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OpenQuote 1.2 Final Released PDF Print E-mail

The OpenQuote team is very pleased to announce the release of OpenQuote 1.2. This release marks the completion of development 1.2 and is thanks to the enormous effort put in by the community. The core team would like to thank everyone who has contributed.  The binary can be downloaded from here: OpenQuote 1.2 Final.
 

OpenQuote 1.2
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OpenQuote 1.1 Released PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 23 August 2009 00:00

The OpenQuote team are proud to announce the release of OpenQuote Version 1.1, the open source solution for the insurance industry.

OpenQuote Logo

For those who are new to OpenQuote, the system itself is fairly simple to describe:

OpenQuote is designed to web enable your insurance product quotations.  Whether you are an insurer or a broker, whether selling direct or via an agent, OpenQuote can help you.

Version 1.1 continues to build upon features delivered in version 1.0, the first full stable release of OpenQuote.  This release has undergone extensive testing, and is already being used in live production environments.  OpenQuote is providing key functionality that can really benefit the business.

OpenQuote Key Features

Online Quotations - For each product OpenQuote takes the proposer through a product (aka scheme) specific process of preparing a quotation:

  • The proposer fills in an on-line proposal form;
  • A rules driven rating and referral process is run, and the premium is presented;
  • Quotation documents may be generated (as a PDF);
  • Payment schedules may be calculated, and;
  • Payment information collected.
  • Proposers may save quotations and return at a later time to accept a quote.
  • Notification emails are sent to the broker (or product owner) informing them of each quotation offered, accepted and referred. These emails include all the information the broker might need in order to progress the business.
  • On a low specification PC acting as an OpenQuote server, the system can be expected to support 2000 quotes per hour.
  • Multi currency and multi language support.

Product Development - OpenQuote has a flexible and powerful approach to defining products or schemes:

  • Products are built and tested entirely on-line. This includes the questions to be asked during the proposal, the rating and referral rules, payment rules, tax rules, screens and document layouts.
  • Product hierarchies allow one product to inherit some, or all, of its features (questions, rules, documents and screens) from another product.
  • There is no limit to the depth of the product hierarchy.
  • A full history product changes is kept.
  • Product development is "Zero-turnaround", in other words any change to screens, rating rules, documents etc. is immediately available for testing. There is no build step.
  • Products can be moved easily into production. There is no need to stop and start servers or undertake complex deployment processes.
  • Portal technology utilised with quotation portlets being delivered using WSRP.
  • Option of HTML and XForms output to quotation portlets.

OpenQuote Technology

In technology terms, OpenQuote is a Java Enterprise Edition application. It has been built on a technology stack which the OpenQuote team believe represents best-of-breed Open Source technologies; these including JBoss (application server), Alfresco (content management), Drools (rules engine), Hibernate (data persistence) and MySQL (database).

Internally, the system is made up of 4 layers: core, commercial, insurance, and OpenQuote itself. Each level extends its predecessor adding domain specific services and models. The system as a whole is highly service oriented in order to provide clear partitioning between functional areas; this improves ease of development and improves the likelihood of reuse.

Cost of Ownership

OpenQuote is an open source product, this means the OpenQuote user can chose how they manage the running costs.  The software itself is free, however it will need to be hosted on a suitable server and the insurance products requiring on-line quotations will need to be configured in OpenQuote.  These tasks can be done in-house (by the user) so costs are internalised, or a third party can be used to provide assistance in these areas. 

If a company has the technical expertise and time to support OpenQuote in-house, then they may feel that is the route to take.  With free community support available from the OpenQuote website this is a really viable option.

If a company feels they do not have the expertise or time available to support the running of OpenQuote themselves, Applied Industrial Logic - the creators of OpenQuote - offer commercial support services, including hosting and product development.  Full pricing details can be found on their support page.

What next for OpenQuote?

Development continues to move the system forward, with many new features and functionality planned for version 2.0 (currently in development).  Version 2.0 will deliver more sophisticated broker communication functionality as well as more comprehensive document suite, including policy schedule and bordereau production.

Useful Links:

OpenQuote Project Home Page

Applied Industrial Logic Support

 

Applied Industrial Logic can be contacted by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by filling in a form on our contacts page.