Chicago Healthcare Organization

Intranet support, analysis and redesign provides new direction, improves  content and performance

Since 2006 Ariel has worked with a large healthcare organization in the Chicago area.  Our initial assignment was to provide day-to-day support for their internal website (intranet) and find ways to improve it.   The intranet is used for a variety of purposes: 

• Hospital sub-sites include nursing, pharmacy, and online libraries
• System Services includes communications, finance, contracts, information services, and human resources
• Employee Resources includes hospital cafeteria menus, and online directory, and performance evaluations
• In addition, there are sub-sites for HIPAA and Compliance, Strategic Plan, Physicians, and Emergency and Disaster information.

We used Webtrends® web analytics software to analyze patterns of website usage.  We augmented the Webtrends built-in reports with a more refined statistical analysis.  We documented substantial increases in hits and page views in a number of areas, e.g., in the use of online library resources by physicians and nurses.  We presented our analysis and recommendations in a white paper to top management.  One of our major recommendations was the need for content management.  We found a number of broken links and pages containing old or obsolete information.  Also, we documented redundant and inconsistent personnel data in at least 5 separate online directories. 

Our white paper and accompanying discussions resulted in an extension of our responsibilities to include the replacement and redesign of the current Coldfusion®-based intranet using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.  We successfully ported all of the intranet content (approx. 6000 web pages) to MOSS 2007.  We designed our initial master page to mimic the old Coldfusion design in order to facilitate the conversion process.  We are currently working with a design firm to customize the look and feel of the new intranet.  We plan to go live in February or March of 2009.

Among the improvements we have introduced into the new Sharepoint intranet are:

• Extended Sharepoint search capabilities allowing rapid retrieval and organization of a variety of documents and data
• Installed several of the Sharepoint 40 Application Templates, including project management and workflow applications. 
• Provided customized horizontal (multi-layer dropdown) and vertical (outline control) menus to facilitate global and current site navigation
•  Implemented "warmup" code to optimize performance
• Maximized use of Sharepoint List technology to allow for ease of content management by non-html-literate end users
• Made all improvements without need for any third party product fees or licenses

Platforms

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP. 

Chicago Insurance Agency

Complete agency management system with web interface, real-time premium finance and accounting.

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Large Chicago-based Insurance Agency sells non-standard auto insurance.

Ariel was called in to develop a program to replace two midrange systems, one which did the rating and quoting of auto insurance policies, and the other which managed premium finance and accounting transactions. 

Strategies

Take advantage of the capabilities of Microsoft client/server and Office technology:

• Agency management program generates all policy and endorsement paperwork, converts to Adobe .pdf files, uses MS Exchange/Outlook/ RightFax to transmit to insurance carriers.

Simplify the programming of accounting with metadata: 

Automate information exchange with the insurance supply chain and the customers: 

• Create program to import and export rating and quoting information with ITC Turborater. 
• Import third party web leads directly into the agency management system.
• Create batch process to transmit policy data directly to carriers, print letters, notices, cancellations.
• Automate agency-finance company accounting and funds transfer.
  

Platforms

Microsoft : Microsoft Access 2007, MS Sql Server 2000, Adobe Publisher, RightFax

Kraft Foods

Hierarchical drill-down system provides data-driven platform for forecast accuracy analysis 

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Kraft Foods Corporation is a $26 billion+   food and beverage company.

Ariel was called in to develop a program to generate forecast accuracy analyses from sales forecasts and actual data.  A key objective of this analysis is the ability to drill down and roll up by year, month, area, region with each area, product category, and product within each category.  Ariel created a series of cascading queries to facilitate this, storing the query names and properties in metadata tables which are modifiable from within the program by the end user. 

Strategies

Develop a new application to allow inventory specialists to automate the importing of flat-file financial data, calculation of forecast accuracy analysis, and exporting of results for pivot analysis.   

• Create program to import, slice-and-dice, and export sales and planning data. 
• Data-drive the program to allow end-user to add, delete, or modify queries without changing the source code. 
• Analyze forecast accuracy and present results as hierarchical drill-down. 
  

Platforms

Microsoft : Microsoft Access, Windows NT

Alltel

Telephone billing mass update system integrates legacy mainframe database with MS Visual Studio front end

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Alltel Corporation is a $5 billion+ information technology company that provides wireline and wireless communications and information services, including local, long-distance, network access and Internet services, paging, and information processing services.

Alltel's Customer Service Reps (CSRs) are inundated by customer bill update requests and additions or deletions of products, promotions, or accounts. The software system for handling customer billing is CELLWARE (formerly CBIS), a mainframe software program. Alltel personnel access this program using Rumba, a middleware terminal emulation program. The user interface is unfriendly—detail rows are limited to a certain number per screen rather than a continuous, scrolling grid; detail screens move forwards but not backwards. Outsourcing mass updates is costly—as much as $10,000 for one overnight run.

Strategies

Develop a new application to allow CSRs to mass-update the billing system.

• Utilize the latest Microsoft technology (Visual Studio 6.0).
• Allow CSRs to batch-enter and save change order requests using a relational database system.
• User specifies an input file of groups (accounts) and subs (phone numbers) and an output (log) file. Files can be stored anywhere on the Alltel network.
• Provide thorough error-tracking and a highly customized status report for each record processed.

Platforms

Microsoft : Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Windows NT Workstation Other : Rumba, Novell

CNA Financial Corporation

Synchronous claims activity reports allow remote access to big chunks of data in small amounts of time

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CNA Financial Corporation is a $20 billion+ insurance company. The Risk Management Services division provides alternative risk financing, finite risk structures, captive companies, and a variety of information services. The Clearview™ system is a Windows-based tool used for access to insurance claims data. Clearview™ allows the user to target a specific claim inquiry and reporting need. Users can view a claim activity—such as payments, adjuster notes, and status reports—and run standard, custom, and advanced reports.

Strategies

Convert claims information import and download from a synchronous to an asynchronous process. Correct a billing problem in monitoring timings of remote dialups. Design and program various claims activity reports.

• Utilize the latest Microsoft technology (Visual Studio).
• Develop a timer-based process that continuously monitors user download requests and completes them without requiring additional user input.
• Allow a remote user to use the program during the download process.
• Provide a real-time status display for each download processed.
• Improve the timing algorithm for exports, imports, downloads, drilldowns, and creating and viewing graphs
• Work closely with mainframe and data warehousing staff to gather specifications and formulate business logic.

Platforms

Microsoft : Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Windows NT Workstation 4.0

Other : Novell 4.0

Beacon Research

Insurance product database creates publishing-friendly output

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Beacon is a startup company. Its specialty is research and publication of economic and financial data in printed media, on the Internet, and for downloading to hand-held devices.

Strategies

Translate complex fixed annuity insurance product information into a relational database system.

• Create a user-friendly front end that automates as much of the data entry as possible.
• Create a Crystal Reports-friendly back end query processor.
• Allow for a high degree of variability in product features—such as interest rates, bonuses, settlement options, fees, surrender terms, waivers, withdrawal terms, variation by state, age, and year of ownership.

Platforms

Microsoft : Windows NT 4.0, Visual Studio 6.0

Meridian Leasing

Maintenance of legacy database saves money, buys time

Meridian Leasing is a $300 million lease finance and services company that specializes in voice and data communications equipment. The Smart system is a legacy database management system used for access to leasing proposals and data. It was designed to provide sophisticated what-if analysis to facilitate deal-making and deal-closing. Users tend to use the system for basic information storage and retrieval.

Strategies

Salvage and maintain existing source code to give the client more time to formulate an information technology (IT) strategy and decide on a long-range systems plan. Save the code that can be maintained and rewrite the rest.

• Meet with end-users to understand their requirements.
• Recover lost source code and verify that it is the correct version.
• Fix bugs.
• Make enhancements.
• Work closely with IT management and systems personnel to gather the specifications and make good decisions about what needs to be fixed and what needs to be rewritten.
• Use the latest Microsoft technology for the rewrites.

Platforms

Microsoft : Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Windows NT Workstation 4.0

Computer Associates : C/A Clipper 5.0, Visual Objects 1.0

Other : Novell 4.0

Chart-Tech, Inc.

Managed Care Contract (Payment) Compliance System verifies accuracy of insurance company reimbursements

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One of the biggest problems in the healthcare industries today is incorrect reimbursement by the insurance companies to healthcare providers. Many healthcare providers sign formal contracts, which dictate a reimbursement schedule for services rendered, with insurance companies. Insurance companies reimburse the provider based on the business rules described in those contracts. Healthcare providers are so inundated with paperwork that auditing and analysis of reimbursements are often months behind schedule. In many cases the auditing does not occur at all, and the provider has no other option but to accept the insurance company's payments without verification of accuracy. Our client needed a system that would use the business rules described in the contracts to calculate expected payment for each account in the billing file that was provided by hospitals to various insurance companies. The expected payment would then be compared to the actual payment rendered by the insurance company.

Strategies

• Increase understanding of the contracts by flowcharting the process of reimbursement.
• Utilize optical scanning equipment and OCR software to scan in reports provided by the insurance company on printed paper and import them into various file formats.
• Improve efficiency and reliability of the scanning process.
• Create extraction routines that import scanned payment information files into business specific format.
• Create extraction routines that import billing files from various file formats (including standard government NSF format) into the application database.
• Write code based on the business rules provided by the contract between the hospital and the insurance company to process the billing information and compare it with the actual payment information provided by the insurance company.
• Create reports that display variances between the expected payment and the actual payments.

Platforms

Microsoft : Visual Studio 6.0, Access, Excel

Other : Caere OmniPage Pro OCR scanning software