ASCnet TENCon Special�Orlando, Florida, October 17, 2007- Insurance technology company Applied Systems, Inc., has partnered with VeriCenter, a SunGard unit, to co-locate a new data center at VeriCenter�s Denver-area facility.
The new data center�Applied Systems� third�increases by 30 percent the amount of data-center capacity available for the company�s agency and broker management system clients. The move is driven by consistent increases in the sale and use of Applied Systems� various ASP-hosted offerings: TAMOnline®, VisionOnline™ and DORISonline™ (formerly known as FILESERVERonline™).
�We�re seeing approximately 25 percent year-over-year growth in the online environment,� says Tim Sander, Applied Systems vice president of information technology. �Online products account for a significant percentage of our new sales.�
These sales include new Applied Systems customers and existing clients who opt to move to a hosted-software offering. Sander said several factors contribute to the increases.
�We�re experiencing much greater acceptance among agents and brokers of a �software-as-a-service� model, where agencies have their management software hosted on a remote server,� he explains. �Agencies are happy to not have to maintain software in their offices.�
Sander also says better Internet availability, reliability and lower costs contribute to the increases in online agency management system purchase and use.
Partnering with VeriCenter provides Applied Systems additional redundancies by having a facility managed by a different provider than its other two facilities and a center that uses different Internet service providers.
�The location is built to the same standards as our others, including redundant power, cooling and Internet capabilities,� Sander notes. �It also is an SAS-70 Certified data center, which is increasingly important for many agencies and brokers�particularly those owned by banks or other firms that require hosted software facilities that meet these demanding standards.�
The VeriCenter agreement positions Applied Systems for continued growth, even beyond the immediate expanded data center space. �We have the ability to double the space as soon as we need the added capacity,� says Sander.
Applied Systems, Inc., develops and supports insurance agency and broker management systems and provides services for accounting, customer, policy, claims management, and all related agency functions. More than 128,000 users in 11,000 agencies of every size and complexity level use Applied Systems technology and services. The company leads the industry in agency-carrier real-time and batch communication solutions. Applied Systems automates insurance transactions at every distribution level from consumer through carrier, providing technical support and professional services to maximize customers� return on investment. www.appliedsystems.com
VeriCenter is a leading provider of managed hosting, co-location, and IT outsourcing services for mid-size to large enterprises. It provides a nationwide network through seven data-center facilities and offers a comprehensive scope of managed services, including management of servers, storage, backups, network, databases and security to more than 600 business customers in a broad range of industries. www.vericenter.com
