Apples to oranges technology: Data translation and interfacing made easy

TransFluent, an enhanced version of Paragon Interface's successful agency interface software program called AgencyLink, is a translation powerhouse. Released in January, it is designed to provide a single solution for all of an insurer's data translation needs-not just agency interface. Like AgencyLink, it provides data reformatting in a real-time or batch mode on a wide range of computer systems, including personal computers, mid-range computers and mainframes. And because it is designed in a modular fashion, TransFluent can easily accommodate object technology. But first a little history.

Before my partners, David Harbin and Paul Pamplin, and I started Paragon Interface several years ago, we spent six months talking to the presidents and chief information officers of major insurance companies about the problems they face. A common theme emerged: communicating information to and from the carriers' legacy systems was a major challenge.

Dinosaurs from an earlier era, these massive systems are unable to respond to today's demand for quick and easy access to information from a variety of computer platforms. Agents were beginning to demand download to reduce their workload and companies wanted upload to cut their internal costs. But their computer systems could not talk to each other.

As veteran developers of software and services for the insurance industry, we set out to design a data translation tool that would facilitate electronic data interchange, giving both parties what they wanted. Drawing on the experience of our senior management team-especially Paul Pamplin's 15 years of experience with upload and download-we produced AgencyLink, an agency interface product marketed to carriers and managing general agents. AgencyLink is also installed on the AT&T Insurance Solutions network to facilitate company download. We have worked with AT&T's talented staff to create a mutually beneficial relationship. Having our reformatter in their network means that carriers using the AT&T network have no need for a staff of reformatting experts.

With TransFluent and AgencyLink, data translation has never been easier or faster. Because our products are WindowsTM-based with a graphical user interface, they are highly intuitive. Complex mapping rules are presented visually, and data translations can be defined with minimal effort With input and output fields displayed side by side on the same screen, translation is often as simple as drawing a line from a data element definition in one system to the desired data element definition in the other. Just point, click, drag and drop. And a built-in Rex compiler can write a statement to take care of any change that cannot be handled that way. There's no programming involved and nothing has to be hard coded, which can be a very time-consuming process. An added bonus: changes-in ACORD standards or data files-can be handled in minutes rather than hours or days.

Implementation time is relatively rapid. AgencyLink was installed on the AT&T network in two days. Trinity Universal Insurance Company was the first company installed. It was two months from the start of the first study to the first agent download-a record time.

In developing AgencyLink, we designed a program that has multiple uses. We have never sold it to a company yet that didn't find two or three internal uses before they had finished implementing upload and download. Carriers can use it to move data from a legacy system to a client-server environment. And in this era of company takeovers and mergers, some insurers are using it to convert files from companies they have acquired. The second largest insurance company in the country is using it to upload assigned risk from New York.

The enhanced version's new name, TransFluent, more accurately reflects the broad scope of the product's applications. It can do much more than simply electronically link companies to their agents-although that is an essential function.

There is a growing appreciation of the need to be able to communicate across disparate systems. Some of that awareness stems from a changing regulatory environment where, for example, some states now require auto insurance carriers to report all cancellations and new applications to ensure that residents' insurance records are up-to-date. That is a potentially massive amount of data that must be moved to a third party as efficiently as possible.

We introduced AgencyLink just 10 months ago, and TransFluent debuted at the beginning of this year. Up to now, our business has come through referrals because we preferred to avoid the pitfalls of overcommitting. But now we are letting the rest of the industry know that there is a painless solution for the thorny problem of data translation.

Copyright Rough Notes Co., Inc. Apr 1997
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