System and method for providing web-based user interface to legacy, personal-lines insurance applications

• US 7,343,310 B1
• Filed: 04/30/2001
• Issued: 03/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Travelers Indemnity Company (The Travelers Cos., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Travelers Property Casualty Corporation (The Travelers Cos., Inc.)
• Inventors: Stender, Mark J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; C. Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOPPIKAR, VIVEK D
• Application Number:
  US09/843,841
• Time in Patent Office: 2,507 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 4
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a web-based graphical user interface to a legacy insurance data process system to increase the functionality and ease of use in issuing insurance quotes and policies, providing insurance information and other insurance related services. The system and method integrate use of Internet technology in business work flows, provide dynamic data entry for insurance coverage packages and pricing programs, offer easy access to value-added products and services, and enable local printing of professional insurance applications, proposals and forms to facilitate immediate delivery of professional-quality proposals to customers.

Claims

1. A method for providing remote access to insurance applications from a mainframe insurance data processing system (mainframe system) via a web-based graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

providing a web-based logon screen for accessing the insurance applications, wherein the logon screen includes a list of insurance applications that are accessible;

prompting entry of a user identification (ID), a user password, and a selection of one of the insurance applications from the list to access at the logon screen;

accepting, at the logon screen, entry of the user ID, the user password, and a selected insurance application;

verifying the entered user ID and password;

upon successful verification, communicating with the mainframe system by the web-based graphical user interface to access the selected insurance application and providing a web-based first screen for the selected insurance application, wherein the web-based GUI includes GUI applications, and the insurance applications from the mainframe system are accessed through the GUI applications, and wherein the web-based GUI includes a wrapper functionality around an insurance application such that the user accesses the mainframe insurance application using the GUI without the user utilizing a mainframe interface associated with the mainframe insurance application; and

providing a price quote based at least on the selected type of insurance, user information, and information on desired coverages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the logon screen and the first screen for the selected insurance application are web pages provided by the web-based GUI at a designated website.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the web-based GUI website is provided by at least one web server farm, wherein the web server farm comprises at least one web server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the logon screen comprises a pop-up box in which the list of available applications is provided, and wherein the insurance application is selected by choosing one of the insurance applications listed in the application pop-up box.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the logon screen may be accessed through the Internet or a private communication network or within an intranet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the logon screen is serviced by a first web server farm when it is accessed through the Internet, a second web server farm when it is accessed through the private communication network, and a third web server farm when it is accessed within the intranet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first, second and third web server farms serve as backups to one another.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI applications comprise components and services, wherein each of the components includes one or more services and represents an insurance subject or product offered by the insurance applications;

and wherein each of the services represents an action that can be performed on the insurance subject or product.

9. A method for providing remote access to insurance applications from an insurance data processing system (insurance system) via a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

providing a logon screen for accessing the insurance applications, wherein the insurance applications include an insurance policy quote application and an insurance policy issuance application;

prompting, at the logon screen, entry of a user identification (ID), a user password, and a selection of one of the insurance applications to access;

accepting, at the logon screen, entry of the user ID, the user password, and a selected insurance application;

verifying the entered user ID and password;

upon successful verification, communicating with the insurance system by the web-based graphical user interface to access the selected insurance application and providing a first screen for the selected insurance application, wherein the web-based GUI includes GUI applications, and the insurance applications from the mainframe system are accessed through the GUI applications, and wherein the web-based GUI includes a wrapper functionality around an insurance application such that the user accesses the mainframe insurance application using the GUI without the user utilizing a mainframe interface associated with the mainframe insurance application; and

providing a price quote based at least on the selected type of insurance, user information, and information on desired coverages.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the logon screen includes an option to display an application pop-up box that lists insurance applications that can be selected.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the selected insurance application comprises the insurance policy quote application, and the first screen comprises a welcome screen.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing a second screen to gather information about an insurance customer for which the insurance policy quote is selected;

prompting entry of an agent code of the user at the second screen;

requesting the customer information by further prompting entry of the customer'"'"'s name, the customer'"'"'s address, the customer'"'"'s telephone number at the second screen;

prompting a search for a record of the customer in the insurance system based on the entry of the customer information at the second screen; and

searching the insurance system for the customer record.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

if the searching for the customer record results in one or more possible records for the customer, providing a list of the one or more possible records on a third screen;

if the searching of the customer record is unsuccessful, providing a prompt to add a new record of the customer in the insurance system and providing a prompt to import a record of the customer from outside of the insurance system into the insurance system; and

receiving either a selection of one of the possible records from the list or a command to add a record for the customer into the insurance system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing a fourth screen with a prompt for selecting a type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing a fifth screen with prompts for entry of basic policy information relating to the selected type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing a sixth screen with prompts for entry of policy detail information relating to the customer information and the selected type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing a seventh screen with prompts for entry of information about a subject to be insured by the selected type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing an eighth screen with prompts for entry of information on coverages desired for the selected type of insurance; and

providing a ninth screen that shows a price quote based at least on the selected type of insurance, the subject information, and the information on the desired coverages.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the GUI is a web-based GUI, the second screen displays a web page of the web-based GUI, and the third screen displays the web page having been modified.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the selected insurance application comprises the insurance policy issuance application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing a first screen to gather information a bout an insurance customer for which the insurance policy issuance is selected;

prompting entry of first information about the customer and search criteria;

prompting a search for a record of the customer in the insurance system based on the entry of the customer information and the search criteria; and

searching the insurance system for the customer record.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

if the searching for the customer record is successful, providing a second screen that displays second information about the customer, wherein the second information about the customer is more comprehensive than the first information about the customer; and

if the searching for the customer record is unsuccessful, prompting the user to enter additional information about the customer and prompting the user to create a new record in the insurance system for the customer.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second information about the customer is retrieved from the customer record found in the insurance system from the searching.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing at least one screen that prompts for selection of a type of insurance for the insurance policy issuance and entry of information about determinants for the selected insurance type.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

providing a screen with prompts for entry of policy detail information relating to the customer information and the selected insurance type;

providing a screen with prompts for entry of policy eligibility information relating to the selected insurance type for issuance;

providing a screen with prompts for entry of information about a subject to be insured by the selected insurance type for issuance;

providing a screen with prompts for entry of information on coverages desired for the selected insurance type for issuance;

providing a screen with prompts for billing information relating to the selected insurance type for issuance; and

providing a screen showing a price quote based at least on the selected insurance type, the subject information, and the information on the desired coverages.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein providing at least one screen that prompts for entry of determinants for the selected insurance type comprises:

providing an initial screen for the entry of the determinants for the selected insurance type, wherein the initial screen prompts for the selection of the type of insurance;

providing a second screen for the entry of determinants for the selected insurance type, wherein the second screen prompts for entry of a transaction type and a policy type; and

providing a third screen for the entry of determinants for the selected insurance type, wherein the third screen prompts for entry of a pricing level.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the selected insurance type for issuance is an automobile insurance, and wherein providing a screen with prompts for information about the subject to be insured includes providing a screen with prompts for information about a vehicle to be insured.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

providing a screen with prompts for information about an operator of the vehicle to be insured.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the prompts for information about the operator of the vehicle to be insured includes a prompt for entry of a percentage of the use of the vehicle to be insured by the operator.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the selected insurance type for issuance is a homeowner insurance, and wherein providing a screen with prompts for entry of information about the subject to be insured includes providing a screen with prompts entry of for residence information about a home to be insured.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

providing a screen with prompts for entry of information about replacement cost for the home to be insured.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

providing a screen with a prompt for entry of endorsements.

29. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing an option to print out forms, applications or binders relating to the selected insurance application.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the forms, applications, or binders are printed at the user'"'"'s location.

31. The method of claim 12 wherein the second screen to gather information presents a subset of questions pertinent to the form, jurisdiction, and market of the user responsive to the customer information entered by the customer.

32. The method of claim 14 wherein the prompts for entry contain embedded business logic replacing business logic embedded into legacy screens.

33. The method of claim 9 wherein the insurance system further comprises a presentation services tier linking the remotely accessed insurance applications and the graphical user interface (GUI), the presentation services tier comprising:

web browsers;

a load balancer; and

web servers linked to a Structured Query Language (SQL) server for maintaining the users'"'"' states in said web browsers.

34. The method of claim 9 wherein the insurance system further comprises a business services tier linking the remotely accessed insurance applications and the graphical user interface (GUI), the business services tier comprising business events and business rules.

35. The method of claim 9 wherein the insurance system further comprises a data services tier comprising:

report ordering, work management, product, work in progress, and policy databases for storing, retrieving, maintaining, and assuring the integrity of data;

legacy interfaces and a legacy database for providing access to the legacy insurance applications.

36. The method of claim 9 wherein the insurance system further comprises a multiple virtual storage mainframe with a CICS/IMS environment.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the CICS/IMS environment further comprises a remote hub for accessing the business events and business rules functions for the business services tier and the databases for the data services tier.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the business events and business rules and the databases trigger access to the legacy applications via an External Action Block wrapping the legacy application.

39. The method of claim 34 wherein the business events and business rules are set up in a component and services architecture, wherein each component comprises one or more services.

40. The method of claim 33 wherein the web servers are made identical through server site replication, and further have their states maintained by the SQL server so as to provide redundancy.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising the steps of:

allowing the user to access the web browser on his or her machine;

the load balancer receiving a communication from this machine, determines which of the identical web servers will handle the communication;

the selected web server of said identical web servers accesses a configuration file contained on said web server to determine transmission type and location of the communication;

based on the transmission type and location of the communication, the selected web server accesses a channel table residing on the web server to determine which of multiple message queue (MQ) managers to communicate with the host insurance system.

42. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

if the searching for the customer record results in one or more possible records for the customer, dynamically updating the screen providing a list of the one or more possible records;

if the searching of the customer record is unsuccessful, providing a prompt to add a new record of the customer in the insurance system and providing a prompt to import a record of the customer from outside of the insurance system into the insurance system; and

receiving either a selection of one of the possible records from the list or a command to add a record for the customer into the insurance system.

57. The method of claim 12, wherein after the searching the insurance system for the customer record, said method further comprises dynamically modifying the screen to accommodate additional data elements based on the actions taken on the search screen, said additional data elements including a matching customer list resulting from the customer search.

58. The method of claim 57, further comprising, after the dynamically modifying of the additional data elements, displaying a Quote/Policy Selection screen incorporating the customer information corresponding to an entry from the matching customer list resulting from the customer search selected by the user.

59. The method of claim 12, further comprising dynamically modifying navigation buttons to show the user'"'"'s progress or provide the user a path to return to a previous step, with the availability of said navigation buttons dynamically modified in response to whether the user has selected quote or issue.

60. The method of claim 12, dynamically modifying a subsequent screen to prompt only for questions pertinent to data captured on a previous screen.

43. A method for providing remote access to insurance applications from legacy insurance data processing systems via a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) implemented by a computer system, comprising:

providing a web-based interface comprising wrapper functionality to access a legacy insurance application such that the user accesses the legacy insurance application using the GUI without utilizing a legacy interface associated with the legacy insurance application for accessing the insurance applications;

displaying a list of insurance applications that are accessible via the interface;

prompting entry of a user identification (ID), a user password, and a selection of one of the insurance applications from the list to access at least one of the legacy insurance applications from the legacy insurance data processing systems using the interface;

accepting, using the interface, entry of the user ID, the user password, and a selected insurance application;

verifying the entered user ID and password;

upon successful verification, automatically communicating by the computer system with the legacy application using data retrieved from the interface to access the selected insurance application and determine data required from the customer;

providing the customer a web-based first screen for the selected insurance application responsive to said automatically communicating with the legacy application, and prompting the customer for type of insurance for the insurance policy quote, basic policy information relating to the selected type of insurance, policy detail information relating to the customer information, subject to be insured, and information on coverage for the selected type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing a price quote based at least on the selected type of insurance, the subject information, and the information on the desired coverages.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein said automatically communicating by the computer system with the legacy application using data retrieved from the interface to access the selected insurance application and determine data required from the customer, further comprises:

embedding business logic when communicating with the customer via the interface, thereby replacing business logic embedded into legacy screens, to interface with the legacy insurance application; and

linking the remotely accessed insurance applications and the interface using a business services tier comprising business events and business rules using the embedded business logic; and

triggering access to the legacy applications responsive to the business events and the business rules via the legacy application wrapper and the business services tier.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the insurance system further comprises a data services tier comprising:

report ordering, work management, product, work in progress, and policy databases for storing, retrieving, maintaining, and assuring the integrity of data;

legacy interfaces and a legacy database for providing access to the legacy insurance applications.

46. The method of claim 43 wherein the insurance system further comprises a multiple virtual storage mainframe with a CICS/IMS environment.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the CICS/IMS environment further comprises a remote hub for accessing the business events and business rules functions for the business services tier and the databases for the data services tier.

48. The method of claim 43, wherein the business events and business rules and the databases trigger access to the legacy applications via an External Action Block wrapping the legacy application.

49. The method of claim 43, wherein the business events and business rules are set up in a component and services architecture, wherein each component comprises one or more services.

50. A method for providing remote access to insurance applications from legacy insurance data processing systems via a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) implemented by a computer system, comprising:

providing a web-based interface comprising wrapper functionality to access a legacy insurance application such that the user accesses the legacy insurance application using the GUI without utilizing a legacy interface associated with the legacy insurance application for accessing the insurance applications;

displaying a list of insurance applications that are accessible via the interface;

prompting entry of a user identification (ID), a user password, and a selection of one of the insurance applications from the list to access at least one of the legacy insurance applications from the legacy insurance data processing systems using the interface;

accepting, using the interface, entry of the user ID, the user password, and a selected insurance application;

verifying the entered user ID and password;

upon successful verification, automatically communicating by the computer system with the legacy application using data retrieved from the interface to access the selected insurance application and determine data required from the customer;

providing the customer a web-based first screen for the selected insurance application responsive to said automatically communicating with the legacy application, and prompting the customer for type of insurance for the insurance policy quote, basic policy information relating to the selected type of insurance, policy detail information relating to the customer information, subject to be insured, and information on coverage for the selected type of insurance for the insurance policy quote;

providing a price quote based at least on the selected type of insurance, the subject information, and the information on the desired coverages.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein said automatically communicating by the computer system with the legacy application using data retrieved from the interface to access the selected insurance application and determine data required from the customer, further comprises:

embedding business logic when communicating with the customer via the interface, thereby replacing business logic embedded into legacy screens, to interface with the legacy insurance application; and

linking the remotely accessed insurance applications and the interface using a business services tier comprising business events and business rules using the embedded business logic; and

triggering access to the legacy applications responsive to the business events and the business rules via the legacy application wrapper and the business services tier.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the insurance system further comprises a data services tier comprising:

report ordering, work management, product, work in progress, and policy databases for storing, retrieving, maintaining, and assuring the integrity of data;

legacy interfaces and a legacy database for providing access to the legacy insurance applications.

53. The method of claim 52 wherein the insurance system further comprises a multiple virtual storage mainframe with a CICS/IMS environment.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the CICS/IMS environment further comprises a remote hub for accessing the business events and business rules functions for the business services tier and the databases for the data services tier.

55. The method of claim 52, wherein the business events and business rules and the databases trigger access to the legacy applications via an External Action Block wrapping the legacy application.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the business events and business rules are set up in a component and services architecture, wherein each component comprises one or more services.