Method and apparatus for achieving efficient upgrade of insurance products

• US 20080109789A1
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wong, Susan, Kluchinski, Dave, Agostinelli, Art
• Granted Patent: US 9,792,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A system for managing products comprising a plurality of components is provided. In one embodiment, the system further comprises a plurality of parameters governing the interaction among said components and an interface for receiving user input concerning said components; wherein said components and parameters are objects defined and stored externally; said parameters are defined based on possible user input concerning one or more of said components: and one or more of said components and parameters are loaded into the system, revised or removed without rewriting existing software.

Claims

1. A system for managing products, said products comprising a plurality of components;

said system further comprises a plurality of parameters governing the interaction among said components and an interface for receiving user input concerning said components;

wherein

said components and parameters are objects defined and stored externally;

said parameters are defined based on possible user input concerning one or more of said components;

one or more of said components and parameters are loaded into the system, revised or removed without rewriting existing software; and

one or more of said components are automatically disabled based on user input.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the products comprise insurance products.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the components comprise questions, responses for said questions, and questions to be disabled based on each response.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an interface displaying components loaded or disabled.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

an interface displaying questions affected by the parameters.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein questions and responses are presented in a specific order to a user during product configuration.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise information about which components are to be loaded or executed, when said components should be loaded or executed, and how said components should be displayed.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the products comprise insurance products.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

maintaining an interface for displaying components enabled or disabled.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein one or more of said components are automatically disabled based on user input.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the parameters comprise information about which components are to be loaded or executed, when said components should be loaded or executed, and how said components should be displayed.

8. A method for managing products, said products comprising a plurality of components, said method comprising the steps of:

externally defining and storing said components;

externally defining and storing a plurality of parameters based on possible user input concerning one or more of said components, said parameters governing the interaction among said components; and

disabling one or more of said components without rewriting existing software.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the components comprise questions, responses for said questions, and questions to be disabled based on each response.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

maintaining an interface for displaying questions affected by the parameters.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein questions and responses are presented in a specific order to a user during product configuration.