Blog
Imminence of the SBC
April 17, 2012
Summary of Benefits and Coverage - Soon to Be Compulsory
I recently became distracted from my regular routine by an undeniable force that seems to be taking health insurers by storm. Having worked in insurance technology for nearly 15 years, there are only a few times that I can recall observing a common theme invade the landscape of insurance like the SBC issue is currently doing. Perhaps only when Y2K was about to end the world did I notice an acronym strike such trepidation into the world of health insurance carriers.
I'll not proclaim to ... Read more
By:Xpertdoc team | Tagged: Insurance, Chris, Document Automation, Cloud, SBC | Leave comment
Summary of Benefits and Coverage
March 15, 2012
A tale of Government mandate, Cloud and CRM
All group insurance providers operating in the US are mandated by the US Government to provide clear and consistent information to consumers about their health insurance coverage. The Affordable Care Act ensures consumers receive, in plain English, a Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) on a standardized form that will help them understand and evaluate their health insurance choices. More details are available on this requirement on the HealthCare.gov web site.
Many health care insurance carriers are finding themselves in a
bit of a scramble to meet the September 2012 compliance deadline.
Xpertdoc is addressing this
requirement with many carriers who are pleased to see the Xpertdoc
Solution
already allows them to rapidly comply with this regulation change,
while providing
... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: CRM, Francis, Insurance, Cloud, SBC | Leave comment
On Premise and from-the-Cloud Batch Document Services
March 14, 2012
We've got a great new release coming up that enhances Xpertdoc batch capabilities. The solution has always been able to handle the most stringent volume and performance requirements, easily handling multi-million pages of output per day on a single server. Quite an accomplishment for a solution that leverages the familiarity and ease of use of Microsoft Word!
Well, continuing on our drive for end-user empowerment, ease of use and ultra-quick / easy deployment, we're launching a repackaging of our tried-and-true batch capabilities into a new offering called "Document Services". This release comes fully-loaded with readily available features and operations such as Word, PDF and HTML output, dynamic table-of-content, page-level enhancements, document assembly (concatenation or stitching), and compliance-grade auditing and track changes.
What's really new about this is how easy it now is to combine, mix and match these capabilities. And even more... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Francis, Cloud, PDF, Batch | Leave comment
Preserve Your Investment in Word-based Document Automation
February 22, 2012
Make Your "Wordiness" Work for You
It's been a few months now since I joined Xpertdoc and I am getting to a state where I feel pretty comfortable with the technology, especially with the knowledge that a great team of experts is at the ready whenever I need help. While working on several projects for clients from a variety of industries including insurance, property management, communications and public relations, I have seen adopters of Xpertdoc experience the many merits of the solution with very quick implementation cycles. I have also been in touch with many of my friends and contacts from the past and I continue to witness the struggles and challenges facing users who remain stuck on legacy document automation platforms such as Mosaic, Calligo and IStream.
Prior to departing my pre... Read more
By:Xpertdoc team | Tagged: Chris, Document Automation, Migration | Leave comment
Law Firms and Legal Departments Focusing on Client Communications
December 16, 2011
So, it appears there is a growing interest by many professionals in economizing the time spent on mundane and tedious document generation and contract review activities ... no surprise there! But it IS surprising to see how much time is actually spent on such activities by well paid professionals!
During the recent Webinar hosted by xRM4legal, we explored how two specific areas of the legal professional's activities are burdened with heavy manual processes- resulting in high inefficiency and cost increases: (i) the existing processes for document generation; and (ii) the existing methods of contract review.
Take a look at the Webinar for a view into how some law firms have started to address these pains with both easy to use, deploy and support software as well as more efficient processes. Adoption by legal professionals is rapid as th... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha | Leave comment
Special Migration Offer for IStream Users
December 16, 2011
As the support for applications such as Calligo and IStream fades, it is likely to expect that the support level you will receive will also diminish. There are several inevitabilities that will occur as vendors sunset application support:
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In the absence of product development plans, software on its way to obsolescence is not likely to get the attention of support and development resources when issues are encountered by remaining users |
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Lack of vendor support and evolution for a product can cripple your ability to keep your own envi |
By:Varsha Bhat | Not tagged | Leave comment
Best Practices for Word Form & Template Modernization
December 15, 2011
Join us for an insightful Webinar on January 17th 2012 that will showcase an automated migration process that will address how you can convert your IStream, Calligo, Mosaic, Eloquence, Mail Merge, and other Word-based templates, facilitating an easy transition to alternative technologies
Topics of discussion will include:
• Best practices for document migration
• Conversion of content and business rules
• Document migration testing and content compliance validation
• Options for integration with your existing systems and data sources
An Xpertdoc Solution case example will help to showcase the immediate and long term benefits of bringing the document output generation capability to the Business Users' desktop! Learn more about this webinar and register here.
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha | Leave comment
Legacy Document Automation Systems
December 10, 2011
- I got my support but are you gonna get yours?
I narrowly escaped the shedding of a tear a few months back when I was 're-structured' out of Oracle's organizational plans. Having put in about 13 years with the company that started out as Insystems but eventually ended up in Oracle's portfolio of acquisitions after several other incarnations as Standard Register, Whitehill and Skywire, it was a daunting prospect to think that I would be abandoning the comfort and familiarity of the environment I had known for well over a decade. It was far from a surprise as Oracle had redundant offerings for document automation software in their toolset and had chosen to move forward with the Documaker application instead of the IStream software where the majority of my background was rooted.
Nonetheless, a shock to the foundation such as sudden unemployment causes one to undergo some personal reflection, but with the support of ... Read more
By:Chris Tully | Tagged: Chris, Document Automation, Migration | Leave comment
Complimentary Discovery Workshop Offer
December 6, 2011
Complimentary Discovery Workshop Offer
Xpertdoc was recently invited to collaborate and present on an xRM4legal webinar on December 6th 2011. In that presentation, the legal community attendees heard of the inroads leading law firms and legal departments are making when embracing the Xpertdoc Solution as a core technology in their client communication processes.
Highlights were shared from several law firm case studies. Scenarios showcased how these firms - in the face of market competition, client pressures and internal inefficiencies - managed to introduce the Xpertdoc Solution to improve ... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha, Legal | Leave comment
Products Updates
November 18, 2011
Xpertdoc continues to push the envelope for its product suites. Here is a recap of our latest developments:
Xpertdoc Portal & Template Manager
Latest release is 2.1.8
The recent releases added:
- Extended support for SharePoint advanced features such as document sets.
- Extended support for Cloud-based operation.
- Added form design options and user interface features to improve overall usability.
Xpertdoc Template Designer
Latest release is 11.0.5.6
The recent releases added:
- Enhancement releases with support for additional image types and objects as well as model and macro-enabled documents.
Xpertdoc Designer/Portal Extension
Latest release is 2.3.0
The recent releases added:
- Usability enhancements.... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Francis, Products | Leave comment
Xpertdoc Partnerships - Collaboration for a Higher Return for All Parties
October 31, 2011
Xpertdoc has had a long history of both supporting and collaborating with key partners in order to bring the best possible offerings in technology and delivery to our client base. At Xpertdoc, we recognize the value that well-chosen, like-minded partners can bring to the Xpertdoc business and client deployments.
To support the array of client deployment and support needs, the Xpertdoc Partner Program embraces three key forms of partnership - Alliance Partners, OEM Partners, and Technology Partners. And each Xpertdoc Partner brings a special offering to the table for our clients.
In the realm of Xpertdoc Alliance Partners, firms range from pure Reseller alliances to Systems Integrator firms to specific technology and service offerings of supporting CRM Deployment Partners. Xpertdoc aims to only support and maintain a modest array of complementary partnerships that share a common value platform with Xpertdoc and help to bring real benefits to the sh... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha, Partners | Leave comment
Quebec Tech Association Rocks
October 28, 2011
Hi everyone!
I had the opportunity to speak about the Quebec Technology Association (http://www.aqt.ca/en/) at their annual networking cocktail last September. You can listen to what I had to say here.
Varsha
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha | Leave comment
SharePoint for Insurance
October 26, 2011
Last month I was invited to speak at the IASA Mid-West Regional Chapter about Microsoft SharePoint, what it is and what it means for insurance carriers.
I started my presentation by mentioning that SharePoint is actually many things and, more specifically, different things to different people.
According to Microsoft, SharePoint makes it easier for people to work together, set up Web sites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.
According to Wikipedia, it is a replacement for multiple web applications that supports various combinations of enterprise website requirements.
Here's my own stab at describing it:
- It's a web site.
- It's a tool to create web sites.
- It's a container for "stuff"
- It's a tool to collaborate on, organize, protect and share ... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: SharePoint, Francis, ECM | Leave comment
CIO Insurance Summit in Miami
October 21, 2011
Another great year with the delegates at the CIO Insurance Summit hosted in Miami this year!
While Miami weather did not cooperate (virtually constant rain, thunderstorms and even a tornado watch!) the interactions and dialogues during the session tracks and networking sessions were open and insightful as always.
Xpertdoc had a presence as a repeat sponsor (our 3rd year) with a special presentation track geared at highlighting the real ROI on technology investments possible in the client communications space.
Recognizing that insurance companies must find a way to... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha, Insurance | Leave comment
Welcome to our consolidated blog!
June 18, 2011
Dear readers,
Varsha Bhat and Francis Dion, respectively Xpertdoc President and CEO, have been blogging independently for a while outside of the Xpertdoc corporate domain. With the accelerated growth of our business and the impact it is increasingly making in the insurance industry (see what industry analysts are saying about our document output offering), we figured it was time for us to provide you with a consolidated channel for news, insights, maybe some tidbits of wisdom and, with any luck, a healthy dose of plain silliness and fun too.
To that effect, from now on we will be publishing our "musings" directly to the Xpertdoc Blog space at www.Xpertdoc.com/en/blog. You will still be able to follow each of us individually by looking for the "Varsha Bhat" and "Francis Dion" category tags to the right of the blog's interface.
If you really do... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Varsha, Francis | Leave comment
IASA 2011Annual Educational Conference and Business Show
June 9, 2011
It has to be said this year's IASA technology conference hosted in Nashville has to be one of the best shows from the perspective of a vendor. Xpertdoc certainly had a stellar experience at this year's show - it was certainly on target with respect to our focus on the insurance sector. And Xpertdoc was very well received by clients and partners alike, with the Insurance Industry focussed document output solution from Xpertdoc clearly making waves with this audience.
Unfortunately, a by-product of the Xpertdoc team being so busy at the show was that there was no chance for us to attend any of the conference educational tracks. As such, any comments I can share about the speakers or content would be purely anecdotal. So I'll leave it to you to find those who attended sessions themselves to share their experiences with yo... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat | Leave comment
ACORD LOMA 2011 – insurance moving forward with new technologies
May 25, 2011
San Diego California was the scene of this year's ACORD LOMA insurance systems forum annual conference.
Relatively well attended - although a lower number of industry professionals (some 300 if we exclude vendors, consultants, analysts, speakers, etc…) - than previous years, the overall buzz amongst participants was positive and engaged.
The conference sessions covered the usual business tracks for the various lines of business (general, life health & annuity, property & casualty, reinsurance) … But with my personal bias on operational efficiencies and customer experiences, those 2 tracks got most of my attention this year. In the sessions attended and dialogues I had with industry players, there was interesting 'trend', if you want to call it that. There was a higher prevalence of technology in the sessions and people were certainly exploring technology solutions to age-old business problem... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat | Leave comment
Client & Employee role in the customer experience...
August 31, 2010
I recently stumbled upon a rudimentary but interesting read on the topic of client communications - "The Six Laws of Customer Experience" by Bruce Temkin. In this paper, Bruce discusses what he believes to be the 6 laws that govern a customer's experience with any large organization. He cites them as:
- Every interaction creates a personal reaction
- People are instinctively self-centered
- Customer familiarity breeds alignment
- Unengaged employees don't create engaged customers
- Employees do what is measured, incented, and celebrated
- You can't fake it
Collectively, they are quite telling in where organizations should be investing and focusing resources if they wish to gain long-term customer loyalty, trust and retention.
While Bruce's paper essentially outlines some basic theoretical marketing strategies, there are a few points he makes that are worth exploring here. In Bruce'... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat, Customer, Review | Leave comment
Conference Roundup - Trends in Client Communications...
June 25, 2010
Another whirlwind couple of months of conferences and events with a plethora of topics focussing on the customer experience! Let me catch up on last month's travels and bring this blog up-to-date with more recent sessions I participated in this month...
I won't run down all the sessions offered at each conference. Rather, you have the links here for each site if you want more info. In this entry, I've chosen to highlight some nuggets of wisdom and insights gleaned from recent conferences as it pertains to client communications. Take the journey with me as I re-live some key moments over the past couple of months...or click on the link of interest to jump through my blog!
- Info360: AIIM Expo & Conference
- Women Presidents' Organization - Annual Conference
- Microsoft Dynamics Convergence
- LOMA - LIC
- ... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat | Leave comment
The Movement to Business Technologists
June 10, 2010
As businesses struggle to find the greatest efficiencies in being able to better serve their customer, there seems to be this growing movement from IT to BT (business technologists). The convergence of these two streams of thought is not as haphazard or unconnected as one might think.
If you consider how adept most professionals are with technologies at home (do I really need to list the multitude of gadgets and electronic tools we rely on in our homes? .. .you all know them: computers, iPhones, iPods, iPads, cell phones, PDAs, notebooks, X-Box, Wii, DRVs, and the list simply goes on and on…). The proliferation of these technologies (and, of course, accessible price points) means we are all using many of these technologies at home and in our personal lives every day. And what we have discovered is how much simpler and personal our experiences with communication media can be (tv, music, news media, books, email, text messaging etc.).... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat, Technology | Leave comment
Managing Client Expectations Is Critical...
May 9, 2010
A whirlwind of conferences this past month - attending 5 conferences in 3 weeks! Crazy! And through this hectic travel period, attention was required to keep and nurture new accounts across multiple time zones around the globe, along with the other pleasures of keeping a business growing.
Keeping customers excited and happy to be doing business with me has always been a high priority. So how do I cope in chaotic times such as I've just come through? With 2 key tools:
- The first is a practice - one that I have long preached: always manage the expectations beings set and be sure to deliver to them… or be ready to explain why you couldn't.
- The second is using the tools available to me (what did we do before the Blackberry... cell phones… laptops… VPN… J ). The upshot of this focus and commitment to our clients was that we closed the best quarter in the record of Xpertdoc history (you can read m... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat, Customer | Leave comment
The WOW Customer Experience
April 3, 2010
Communicating with our clients is by no means a new idea. It's been prevalent as long as the concept of commerce has existed. However in today's environment communicating effectively means knowing your client, understanding what they want, and delivering to their needs in the way the client expects.
This last part is especially important today - and is what distinguishes how client communications has evolved. Having solutions available to our existing and intended clients is no longer good enough. After all if they don't know about you, or you don't deliver to them in the timeframe they expect, they will go elsewhere.
Through the various firms I have helped to grow over the past few decades, client relationships have been the key to my activities, focus and success. In some cases we offered technologies that directly facilitated the general environment of the client communications space (i.e. : telecoms, call centers... Read more
By:Varsha Bhat | Tagged: Varsha Bhat, Customer | Leave comment
Customer Communication Management
March 31, 2010
Deb Smallwood - founder of Strategy Meets Action (SMA), a Boston-based firm that provides analyst and consulting services to the insurance industry - comments on the challenging conditions for insurance industry players today and the increasingly demanding requirements from their customers:
... Read more"In our recent research effort into the current challenges for insurers in North America, we uncovered the key initiatives all insurers should be considering. 'The Top 10 Imperatives For Insurers' summarizes our findings from 100's of hours of interviews with insurers. One top focus is the need by insurers to holistically link their customer communication management (CCM) efforts. This initiative revolves around integrating voice, data, and paper interactions with all channels and processes across the enterprise. Managing document creation and output is an essential aspect of CCM, with many insurers looking to upgrade their current legacy technology with mo
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Francis | Leave comment
i4i ruling is of no consequence to Xpertdoc and users of Xpertdoc’s technology
December 25, 2009
A recent injunction regarding a patent held by Toronto-based i4i is forcing Microsoft to withdraw a specific feature from Word licenses sold to the United States. As this story unfolds in the headlines, we thought it would be a good idea to clarify what it means - or more specifically, what it does not mean - for Xpertdoc's clients and partners.
Let's start with a little bit of background. Gray Knowlton wrote an excellent piece on which part of the Word software functionality is impacted by the litigation, and which part isn't.
In a nutshell:
- Xpertdoc makes extremely clever and unique use of a powerful feature called Content Controls w... Read more
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Technology, Word, Francis | Leave comment
Better Together – A tale of SharePoint, InfoPath, CRM... and Xpertdoc!
December 10, 2009
The power of a great platform is that it allows you to achieve amazing results quickly and easily. As a case in point, I would like to describe to you this monthly client reporting process that was recently implemented by our professional service team.
Requirements
Monthly activity reports are sent to clients to let them know of what happened in their projects, what cases were opened and closed, what is the status of their bank of hours, etc. Done manually, this was a tedious and error-prone system that was challenging to complete in a timely manner following each month's end.
Technology Featured
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Office SharePoint System (MOSS)
Microsoft InfoPath
Microsoft Word 2007
Xpertdoc Solution for Document Output
Usage Scenario
... Read moreBy:Francis Dion | Tagged: Technology, SharePoint, CRM, Francis | Leave comment
SharePoint 2010 Key Highlights
November 4, 2009
SharePoint is undeniably one of Microsoft's most successful products; one that Rob Koplowitz of Forrester says has striking resemblances in its impact to what the PC did for the Redmond-based company a few decades ago.
The 2010 release of this powerhouse collaboration platform takes all the good things that were already present in earlier releases and literally pushes them to the next level. Here is a quick recap highlighting some of the most significant of these improvements:
- Improved Data Access
From web services to REST to the Business Connectivity Services and WSRP, enterprise developers now have vastly improved means of accessing and working with data captured into or exposed through SharePoint.
- SharePoint Designer coming of age
Now freely available and incredibly improved, this add-on tool allows non-programmers to develop SharePoint sites quickly and easily.
-
By:Francis Dion | Tagged: Technology, SharePoint, Francis | Leave comment
Office 2010
July 30, 2009
Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana (great food, great music, friendly people :-).
The most interesting information I got there was news about the upcoming Office Web offering and Word Services.
Scheduled for public release sometime in 2010, the Microsoft Office Web Apps will open up a host of new possibilities for genuine Word document creation and editing on the road and over the web. This will be especially great in conjunction with the subdocument feature of Xpertdoc Designer - that allows light clients to provide rich content when filling portions of enterprise-governed templates. My hope personally is that it will spell the end, once and for all, of the antiquated RichText format that is still prevalent in many web-based solutions.
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