Thanks Mike, but I've already implemented it. We are now reading in AL3 files from carriers via IVANS into our policy management software. Additionally, I wrote my own al3 reader utility to view al3 files in order to verify all al3 information was brought into our system correctly since I could not locate a non price-prohibitive one out there. We have an acord membership too.

Tracy

>>Hi Esparta,
>>www.acord.org
>>www.ivans.com
>>
>>Acord is the accepted non-profit insurance standards organization which determines standards for data transfer and forms in the insurance industry. Ivans is a corporation that provides many services, but the one we are interested in is a type of 'mailbox' where carriers dump policy information and our agents can access this mailbox for realtime policy updates for their clients. It saves development time so all agency management systems don't have to go out and connect to literally hundreds of different carrier sites to get realtime policy and underwriting information. The carrier provides the data to Ivans and we authenticate to Ivans and pull down the information to our client systems.
>>
>>I just returned from the annual Acord conference which was actually very enlightening and I should be able to handle these projects with little problem (although not necessarily little development time).
>>
>>
>>
>>>Hi Tracy, as you can Image I can't help you, but, for general knowing, what's Acord and IVANS mailbox?, do you have any link?
>>>
>>>>I've been tasked with implementing Acord forms and IVANS mailbox updates in our next version of our Visual FoxPro agency management software and was wondering if anyone has already implemented these features in a Visual FoxPro app, and if so, do you have any ideas and experiences to share?
>
>Tracy, we are currently looking into the Acord forms as well. We have a Policy Management system for sometime now - but have kept it at a local Insurance company. We are thinking about moving it out into the Public and have contacted Acord. Their Web site is www.acord.org - go to the contact menu/Become a member and it will give info.