Good idea. Some of your agents may be pulling information from Ivans to receive policy information from other carriers already which will make it easier for you. If you want to make your policy information available to them via Ivans, contact Ivans directly. It is really an arrangement between the carrier and Ivans. Typically, each agent has a mailbox that is setup by Ivans (paid for by the carrier) and the carrier just dumps their compressed and encrypted al3 file (containing all of the policies for that agent) into that mailbox on a daily basis.


>Thanks Tracy - I think I will poll the Agents for the Insurance Company I am working for and see how many of the Agents have systems which get policy information from Ivan's. We are a WC carrier and currently have approx 1000 Agents. If not, I will have to create a web site for them to query their policy data.
>
>Thanks Again
>Gaylen
>
>>Acord has Workers Compensation forms for most of the states. Ivans is the medium for transferring policy information from the carrier to the agent. All policies for that agent are stored in a mailbox on Ivan's system and the agent downloads those policies and imports them into their agency management system (if the agency software provides this service). The carrier typically sends the data to the mailbox in xml format and Ivans converts it to AL3 files (the standard acord format still). Most agency management systems will read al3 files so adding this functionality is not difficult. I have asked about xml straight through but Ivans does not do this yet. Their system automatically provides it via al3 format to the agent's mailbox. It is up to the carrier whether or not they will provide this service for their agents. Ivans has lists of all carriers that do on their website. If the workers compensation is provided by a specific carrier, I would contact that carrier and ask
>>about Ivans transformation. We are working with Orion right now to begin the process. It takes coordination between the carrier, Ivans, and the agency management software team. Typically the carrier will provide the service (join up with Ivans to do it) if the agencies start requesting it.
>>
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>>>Tracy - Do you know if Acord or Ivans is available for Worker's Comp. Insurance. I am currently writing the underwriting and policiy services module for a self insured fund. Good ole VFP8 knocking an AS400 system out of the box. I have been tasked also with giving access to policy information to the agents.
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>>>Do you know how data is transferred to these organizations and costs. I did a cursory look at the two web sites but didn't see anything about WC.
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>>>
>>>Gaylen
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>>>
>>>>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).
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>>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?