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Blue Cross of Idaho Challenge Blue Cross at the time had many legacy applications ranging from mainframe applications that we automated to dump ASCI text files as report output which I imported into a SQL Server data warehouse using Data Transformation Services (DTS). DTS alone is reason enough to pay for a SQL Server licence. I used DTS to setup scheduled imports from Excel, text files, Sybase and Access databases into a central SQL server database. Other data sources consisted of SQL reports, an Excel files from the sales department and a program called Facets which ran on a Sybase database. When I started the project it took marketing six months to compile a list of participating providers for the provider directory so it was outdated the day it went to press. My goal was to merge the Traditional Insurance provider information from the mainframe with the PPO Insurance provider information from Facets running on Sybase. After a few weeks we had a reliable report for the printed directory and a lightning fast web based directory as well. The web provider directory for Blue Cross used the same SQL Server database as the login directory. For security reasons the SQL Server database used to run searches on the website was not directly tied to any internal systems. We used DTS to import the provider directory details on a daily basis. For membership verification we needed member information from for the Traditional insurance programs off the mainframe and the member information for the Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Blue Care (Managed) programs on the Sybase system as well as the eligible broker login information provide in Excel format from the broker team. Again SQL Server DTS to the rescue everything was automated after setup. I created the original web data warehouse using Microsoft SQL server and let all departments submit the membership information in the format they wanted. The only requirement was they would continue to use the same format (comma delimited text files, Excel or what ever the data source happened to be). Using SQL Server DTS it was so easy to setup the automated data imports. I worked with a quirky fellow named Bob who had build an access database he called ProvNet that lived on the internal network. We reworked how all the data got in there and we found a few glitches that made Provnet more accurate before we actually started using it on the website. Everyone loved Provnet so we just left it how it was and imported the data into the web SQL Server data warehouse leaving Provnet intact other than a few query tweaks for the minor bugs we found in the review. Bob was very cool to work with. Five years later to my knowledge the SQL Server I built sill mergers information from a conglomerate of sources and lets all the technology play together while providing lightning fast provider directory search results on Blue Cross's website and the membership validation functionality. At the same time Blue Cross of Idaho contacted CRI Advantage to help with the design of the new website and to implement a Content Management System (CMS). CRI Advantage built their own quirky custom CMS based on XML for around $750,000 that Blue Cross of Idaho couldn't even use. CRI Advantage's CMS was a huge waste of money and resources. They actually built the editor so the marketing people had to end a XML node and start a XML node when they were typing a sentence to start and stop bold Ha Ha ha I guess they never heard of an online word editor. The design CRI Advantage made was a disaster because everything with JavaScript links and drop down menus. CRI Advantage had ZERO though for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or usability. CRI did not touch the online provider directory, or the online insurance quoting system that were the two most visited portions of the site. To their credit they had a hell of an IT sales team. Blue Cross dropped the $750k CMS developed by CRI Advantage like a hot potato a year later. And five years later the provider directory and online insurance quoting system that are for the most part the same as they were five years ago even though the site has undergone a few face lifts. Solution |
