Software AG Case Studies Modernizing Legacy Applications Boosts Efficiency and Business

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	Modernizing Legacy Applications Boosts Efficiency and Business Software AG

Modernizing Legacy Applications Boosts Efficiency and Business

Software AG

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Service Parts Management
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Hibernian General Insurance, one of Ireland's largest and most respected insurers, was facing challenges in serving insurance brokers and policy holders while reducing the time and cost to administer insurance policies. One of Hibernian’s key applications is its Branch Policy System (BPS)—a character-based application used by internal administration and call center staff to service insurance brokers and policy holders. To improve response times to these customers and reduce the costs of administering insurance policies, Hibernian decided to take a service-oriented approach and create a Web-based, easy-to-use interface that leverages and reuses existing key functionality contained within the business-critical Branch Policy application. Initially, Hibernian planned to replace its legacy application with an off-the-shelf general insurance package. However, over the years, there has been a large investment in this system which has provided users with a very high-level of functionality. This was found extremely hard to replace with an off-the-shelf general insurance package. Read More
About Customer	Hibernian General Insurance of Ireland, established in 1908, is one of Ireland’s largest and most respected insurers. The company has a business philosophy of providing competitive products and excellent service to customers. Consequently, the organization is constantly striving to improve operations. One of Hibernian’s key applications is its Branch Policy System—a character-based application used by internal administration and call center staff to service insurance brokers and policy holders. The company processes 800,000 policies representing 2 million transactions per year, with applications that support a Web channel but still take advantage of the legacy investment. About 2,000 users, in 400 brokers’ offices, use blive. Read More
Solution	Hibernian decided to extend the capabilities of BPS by creating a Web-based interface, blive, which takes advantage of key features of the existing application. The Web interface could reduce the costs of administering insurance policies by providing self-administration capabilities to brokers and give brokers and policy holders the ability to access information using the Internet. Hibernian also wanted to retain a single processing system with one view of the truth. To ensure flexibility to support these and future requirements, Hibernian took a service-oriented approach to extend the BPS application. First, Sinnott and his team decided to separate the BPS presentation layer and the database access layer from the business logic stored in the application. To achieve this, Hibernian used Software AG’s Natural Productivity Package, a set of tools for developing and maintaining Natural applications using a single, remote Windows-based development environment. Complementing the package is Natural Engineer, a maintenance and reengineering tool that let Hibernian restructure its existing application and reuse essential business logic. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Service Parts Management

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Hibernian General Insurance, one of Ireland's largest and most respected insurers, was facing challenges in serving insurance brokers and policy holders while reducing the time and cost to administer insurance policies. One of Hibernian’s key applications is its Branch Policy System (BPS)—a character-based application used by internal administration and call center staff to service insurance brokers and policy holders. To improve response times to these customers and reduce the costs of administering insurance policies, Hibernian decided to take a service-oriented approach and create a Web-based, easy-to-use interface that leverages and reuses existing key functionality contained within the business-critical Branch Policy application. Initially, Hibernian planned to replace its legacy application with an off-the-shelf general insurance package. However, over the years, there has been a large investment in this system which has provided users with a very high-level of functionality. This was found extremely hard to replace with an off-the-shelf general insurance package.

About Customer

Hibernian General Insurance of Ireland, established in 1908, is one of Ireland’s largest and most respected insurers. The company has a business philosophy of providing competitive products and excellent service to customers. Consequently, the organization is constantly striving to improve operations. One of Hibernian’s key applications is its Branch Policy System—a character-based application used by internal administration and call center staff to service insurance brokers and policy holders. The company processes 800,000 policies representing 2 million transactions per year, with applications that support a Web channel but still take advantage of the legacy investment. About 2,000 users, in 400 brokers’ offices, use blive.

Solution

Hibernian decided to extend the capabilities of BPS by creating a Web-based interface, blive, which takes advantage of key features of the existing application. The Web interface could reduce the costs of administering insurance policies by providing self-administration capabilities to brokers and give brokers and policy holders the ability to access information using the Internet. Hibernian also wanted to retain a single processing system with one view of the truth. To ensure flexibility to support these and future requirements, Hibernian took a service-oriented approach to extend the BPS application. First, Sinnott and his team decided to separate the BPS presentation layer and the database access layer from the business logic stored in the application. To achieve this, Hibernian used Software AG’s Natural Productivity Package, a set of tools for developing and maintaining Natural applications using a single, remote Windows-based development environment. Complementing the package is Natural Engineer, a maintenance and reengineering tool that let Hibernian restructure its existing application and reuse essential business logic.

Impact #1	Hibernian processes 800,000 policies representing 2 million transactions per year, with applications that support a Web channel but still take advantage of the legacy investment.
Impact #2	About 2,000 users, in 400 brokers’ offices, use blive.
Impact #3	Approximately 95% of home business policies and 70% of van policies are processed on the Web-based blive application, far surpassing the original target of 20%.

Impact #1

Hibernian processes 800,000 policies representing 2 million transactions per year, with applications that support a Web channel but still take advantage of the legacy investment.

Impact #2

About 2,000 users, in 400 brokers’ offices, use blive.

Impact #3

Approximately 95% of home business policies and 70% of van policies are processed on the Web-based blive application, far surpassing the original target of 20%.

Benefit #1	Reduced policy administration costs
Benefit #2	Reduced cost and effort of developing J2EE applications
Benefit #3	98% of brokers and policyholders use the reengineered applications

Benefit #1

Reduced policy administration costs

Benefit #2

Reduced cost and effort of developing J2EE applications

Benefit #3

98% of brokers and policyholders use the reengineered applications

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Overview

Modernizing Legacy Applications Boosts Efficiency and Business

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit