CGI's Ratabase XML opens door to speed and innovation for Chubb

"(…) Our relationship with CGI is very positive. They are good with deadlines and the people they sent on site were excellent."

Jeanne Kirk, Assistant Vice-President, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies

When CGI held its annual seminar for Ratabase clients in April 2001, it announced that it was beginning the necessary work to integrate XML technology (Extensible Markup Language) with its Ratabase product (a rating and scoring engine that reduces time required to develop and support insurance rating process), Chubb leapt at the chance to get in on the ground floor…

Based in Warren, New Jersey, the Chubb Corporation was created in 1967 and is ranked among the top ten publicly traded insurance organizations in the U.S. Members of the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies form a multi-billion dollar organization providing property and casualty insurance for personal and commercial customers worldwide through 5,000 independent agents and brokers. Chubb's networks include branches and affiliates throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia.

The Challenge
The announcement that CGI would be integrating its Ratabase product with XML was welcomed news for Chubb, which needed a more cost-efficient way to collect and distribute data so they could become more competitive and give their agents accurate quotes on-line.

Considered a platform, not a standard, XML is a much more powerful version of HTML, providing a generic way to process data and is viewed as an efficient and flexible way to transfer structured data between applications. As such, it greatly facilitates component and system integration. In addition, XML is better adapted to document management, such as long and complex Intranet documents, since users can choose the type of information they want to represent.

But as a relatively new concept, most technology providers are on a learning curve when it comes to XML. CGI is far ahead of that curve, thanks to its research and development in the XML adapter with funding from CGI's Strategic Investment Program (SIP), created by CGI to invest in emerging technologies to help support strategic client-driven programs.

For Chubb, the SIP investment had a considerable impact on its decision to stay with Ratabase for their commercial lines business and seize the XML opportunity. Said Chubb's Assistant Vice-President, Jeanne Kirk, "One of Chubb's core competencies is directly built around rating and it is found with the Ratabase solution. So yes, the SIP investment had a positive effect on our decision to renew the contract (with CGI). We were excited about the prospects of being able to integrate with XML…"

In November 2001, Chubb entered into an agreement with CGI to provide the XML solution to interface with a Web-enabled front end or server that Chubb was developing.

The Strategy
In March of the following year, CGI began the implementation in earnest. CGI and Chubb met to discuss how the interface would be customized to fit their requirements. Fortunately, CGI was already ahead of the game, since they had built a generic adapter component, meaning they didn't have to start from square one in the customization process. After demonstrating XML's suitability for Ratabase, CGI successfully integrated the XML adapter with the Calculator component on the AIX platform. CGI then developed an MQ XML message handling component and customized it to Chubb's environment to further facilitate integration of the Calculator component into Chubb's mainframe and AIX server-based solution.

Because of its generic capability, the XML conversion allows for significant time and cost savings for Chubb, other Ratabase clients, and CGI. Before XML, each time the Ratabase rating engine was implemented, an interface program would be created to manipulate the data between the client's data capture application and the proprietary calculator data structures used to determine premiums. Added Kirk, " Using XML to communicate with Ratabase to hook into a Web-enabled server is a new way of collecting data, whereas previously it had to be uploaded. Our rating methodology is complicated and the generic interface was great for our requirements. Otherwise, the process would have taken two years to do."

The Technology

• Enterprise Architecture
  
  
• MQ Series messaging to communicate with Ratabase
  
  
• AIX platform, for Ratabase calculator and XML components
  
  
• Mainframe solution
  
  
• Web-enabled front end
  
  

The Results
By July 2002, CGI had completed the XML conversion within the prescribed deadline. With XML, Chubb can now give their agents on-line quotes that are accurate and changes in rating criteria can be done instantaneously. Added Kirk, " We can now ensure regulatory compliance, since both the mainframe and the server components are in sync in terms of the AIX XML calculator component. We will no longer need to duplicate the entry of rates and formulas in the system. Not only are we glad and re-assured about the compliance angle, we also know that we will be able to obtain some maintenance cost savings from a human resources point of view." As for CGI, its talents and performance on the project did not go unnoticed. "Our relationship with CGI is very positive. They are good with deadlines and the people they sent on site were excellent."