ResQNet Brings Agents On Line at Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas

ResQNet Provides GUI Front End for Insurance Company's AS/400 System

New York, NY (September 3, 1999) - Since 1901, Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas has been providing Texas farmers with hazard insurance, including fire, theft, vandalism, and other farm property extended coverage protection. Since its start in Bell County, Texas, by a group of nine citizens pledging mutual assistance, the company has grown to $40 million/year and covers the entire state of Texas with over 300 agents and eighteen claims adjusters.

In 1998, it became clear to Farmers Mutual that maximizing agent productivity required on-line access to policy, claim, and financial account applications running on the firm's AS/400. Providing an on-line connection would reduce the internal staff's support burden and give agents the 24/7 access to information they needed to remain competitive.

The company first considered developing a PC package with direct dial-up modem access, but quickly recognized that this solution would be too demanding in terms of initial expenditure and, above all, support. Internet access was clearly the most advantageous solution, but left Farmers Mutual with the problem of Web-enabling its legacy "green screen" host applications.

Lewis Wolfe, Computer Services Manager for Farmers Mutual, saw the answer at a demonstration of ResQNet at an e-Business show.

Available as a stand-alone application or through an add-on to IBM's eNetwork Host-On-Demand, ResQNet is a thin 100% Pure Java applet that provides on-the-fly graphical connectivity to legacy host applications through intranets, extranets and the Internet. ResQNet requires no programming or scripting to add all the conveniences of the Windows environment, including mouse capability, customizable fonts and colors, macro buttons, drop down lists, valid value and help files, and the ability to export host data to desktop applications.

With ResQNet, Wolfe could tie in the agents through the Internet, giving them an attractive and user-friendly graphical front-end to connect them directly with Farmers Mutual's AS/400 host system. More importantly, he could do so without reprogramming underlying applications. In addition, ResQNet also supplied Farmers Mutual with the necessary tools to provide vital security.

"Internet access with this system is essentially cost-free with regard to the development of the program," explained Wolfe. "The real beauty of ResQNet is that I can take our existing software and add graphical features on-the-fly to provide the agents Internet access. Because the Internet screens have the same content as my internal dumb terminal screens, anybody in house with computer access can provide support when required."

Before purchasing ResQNet, Wolfe evaluated alternate solutions, but none offered the powerful on-the-fly conversions, customization conveniences, or the fast implementation time that ResQNet offered. Consulting houses quoted months of effort just to develop a pilot for this project. With ResQNet the entire project, including designing twenty customized screens, took just three days and had no impact on the response time of Farmers Mutual's AS/400 applications!

The system has been fully functional since May 1999 and has received a very positive response. Those who have used the system are wildly enthusiastic and many remain logged into the Farmers Mutual site all day. "Everyone who uses the system finds it saves them time, and of course, it saves us time and eliminates calls," commented Wolfe. "I expect the system to eliminate most calls in the future. The key is the way ResQNet has enabled us to provide a user-friendly and eye-pleasing system."

"The biggest strength of ResQNet is its simplicity. It is a low maintenance solution to increasing our services with little effort or expense," concluded Wolfe.