October 2005

News coming from CIM-Data has been fairly sparse lately. We’ve been busy implementing new features and improvements and we think we are getting much closer to a good, stable release. The following are some of the new features we’ve introduced in Release 4.0Fa to 4.0Fe over the last six months and available on the latest download (October 17th):

VCIM Refinements

*	VCIM operation has become far more mature in general.
*	The “Root” button will now always return you to the Account Profile Tab and the “Spawn” button will now start a new VCIM with the current Account and Risk.
*	Auto and Habitational Policy System is more complete.
*	Commercial Policy System has replaced the Runbpi version.
*	The latest RCT Engine (2005/July) from M&SB is implemented.
*	Framework Sizing options have been added to the Options Menu and HabBinder scrolling is now reliable.
*	CIMMail has PageEdit Built-in.
*	A fully upgraded Pre-Authorized Withdrawals (PAC) system is now built-in.

Reports and Batch Jobs

Other Features
AWP Screen #007 now allows coverages, limits and deductibles to be printed in letters via Automatic Word Processing. A sample template (HABLET.TPL) is available.

Option to run batch jobs during the last half of the backup cycle.

Password protection on zFiler and CSIOiNet setups.

Numerous smaller ideas, suggestions, improvements, and fixes.

Under Development and Test

IMail option in CIMMail now sends Email via Outlook Express.

VCIM Accounting—test sites are now doing billing and receipt transactions!

Faster Client Move Sub-System.

Purge and Account Deletions.

Faster, more comprehensive CIMViewer.

Cross Edits in VCIM Policy System.

More Details...

MBA - Monthly Business Analysis

Over the years, we have produced many versions of the MBA, including Excel spreadsheet versions, versions by office, etc. This last rewrite combines all versions into four and expands sub-format choices to fourteen! (A total of 54 possible presentations.) The standard versions are:

MBAV01 - Traditional Volume Reporting

MBAV11 - Volume and Transaction Counts

MBAX01 - Excel version of MBAV01

MBAX11 - Excel version of MBAV11

Now when you request an MBA report, you can specify which of the fourteen sub-formats you wish (By Company, By CSR, etc.)

The column widths have also been modified to display the larger volumes some of our larger brokers are processing (its just not Ontario drivers that are affected by auto premiums.) As before, MBA reports print on 15x11 dot matrix paper or 8.5x14 (legal) laser paper.

RLTVxx and LARVxx

The Renewal Letter and Label print systems have undergone some modifications. Some brokers use these to print letters to clients separately from billings. The new RLTV03 now provides for an easy way to generate Word Mailmerged Renewal Letters. Two steps are required: First the system exports an Excel compatible Data File. Second, Microsoft Word is used to merge exported letter data to produce print output. Details can be found in the 4.0Fe Report Guide.

Commercial Policy System (COMMPol)

The CIM-Data Commercial Policy System in Runbpi has been available for over 15 years. Its general purpose nature actually made it somewhat powerful but it has always been hard to learn and awkward to use. Nevertheless, those that persevered have found good utility in it.

This system has now been fully upgraded to the first VCIM version and initial reports from test sites and others that have seen it is “Wow!”. The new version now stores commercial data in multiple transactions so that histories can be kept and viewed at any time. Full security allows transactions to be “Closed” or “Issued” (for those brokers that issue Commercial Certificates from COMMPol).

The system handles multiple locations, allows appending text details to each coverage, can store up to six Loss Payees per coverage, and has extensive coverage detail coding.

A powerful feature is COMMPol’s ability to assemble standard paragraphs when it prints. Three output reports can be printed directly from the COMMPol screens. The COMMOD report is particularly useful when discussing renewal coverages with Commercial Clients prior to renewal.

Significant capabiities and enhancements are already planned for the future and we are gathering feedback and ideas from interested users.

The old COMMPol is still available by default. Contact support to turn on the VCIM version.

Suffering in Silence? The Return of the Quick Down Key Scan in Runbpi

One of the powerful features in Release 4 generally is the account and risk searching capabilities in Runbpi and VCIM. One of the trade offs to make this easily available in Runbpi was the Account Search Popup that appears when you hit a down arrow on in the Account Code field. In Release 3, users could hit the Down Arrow key, hold it down and instantly be scanning. Release 4 required a Down Arrow, Enter, then Down Arrows again. Users have generally adapted to the new system with varying degrees of chagrin.

A new option in Release 4 brings a return to fast down arrow searching, but requires users to now hit Down Arrow, and Enter to bring up the Search Menu Popup.

If you would like to try this option in your office, it can be turned on in “VCIM | Setup | System |System options | Psswrd/Lab/”.

Page Edit in CIMMAIL

Ever noticed you sometimes type the same words over and over when you write up memos to companies and clients? Now you can catalog your wordings and requests, store them in a mailmerge template file, and call them up whenever you need them.

CIMMail mailmerge templates typically do not need to merge as many data fields as other merges (for example the name and address is already in CIMMail), so the templates are different than for the Text Editor. To accommodate this, CIMMail Mailmerge looks in D:\USERS\TPL\CIMMAIL\ for its templates.

In VCIM, just click on the Page Edit button. In Runbpi, hit the [ESC] key (on the top left of your keyboard) when you are in the editor section, and type in “MM” and [Enter].

In both VCIM and Runbpi, you can then choose your desired  mailmerge template (wording) and voila! your text is instantly loaded!