InsFocus BI – Version 2.0

General

InsFocus BI version 2.0 brings InsFocus to the Web, with a brand new, HTML5 based Web Client. In addition, major improvements have been added to the server infrastructure, Windows client, insurance data model and reports library.

Web Client

InsFocus BI Web Client has been built from the ground up using the most advanced technologies available, including ASP .NET MVC, jQuery, HTML5 and CSS3. The result is a beautiful and easy-to-use interface that allows user of any modern Web browser and any device to view and run InsFocus reports.

In this version, the Web client is complementary to the Windows client. While the Windows client is the powerhouse that allows the creation and definition of new reports, the Web client is a viewer of reports. In the coming versions, we will add more features that will also allow creation of reports within the Web.

The current functionality available in the Web Client is:

  • Support for every modern Web browser (IE9, Chrome, FireFox, Safari)
  • Support for every modern operating system (Windows, Mac, iPad)
  • Advanced graphical report library with report thumbnails, report searching, sorting and tile/details view
  • Welcome screen that displays commonly used reports, recent reports and new company reports
  • Full InsFocus Report viewer including tables and charts
  • Tabbed interface for easy report switching

Application definitions & log database

In this version, we moved all application definitions from XML files to an application definitions database;

  1. The database includes all configured parameters, such as users, databases, reports libraries, scheduled reports, calculation methods.
  2. The database automatically keeps track of all historical changes in a dedicated schema.
  3. All user sessions are kept on hard disk so nothing is lost even in cases of computer restart or power failure.
  4. The database enables implementations with more than one application server (load balancing / redundancy).

In addition, a log database now stores the logs for all InsFocus application parts, including application server and ETL (those logs existed before as separate CSV files).

Report searching

Full report searching, including sub-categories, is now available in both Windows and Web versions. Search results show all reports found, with options to open reports or navigate to their categories.

Full-text search for auto-complete filters

Many filters in the input pane use auto-complete filters instead of drop-down lists, in cases where dimensions have many values and cannot be displayed in lists. Those dimensions may include clients, policy numbers, claimants, etc. When the user starts typing the text, a list of values is loaded from the database. When dealing with large tables containing hundreds of thousands or millions of rows (for example clients table), performance can be an issue.

To overcome this problem, InsFocus now utilizes SQL Server’s full-text search feature to make those searches within fractions of a second.

New System Center reports screen

The system center reports screen has been revamped, and it is now easier than ever to control the structure of report libraries in the system. The new screen has the following features:

  1. Filter/search for reports
  2. View report thumbnails and details just as available in client
  3. Perform report operation – rename, delete, move, copy.
  4. Download/upload report versions.
  5. Edit report XML directly from within System Center.
  6. Move whole categories between libraries.

Announcements / Information mechanism

Two new mechanisms are now available in InsFocus:

  1. Information – constant information visible to users on login, such as internal support phone and e-mail.
  2. Announcements – announcements visible to users on login, such as new features, system downtime, etc.

Data Model

In version 2.0, we used feedback from many clients, projects and users to greatly enhance our unique insurance data warehousing model with new items, dimensions and subject areas. In addition, we applied many enhancements based on our internal roadmap, and optimized the ready-made calculation templates. Enhancements include:

  • Improved item naming – we went over all item texts and improved naming for better clarity and understandability.
  • Support for multiple source systems.
  • Support for product group risk codes.
  • "New/cancelled section" flag for counting new, cancelled, net sections
  • Policies in-force count in accounting time base (counts policies in-force at end of each period displayed)
  • Item counting days from last outstanding change
  • Client count in snapshot
  • Items of FGU claims incurred (from ground up) for finding claims that rose over a threshold in report period
  • Bordereau sums insured for policy transaction list
  • Bordereau outstanding value for claim outstanding change list
  • Full Storno support
  • New/renewal policy as a dimension
  • Earned adjusted policies / sections in accounting
  • Optimized unearned calculation templates to work ~75% faster

Report Library

The report library is animportantpart of InsFocus insurance data warehouse model. The library contains a large set of report templates that can help an insurance company analyzetheir portfolio. The reports can be fully customized by clients.

In this version, we did a major overhaul of the report library and it now contains more than 200 reports, including:

  1. Actuarial reports – analysis, triangulations
  2. Audit reports – exceptions and validations
  3. Claim reports – activity, parties, reserving, service
  4. Financial reports – profit-loss, billing
  5. Marketing reports – channels, renewals, sales, other
  6. Reinsurance reports – analysis, exposure
  7. Underwriting reports – analysis, clients, pricing

Small enhancements

  • Display drill-down to agents or other organizational members as quick options in list.
  • Connection to databases now supports SQL authentication in addition to Windows authentication.
  • Support for “exclude” restrictions (e.g. users who are NOT allowed to view claims).
  • Definition of a default role and a default restriction level.
  • Excel export now exports numbers in the correct format and also attaches report parameters and description.
  • License viewing and editing has moved inside System Center.
  • Report definitions now support “next” periods (e.g. see report for next 1 month).
  • Enhancements and improvements to ETL processes.

© InsFocus Systems Ltd. 2012.