Challenge

A large insurance company faced a significant challenge in providing essential support to its agents for mortgage lender inquiries, while also ensuring life insurance underwriters had access to critical medical information stored in the Medical Information Bureau’s (MIB) systems. This integration task was complex due to the need for connections with IBM mainframes internally and adhering to ACORD standards for external communication with MIB.

Solution

Leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk Server, a solution was meticulously crafted to address the multifaceted integration needs, leading to enhanced operational efficiency and customer service quality.

Designing Orchestrations for Mortgage Lender Inquiries: The integration solution commenced with the creation of orchestrations within BizTalk Server that replicated the entire mortgage lender business process. This enabled seamless handling of mortgage lender inquiries while adhering to business rules and requirements.

High Availability and Scalability with BizTalk: BizTalk Server’s inherent high availability and scalability features played a pivotal role in ensuring the system remained operational 24×7. The architecture was designed to withstand various load scenarios and fluctuations in demand.

Integration with Legacy “Green Screen” Applications: To grant life insurance underwriters access to medical information stored in MIB’s systems, BizTalk Server was employed to integrate the “Green Screen” applications. The BizTalk MQSeries adapter facilitated communication by receiving requests via IBM MQSeries queues.

Real-time Transformation to ACORD Standards: Upon receiving messages from the MQSeries queues, the orchestration within the BizTalk Server initiated real-time transformations of the requests using ACORD schemas. This ensured compatibility with external systems and communication standards.

Communication with MIB Web Service: The transformed ACORD messages were forwarded to MIB’s external web service. This integration was pivotal in obtaining the necessary medical information for underwriters.

Integration of MIB ACORD Response: MIB’s web service returned ACORD responses, which were received by BizTalk Server via the SOAP adapter. These responses were then converted by BizTalk orchestrations into an internal format compatible with the company’s legacy data schema.

Utilizing MQSeries Adapter for Response Handling: The BizTalk MQSeries adapter was employed to post the transformed responses back to MQSeries queues. This seamless communication ensured the accurate and efficient flow of information.

Building Scalable and Reliable Environments: The project also encompassed the creation of diverse environments, including clustered SQL Server instances that housed BizTalk Server databases, and load-balanced front-end BizTalk servers. This architecture catered to present and future applications, accommodating varying message volumes effectively.

The successful implementation of Microsoft BizTalk Server for this major insurance company showcased its ability to efficiently integrate diverse systems, streamline business processes, and improve customer service. By providing seamless support for mortgage lender inquiries and enabling life insurance underwriters to access medical information, the company realized increased efficiency, reduced manual work, and enhanced data accuracy. This case study exemplifies how innovative integration solutions can revolutionize operational dynamics within the insurance industry, facilitating better decision-making and improved services for both clients and customers.