 8 months out of the year the annual rate is the way to go. We hope this added flexibility at half the price some would request will permit you to have a more profitable year. Have a great adjusting year in 2001.
* Remember dues paying CADO members take the next lower volume discount on the annual rates. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 11:47 pm: |
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We at PowerClaim are so excited about the first ever CADO convention that we are giving away PowerClaim. It is clear that more CAT adjusters will use PowerClaim this year than in any year in the history of mankind. So why not attend the CADO convention and get your own personal copy of PowerClaim FREE though March of 2002?
What is the catch you ask? Really it is very simple, every three weeks just post on CADO how great PowerClaim is and you truly do not know how you lived all these years without such a great adjusting software package.
Forget the last paragraph but there is a catch. 1. Register and get in your payment ASAP for the CADO convention. 2. Stop by our PowerClaim booth and fill out your information on a form we will provide at the booth. 3. Pick up a PowerClaim CD that will also contain FREE training video tutorials. 4. During the show or immediately after you return home or where ever call us at 1-800-736-1246 to register PowerClaim.
We will also be drawing from the completely filled out forms for the DISTO to at the end of the Expo time that we will be giving away if I have not lost it. I hear they have legs and/or wings. This is the PowerClaim DISTO not the CADO DISTO that will be given away as well.
Wait a minute you say, “What if I have already purchased PowerClaim?” Well you know the standard disclaimer in fine print that has been known to show up in some of the other guys’ ads. Well forget the fine print because if you pay up and get down to the CADO convention you will not get a FREE 12 months added to your PowerClaim subscription but you will get a FREE 14 months added for being extra smart when it comes to purchasing property adjusting software or just plain too tight to pay an extra $700 per year for less friendly adjusting software.
See you there |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 12, 2001 - 7:15 pm: |
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Hawkins Research, Inc. will have our PowerClaim booth set up this Wednesday from 5 – 7:30 PM at the Windstorm Insurance Conference Expo in Orlando so please stop by if you are attending. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 22, 2001 - 11:41 pm: |
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We at Hawkins Research, Inc. invite you to stop by our PowerClaim booth at the NACA Convention in San Antonio 25 Jan 2001 and register to win a DISTO, which we will be giving away. The LEICA DISTO basic uses the latest laser technology to measure length, width and height both quickly and accurately.
Of course while you are at the PowerClaim booth you will want to see why more adjusting firms and carriers are moving to PowerClaim to give them the emailing features and competitive edge that none other offers. We are looking forward to meeting you.
Gale Hawkins
gale@powerclaim.com |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 30, 2000 - 12:43 am: |
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The PowerClaim team wishes each of you a Happy New Years. 2001 is starting with a few claims already on the books so perhaps a better year for some is in store.
A few have remarked about my fewer and shorter post but most do not seem to mind. Here is one a long one to make up for the past few months and to end the millennium on a long note.
As some of you know we at PowerClaim were playing catch up to some of the old timers in the adjusting software for the past few years so since we were the new kid on the block back in 1996.
Personally I would like to take this time, as we will we be starting a new millennium in a few days to say a big thank you for helping teach us property adjusting and what the industry needed in the way of adjusting software to reduce the cost of handling claims.
Perhaps even more valuable you have helped us to understand that the marketing of adjusting software is really the hard part by showing us the pitfalls that have swallowed or limited the success of those that have traveled our chosen path ahead of us. No with out question this is the most important help you have given us.
Next week we start officially marketing PowerClaim and I kid you not when I say it would have been impossible without the kind of help we have received from our early supports and CADO members. As you have read through the years, some of the help was given in a positive sense and some of it in a negative sense but in both cases it has been very valuable in helping us not only create a top of the line product but also a company that you can feel good about doing business with regardless where you are a one person operation or a household name.
It is our belief at Hawkins Research, Inc. that it is easier to get if one first gives. Without teasing you that was the case of an old wood cook stove my mom used when I was very young boy. You had to give it some wood and some time but I remember it had a spring type thermometer in the center of the oven door that would slowly start moving up.
It would seem that some of you are a little like that old wood cook stove. We have had 2 for 1 special (officially ended today) and other promotional activities to get some of you to try PowerClaim.
You guys talk a lot and that has been great for us. One example, a CAT adjuster in Alabama buys PowerClaim and induces in to a firm on the east coast, which then introduces PowerClaim to a Canadian firm that introduces us to an Australian firm. At ACE 2000 we got to meet a principle from the Australian firm and just this week have received another request from that country.
Now that PowerClaim is viewed by more than a few as the best option in property adjusting software after having used and been to school on the options available today regardless of price, we are ready to promote PowerClaim to the carrier market.
Although we set out to become the best adjusting software in 1996 we were surprised that we recently became the first to permit our users of offer paperless file transfers to the carriers without requiring any hardware or software changes or additions by the carriers themselves.
I have learned this week that a rather large adjusting software firm (that also provides adjusting software for an adjusting software reseller that once was an early leader in the estimating software industry) is now promising to offer the same cost saves to the industry in the future.
We are not happy with PowerClaim and never will be. Now that we have developed past the basic requirements we will be able to focus on incorporating enhancements like our new paperless claims handling ability that does not require proprietary software or hardware by the receiver of the claim file. Yes the others will emulate this PowerClaim feature but they can never claim to be the one that introduced this claims handling cost saver feature to the industry.
CADO as made it very clear over and over that there is a human side to claims handling that if over looked creates a lot of problems. We have learned this is very true in the adjusting software business. PowerClaim is not Gale’s gift to adjusters and never will be. Yes we do expect to PowerClaim to become the highest rated in the hearts and minds of the industry as well as the most used adjusting software internationally.
Being the best technically is very important but we are finding that doing a good job with the human side of the adjusting software business (YOU) is the key. PowerClaim is not something for us to be proud of to the point we cannot see its weaknesses. We have developed PowerClaim into a very stable package over time but there is one thing we have little control over and that is again YOU!
The biggest request we hear at Hawkins Research, Inc. in 1996 when we started PowerClaim was that adjusters wanted to control the adjusting software, not it control how the adjuster is to process a claim. I guess there is a place of a product that controls its user because the user is not a knowledgeable, professional adjuster.
Since every adjuster, professional or otherwise uses PowerClaim somewhat differently it is a challenge for us to keep most everyone happy. It is almost funny sometime how I will listen to an adjuster go on and on how they like this or that feature and then later to get a call from another adjuster how that same feature inhales and they can not believe some idiot programmed it that way.
I am sure you see the same where a homeowner is so pleased with you efforts at one loss and at the next loss they cannot believe the carrier sent such an idiot out to handle their loss. That is what I call the human side of business. It has nothing to do with technical issues but in both cases we have to learn why the negative view of our services.
My policy that I teach our staff is if an adjuster has a problem with that prevents him or her from using PowerClaim then it is a PowerClaim support issue even if it has nothing to do with PowerClaim directly. It may be a bad printer driver, a funky digital camera interface or a million other things but after we finally get a solution we have that solution the next time.
Hey like you sometimes we can never get the point over regardless of how hard we try we are not going to be able to become supernatural and solve their issue. It is really funny how an adjuster can convince him that just because he installed PowerClaim on his notebook and five minutes later his notebook shuts off and will not restart that PowerClaim did not kill his notebook.
In this case the adjuster’s wife was out of town so he was going to set and use the notebook all by himself. His mistake was that he had somehow plugged the digital camera charger into the notebook so the notebook battery had run down because it was not being charged. Most of the time they never come clean. We lost about a day working with his notebook vender and everything.
We get along in helping PowerClaim uses when both parties are listening. I am sure you find the same thing when working with homeowners. Sometime it is us that are not listening to the adjuster. Hey that is the human element.
Having small children can be an eye opening experience. I was watching Babe, the movie with the sheep dog pig recently. Remember the mutual understanding among the dogs that the sheep were ‘slow’ and the sheep had the same view of the dogs.
The one thing I really enjoying about the adjusting software business is the people. If it was not for the bad parts how could we appreciate the good parts? I have never seen anything as challenging as this business. We have more bosses week after week because we are adding new users so I guess it will become even more interesting. In fact as we grow and talk with more and more adjusters with different needs and backgrounds PowerClaim is becoming even more powerful.
Please keep calling and moving us forward with your positive and negative issues as it relates to adjusting software. You will be seeing more of your thoughts reflected in PowerClaim 2001 this spring. In just a few weeks we will be have an update out with 2001 pricing which will include Mobile Home parts and labor pricing database from Craftsman Book Company. Hey it should be the easiest database layout we have ever had to find the line item you are looking for quickly if you know your ABC’s. At least that what the adjusters that have seen it tell us.
Happy and Prosperous New Year from the PowerClaim team at Hawkins Research, Inc.
gale@powerclaim.com or 1-800-736-1246
P.S. Call and ask for Karla in Sales who will be starting next week if you missed out on the 2 years for price for 1 special that ended today. She worked here a few years ago but has moved back to the area. She can sell and will close you if you try PowerClaim so be forewarned. The bad part she is the only one that can offer you a 30-day grace period on the 2 or 1 special at ended today. Aren’t I mean? If you are a dues paying CADO member listed under members or sponsors it is good for a $50 savings as well if you tell her. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 23, 2000 - 2:20 pm: |
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Just a quick reminder that we will be in the PowerClaim booth #220 this Thursday and Friday at the ACE 2000 event in Phoenix so please stop by if you are attending to get the CADO member FREE software tradeshow deal. Thanks. gale@powerclaim.com |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 16, 2000 - 10:30 pm: |
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Where has the time gone? Here in West Kentucky we have seen the earliest frost in about 100 years. Perhaps the spring storms are going to be early as well.
We did get to make it to the NAMIC (National Association of Mutual Insurance Carriers) in Nashville last month. It was a great show for us. I got to talk with Jim (Mr. Witty) and Tanya from the Simsol camp and Jannah from DDS.
Next week we will be in booth 220 at ACE in Phoenix. I know several of you plan to attend so please stop by. If you are a dues paying CADO member we will give you or extend your current subscription of PowerClaim for 1-year which is normally $479. Not really since you are a CADO member it is only a $429 gift. If we were like one we could say an $1188 gift for CADO members. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2000 - 9:19 pm: |
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Thanks for the reminder Jim. I have really been planning to get over there and let everyone know PowerClaim 2000 now has the complete 2000 FWUA forms and NFIP that are impressive to all that have viewed the printed reports and of course they can be emailed as well and do not require any proprietary viewer to be installed before carrier can print them. They can be emailed in PowerClaim, Word or the really hot one is the PDF format.
Jim I could also mention our current 2 years for the price of one but do you think adjusters, vendors or carriers are that interested in reducing their software expenses while getting a superior product?
We do now have a version with the commercial part of the National Construction Estimator as well as the entire National Renovation and Insurance Repair database. Both are from the Craftsman Book Company, which is the default database vendor of most adjusting software vendors. Officially the commercial database will ship in about 4-6 weeks along with the JC Penny’s and Best Buy content databases, a cool Caption Report Generator and a Claims Management module. Since I can see the question in your eyes, yes the price is still $279 - $479 per adjuster per year. Yes, Jim 2 of 1 is still in place until I say otherwise for first time users.
If you find yourself doing any FWUA claims this year just call me at 1-800-736-1246 or email me at gale@powerclaim.com or just down load the current version of PowerClaim at http://www.powerclaim.com and we will get you up and running on a 30 trial of the complete version of PowerClaim 2000.
Jim let us all know what you think can actually be done to keep this shortage of qualified adjusters that will develop again 15-20 years from now from happening. Do the carriers always have to be the only ones training adjusters? Thanks again for reminding everyone about the forum you have set up for software issues that has kind of fell into disuse. Jim I do think adjusting software is not that hot of an issue, as are some other types of software. It seems we software vendors are more excited about our software than the adjusters sometimes. Do you agree? |
Moderator (Jf)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2000 - 2:11 pm: |
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If anyone has anything good or bad to say about PowerClaim software, please use this thread on the CADO Software Forum to say it. This includes any specials, pricing information or new features which the vendor may wish to share as well. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 09, 2000 - 7:15 pm: |
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Bud I am sorry some how I missed your post earlier. You posted while we were at the NAIIA Conference in Keystone, CO. A big thanks to all the independents, vendors and carriers that stopped by our PowerClaim booth and have since started evaluating how PowerClaim will increase your productivity and save you money upfront and in training cost.
Your statement Bud about self-promotion versus word of mouth promotion is something I fully agree with but in another area you posted you were an old timer who was sick of the software vendors killing our jobs. The software vendors are permitting you to keep working if you are an adjuster. We at Hawkins Research, Inc. work very hard so we can afford to sell you adjusting software for 60-70% less than your other choices and provide free training videos so you will be more productive. Do you use adjusting software today? |
Bud Adams (Brokendream)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2000 - 11:21 pm: |
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Gale just a word or advice you can take a marketing 101 class at community college near you. Self promotion is good but word of mouth will do you ten folds , this isn"t a slap at you but a reaity check . Good luck |
Jeff White (Catastrophewind)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2000 - 9:32 pm: |
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Hey Powerclaim looks like you got a winner I just started playing with your software and once I get to workin this is the only estimating software for me . You realy understand the needs of us here adjusters by giving us more bang for our bucks. With the leftover money I'm gonna get a big ol greasy pig sandwich and shake . Thanks to Powerclaim |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2000 - 8:46 pm: |
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Please stop by our PowerClaim booth at the NAIIA convention in Keystone, CO if you are attending. We will be in booth #12 from 7:30 – 11:30 AM this Friday so please visit with us to see the latest version of PowerClaim 2000 that includes free training videos on the CD itself. In the event you want to see this new release of PowerClaim 2000 that contains the video tutorials but will not be in Keystone this Friday just call us at 1-800-736-1246 and we will ship you your own free, fully functioning 30-day copy of PowerClaim 2000 or download it from http://www.powerclaim.com Ask about how fast you have to be to get in on our 180 Bonus Days special. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 9:52 pm: |
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The PowerClaim web site has a new look and now has the new version, PowerClaim 2000 as a download. It is only a 16 MB file complete with help files. Please also request your free PowerClaim 2000 CD if you desire the free video tutorials for training purposes. In time we will provide the training videos for you to download as well. To download just click here on http://www.powerclaim.com and then click on the Downloads buttons. If you do not know that PowerClaim 2000 is easier to use than Boeckh, DDS, Simsol or Xactimate and that it is at least 70% less expensive currently than the cheapest of the four please email me or call me at 1-800-736-1246 and let us talk. |
Lonnie Looney (Joshua)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2000 - 9:08 pm: |
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Gale,
Thanks for all the help you have given me while I was in Maryland and Florida for the use of PowerClaim.
Also thanks for the great customer service in getting me the spare disc. I did not need it in two days, but thanks anyway.
I now know that if I do get in a bind you and your staff will be there.
Once again Thanks.
Lonnie Looney
Odessa, Tx. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 02, 2000 - 10:56 pm: |
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Announcing PowerClaim 2000 Release Candidate 2 is now shipping. It is the complete version of PowerClaim 2000 function wise and includes training videos on the CD so you can be completing claims within the first hour after you load up and authorize PowerClaim 2000. When we get it posted for downloading I will note it. By calling 1-800-736-1246 today you can receive your free copy next week to use in the field for a month.
The final release is expected by the end of the month which be the same program but should offer the following addition features including the Craftsman’s National Construction Estimator Commercial database, and the JC Pennys and Best Buy’s databases for contents, plus the complete FWUA (Florida Wind) forms.
It will still come to you at a savings of 60% or greater than the current leader Xactimate or others like DDS or Simsol. Unlike some it will offer 3 emailing options which include the standard PowerClaim format, Word format and the PDF format (true Acrobat) that carriers are already using as a downloading standard in the US. |
John Johnson
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 14, 2000 - 10:16 pm: |
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Gale, thanks for the quick response. As usual it seems as though you are on top of things, egarding the preservation of PowerClaim 99 files.
Looking forward to receiving my update.
Incidentally, I want to thank you for saving me from paying over a 2 year period to the other software vendors a minimum of $1800.00...that will go into my Harley-Davidson fund.
Best regards. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 14, 2000 - 9:25 pm: |
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John we expect in two weeks to have the full release of PowerClaim 2000 shipping to our current users. A pre release version is now shipping to first time users but it does not have the ability import PowerClaim 99 files. The release you and all our current users will receive will be able to import your PowerClaim 99 files into PowerClaim 2000 yet it will not kill PowerClaim 99 and your old files so you are not forced instantly to change to a new version in the middle of an assignment. This is a decision the adjuster should make in our opinion. Are we wrong on this?
Now for a little self promotion. By the way if you are in a long term contract with another adjusting software vendor please do not read any farther due to the known stress it can cause.
The two main new features in this first release of PowerClaim 2000 are the complete NFIP flood forms and the digital diagramming module. Actually PowerClaim 2000 is new code from ground up and according to the beta testers it is even more user friendly than PowerClaim 99 but naturally we planned it that way. There is also a new word processor, interface and the ability to send claims by email without requiring the receiver to install proprietary software. This feature is fantastic for the adjuster that has to market himself.
Still one of the best loved features is you can currently get PowerClaim 2000 for 30% of what you would pay for dated adjusting software packages like Boeckh, DDS, Simsol or Xactimate. We realize the others will slash their prices to match their value to the industry if they are going to stay in business. We plan to insure that PowerClaim will always out perform any other package in both function and ease-of-use and yet keep the price of PowerClaim at a fraction of what the other guys charge.
How can you offer more for less is a question many ask, especially the other developers? It is simple. We work harder and listen better, plus we don’t live as high on the hog as perhaps some do. Most agree that the unjustified high cost of adjusting software has retarded the property industry as a whole. We at Hawkins Research Inc. expect the industry will reward us adequately over the long haul if we keep our product and pricing integrity higher than the rest, which should permit us to be the most used adjusting software by the fourth quarter of 2003.
PowerClaim is not perfect and that is a fact we are aware of but that does not keep it from being the best. We will send you a risk-free 30 day full function version of PowerClaim 2000 so you can personally prove the above statement to be factual. Just email me at gale@powerclaim.com or call me at 1-800-736-1246 ext 101 and I will see that you get a free copy. If you do not agree with me that PowerClaim is the best then you can toss it. Do we have a deal? |
John Johnson
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 10:21 pm: |
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Gale, PowerClaim is probably the most user friendly estimating platform around. I know that you have in the works an update...hope to see more flood forms in that update. I have a 2 year subscription to PowerClaim and am wondering when the new update will be shipped.
John Johnson
Johnson and Associates, Raleigh, NC |
Roy Cupps (Admin)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2000 - 1:52 pm: |
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Thanks Jim for setting up an area for PowerClaim and the other vendors. You may get a request to set one up for Blue Book's Best 6 adjusting software. They are more common on the west coast I have been told.
Gale Hawkins |
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