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GBS, Inc. was founded in 1980 by Richard Seale. At the time a two person company which held their “client database” in two three-ring binders designated as “A-K” and “L-Z.” In the beginning GBS, Inc. was working with little capital but big ideas. The 17-hour days started with the incorporation of GBS. Those long, stressful days would not end for a number of years as the next few years, like most small, private start-up companies, were years of losses in revenue and second and third mortgages.
In 1981 GBS, Inc. released a desktop health quoting system. The first such system ever introduced to the insurance industry that would run on an agent’s desktop PC. Then in 1986 the AGENCY EXPERT was borne to give the agents and agencies a rudimentary database to track their clients, prospects and policies. As the Health Quoting system (originally known as the GROUP EXPERT and later the HEALTH EXPERT) continued to grow in the number of products quoted and states in which quotes could be run, so did the client base of GBS, Inc. At this time, AGENCY EXPERT was still a “sub-product” to the much greater revenue-producing HEALTH EXPERT. Then President Clinton opened his mouth in 1992.
The “promise” of nationalized health care caused the loss of approximately 50% of the clients of GBS, Inc. Agents and agencies across the country were selling their books of business for pennies on the dollar for fear of soon not being able to sell health insurance. GBS, Inc. quickly shrunk from approximately thirty employees to ten. A decision had to be made on how development and resources would be allocated; the AGENCY EXPERT or the HEALTH EXPERT which was now sinking like Shackelton’s schooner beneath the ice of Clinton’s platform. GBS, Inc. eventually dropped development and support of the HEALTH EXPERT and made the “do or die” decision to put all resources into the AGENCY EXPERT.
As more development was put into the AGENCY EXPERT; Additional capabilities (the tracking of all lines of business, enhanced commissions capabilities and agent tracking capabilities ) and a more aggressive marketing strategy, GBS, Inc. again started to grow. By 1998 GBS, Inc. had taken over the blocks of business of three competing vendors. While GBS, Inc. was starting to gain a substantial foothold in the agency management marketplace, Y2K was quickly approaching and with it, a massive adjustment to the rank and file of software vendors in the insurance database industry.
By 1996 GBS, Inc., and most other vendors, had released their Y2K-compliant Windows versions of their software. There were differing strategies. Some developed with a “speed to market” mentality in an attempt to gain as many clients from DOS vendors as quickly as possible. Other vendors, such as GBS, Inc., took a “wait and see” approach. The patience paid off as by witnessing the trials, tribulations and eventual perils of many vendors, GBS, Inc. was able to see not only what worked but, more importantly, what would assure the demise of a product if not an entire company. While many vendors moving their development from DOS products to Windows-based products eventually floundered and sunk, it was GBS, Inc. and only a few others that not only survived but flourished. GBS, Inc. was now being seen again as the leader but now with an entirely new product in hand.
Over the next few years, GBS, Inc. continued to add more clients and soon revenues were drastically increasing month-by-month. GBS, Inc. had weathered the storm and now was not only profitable but seen as a trusted industry leader with more experience than any vendor in the market.
The growth of GBS, Inc and the AGENCY EXPERT continued with key development and marketing strategies. GBS, Inc’s 32-Bit version was not a “niche” product like most every other vendors’ competing for business in the aggressive insurance database marketplace. While most vendors developed their product to specialize for Property/Casualty insurance or for Term Life and Investments products or for Group Benefits Products, GBS, Inc. continued development along a path to allow any agency or any size to prospect, sell and service the products of ANY line of insurance. While other vendors were forced to sell their products at prices sometimes ten to twenty times the cost of the AGENCY EXPERT product (thus limiting their potential market due to high cost), it was the marketing strategy of GBS, Inc. to maximize revenues and thus potential market by keeping the AGENCY EXPERT (now the most feature-rich and diverse agency management system available in the industry) at a much more reasonable cost, AGENCY EXPERT could be acquired by any agent or agency in need of an agency management system.
In late 2000 the GBS, Inc. AGENCY EXPERT continued to exert more force on its competition with the release of the 32-bit version using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. Vendors located on the East and West coast were facing twice the overhead in development and support costs while the Colorado-based GBS, Inc., due simply to location, was able to develop a more capability-rich product at approximately half the cost of the competition. The GBS, Inc. AGENCY EXPERT thus held more capabilities and features with a larger support staff and was available at a lower cost. Around 2002 another product came into the marketplace – the “Internet-based” system.
Up until approximately 2003, high-speed internet access was difficult if not impossible to find. If available in your locale, it was, more times than not, very cost-prohibitive. This meant that an agent or agency wishing to gain remote access capabilities to their database was at the mercy of an enormous monthly bill for high-speed internet access, OR the “hair-pulling frustration” of trying to access data across a dial-up modem at 33 or 56kbs. The “internet-based” agency management system was borne. However, while these systems gave remote access to a database, they had to be run over the internet and were thus subject to slow data transfer speeds. The only answer for the internet-based system was to send less data. This translated into less data tracking fields and less capabilities and features. In many cases at a very high monthly cost.
Around 2003, technology again struck the software development industry with great force. High speed internet access was now available in nearly every home and office in the country at very affordable fees. Soon after came dozens of Internet based remote access applications which gave any company or individual the ability to access a remote computer over the internet at a cost of ten to fifteen dollars a month. The massive array of capabilities and features of desktop systems such as AGENCY EXPERT and other vendors was now accessible from any PC in the world provided that PC had an internet connection. The on-line database was slowly growing obsolete as it carried a higher cost, less capability and its strongest selling point had been trumped by technology sooner than expected.
As the next few years advanced, GBS, Inc. continued to widen the gap on its competitors with the development of many additional features, capabilities and new additional modules such as: Electronic Forms, Scanning, Ability to Accept Carrier Downloads, Investment Transaction Downloads, the Custom Screens Module, the RFP Module (for both Group Health and – coming soon – Personal Auto), the Web Reporting module and more. Again, through continuous ongoing development covering all lines of insurance and investments, GBS, Inc. was growing stronger than ever.
While development of additional capabilities, features and additional modules still continues to this day, GBS, Inc. also saw the value-added resource that could be provided our customers via the forming of partnerships with such companies as Compulife, StrateCision, BasicGURU, LaserApps, QuikForms, MyPaperLess Office and many more.
GBS, Inc. continues to add more and more internet-based capabilities such as web reporting, on-line access for Group Health clients to their census data and employee data held in an agent’s or agency’s database and the continued development of the .NET version of AGENCY EXPERT (which promises to be the most anticipated release by GBS, Inc. since its incorporation in 1980). The .NET version of AGENCY EXPERT will be a FREE upgrade to every supported AGENCY EXPERT subscriber and will include over 400 new capabilities, a new and advanced interface and new capabilities and features specifically developed to increase communication between agents/agencies and their clients and agencies and their sub-agents.
For GBS, Inc. and the clients of GBS, Inc., the future continues to look very bright.
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