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Jarus Get Real Time is a solution for Insurers who distribute their products through independent agents,
brokers and comparative raters. It provides the software components needed to implement Real Time and Download interface
applications.
What is Real Time?
"Real time is the ability to click on a button from a client file in agent’s agency management system or comparative rater
for immediate access to carrier information on that client. The transaction may be a quote, billing inquiry, claim inquiry/
loss runs, policy view, endorsements or a request for information. This approach provides a single workflow for servicing or quoting.
source: Getrealtime.org a group of agents, brokers, carriers, technology providers, user groups,
and agent and industry associations that advocates implementation of Real Time and Download interface applications by independent
agents and carriers.
Issue
Insurance producers, especially independent agents and brokers, face many issues:
- The workflow is different for different insurers they do business with. A survey by IIABA (Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers
of America) shows that even a small agency with revenues less than $500,000 write policies with 6.7 insurers on an average. This number
is over 13 for larger agencies.
- The data in the agency management systems is not current and out of synch with Insurer data and as a result agents are unable to
respond to customer needs faster, an issue referred to as the “three point contact”. Customer contacts the agency. Agency contacts the
Insurer to get the information. Agency then contacts the customer to communicate the information.
A group of agents and brokers, carriers and industry associations like ACT, AUGIE have united to launch the Real Time Campaign.
Through this industry campaign, they educate the agents on Real Time benefits and also urge Insurers to implement Real Time.
Issue for Insurers:
- Insurers who have implemented Real Time use it as a marketing lever that puts other insurers, especially regional carriers,
at a competitive disadvantage.
Solution
Jarus Get Real Time accelerates implementation of Real Time and Download interface applications by supplying the software components
needed to process the business-to-business transactions initiated by agency management systems and comparative raters. These
components authenticate the requests, validate the data, transform the data to a format compatible with Insurer’s backend, interface
with backend systems to fulfill the transaction and communicate the result back to the external systems. Using these components and
our knowledgeable professional services, Jarus is able to shrink the end-to-end development time to between 3 and 6 months.
A list of Real Time functions currently supported by agency management systems
- Automatic Web Login from agency management systems
- Inquiry: Billing, Policy, Claim, Loss Run
- Endorsements
- Real Time Rating
- Policy Issue
- First Notice of Loss
- Notifications/Alert Messages
Technology
Based on several years of research in Insurance e-Business initiatives, Jarus Get Real Time is a sophisticated and flexible architecture
based on standards. A high-level architecture diagram of how Jarus Get Real Time fits in with Carrier’s back-end is shown below.
Deployed as a web service, Jarus Get Real Time receives the request from agency desktops (AMS, Applied or Comparative Rater’s user interfaces).
The request can come in the form of ACORD XML or a proprietary format. Jarus Get Real Time processes the request through a series of components
each designed to perform a critical function:
- Authenticate the request to ensure that the sender is valid, registered user
- Validate the request to ensure that the appropriate information is available to attempt the transaction
- Transform the request to a format that is acceptable to carrier backend
- Interface with carrier backend
- Process results from carrier backend and transform results to a format compatible to sender
- Send the response back to the sender
The system is based on four pieces of core technology
- Jarus XML Processor
- Enterprise Service Bus
- Insurance Business Object Model
- Service wrappers for carrier back-end
Jarus XML Processor
A high-speed, flexible, customizable and extensible XML processor that performs operations on XML stream as instructed
by a script. Using different sets of scripts, the XML processor is able to perform different operations such as security
authentication, message validation, transformation, etc. on XML streams. While the scripting provides extensive flexibility,
there is no loss of performance due to scripting. The scripts are compiled into Java code and as a result the performance is
several times higher than what is possible using standard XML processing technologies such as XSTL.
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
ESB is responsible for routing the transactions across different software components including carrier back-end. ESB adds
flexibility by making routing configurable and adaptable. Jarus supports commercial ESB products and also custom implementations of ESB.
Insurance Business Object Model
Flexible interoperability is possible only if all software components speak the same language (that is, they communicate using a standard
taxonomy and data structures to represent common business data such as Policy, Coverages, Billing, Claims). Based on Insurance industry
standards, Jarus has developed a common Insurance Business Object Model that helps Insurers to standardize the service interface across
all business units and carrier systems. The model can be customized to suit the needs of an Insurer.
Service wrappers for back end systems
Not all carrier’s systems are based on the same technology and to make them interoperate it is often needed to create appropriate wrappers to
enable them to connect to the ESB. Jarus uses a variety of tools and techniques to create these service wrappers that work with custom back-end
applications and legacy packages.
Business Benefits
- Increases producer productivity. This translates to increased business for the Insurance carriers
- Direct connectivity between agent desktops and carrier system reduces errors
- Agency self-service means fewer calls to service center. This reduces workload and saves money for Insures
- Notifications and alerts help agents to service their clients better
- Faster time to implement means Insurers have a competitive edge over others who are lagging behind with their Real Time implementation
Benefits to IT
- It improves the enterprise architecture resulting in long term benefits. Also, the open, flexible architecture permits back end systems
to evolve without impact on carrier operations
- The software modules supplied along with Get Real Time offer tremendous value. They have applicability and use in other areas in
addition to Get Real Time. This initiative takes carriers in the right path to achieve SOA
- Insurance Business Object Model solves a problem most Insurers are grappling with—how to reconcile structure and naming differences
between different modules of the carrier systems and what is the right enterprise-wide, common business object model. Based on industry standards,
it not only enables interoperation within the enterprise, it also permits future business-to-business transactions without having to rip-and-replace
the messaging standard.
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