ITT: Rolling My Own Agency System (Apache/mysql/AJAX)

[speckledpig]

Okay, I have decided to have a go at building my own system from scratch.

I have been reading the reviews of the various systems available and the costs involved. We are a small agency and simply aren't interested in paying the fees required for a system that has many features we won't use.

I've been in the business for about a year and a half now. My father-in-law owns the agency; he has been here since 1985, mainly selling auto/home with very little heath, life, or commercial. It has worked well. My wife and I will inherit the business.

Before this, I worked in IT for over 10 years, and have been a geek for longer than that, so I have exposure to technology and a bit of programming on the side.

The long-term goals of the system are:

• Provide a customer database system
• Include document storage, photo storage, notes
• Data redundancy (at least two in-house servers with database replication and daily data backups, as well as an offsite backup)
• Track payment activity and commissions
• Be intuitive
• Be secure
• Scale with the business
• Evolve into an agency intranet

The technologies involved (at first) will be:

• the Apache webserver (Welcome to The Apache Software Foundation!)
• mysql database (MySQL :: Developer Zone)
• XAMPP - (apache friends - xampp)
• HTML - (W3Schools Online Web Tutorials)
• PHP - (Php.org | Php)
• AJAX - (Ajax Tutorial : Ajax Help and Tutorials:)
• jQuery - (jQuery UI - Home)
• Javascript (java.com: Java + You)

As a proof-of-concept, I have taken some time over the past couple of weeks and put together a simple journal system. This is just a start.

I'll use this thread to show my progress as well as solicit feedback. Thanks for looking.

 

[LJohnson89]

A nice, simple and intuitive interface.

One thing, Javascript has nothing to do with Java, itself. JQuery is javascript, so if you are using JQuery, you are, in essence, using javascript.

Good Luck.

 

[speckledpig]

A nice, simple and intuitive interface.

One thing, Javascript has nothing to do with Java, itself. JQuery is javascript, so if you are using JQuery, you are, in essence, using javascript.

Good Luck.

I guess I just wanted to differentiate between the jQuery library and some other javascript items such as the calendar date picker.

 

[vrracr]

speckledpig, I find it interesting that you want to create your own insurance agency management system to save on costs. I don't know what your goals are, but vendors have spent millions in building their products and offer them for peanuts (relatively) for agencies to use.

I understand that some of these systems may be overkill for what you need, but I can't imagine that the time it will take you to do this will ever equate to a worthwhile project for your agency.

The future of agency management software applications is very bright. Basic client management is a thing of the past. You need way more than this to survive in this industry and ever increasing competition.

I don't mean to discourage you in any way, but since you are fairly new in the business and will be inheriting an agency, I would go more high-tech to increase retention and grow the business.

 

[ksigmtsu]

speckledpig, I find it interesting that you want to create your own insurance agency management system to save on costs. I don't know what your goals are, but vendors have spent millions in building their products and offer them for peanuts (relatively) for agencies to use.

I understand that some of these systems may be overkill for what you need, but I can't imagine that the time it will take you to do this will ever equate to a worthwhile project for your agency.

The future of agency management software applications is very bright. Basic client management is a thing of the past. You need way more than this to survive in this industry and ever increasing competition.

I don't mean to discourage you in any way, but since you are fairly new in the business and will be inheriting an agency, I would go more high-tech to increase retention and grow the business.

You are correct to a certain degree, however there are open source softwares available for free that you can branch and end up at the same starting point that most of the pay softwares are at now, customize them to fit your needs, and have it done in a matter of a couple months, not years.