Travelers publishing system cost of ownership reduced with centralised PDF solution

Travelers

Summary

Travelers, a world-wide property and liability insurance organisation, commissioned Mekon to create a centralised solution for PDF document creation and assembly.

Key Issues

  • The existing HTML format limited document quality and portability offered.
  • Some potential customers prevented from using the existing solution due to browser security restrictions around use of ActiveX.
  • The IT team had limited resource to meet the expanding business requirements.
  • The existing solution used a basic HTML editor to create free text clauses for the documents opening up room for error and inconsistencies in output.

Solution

Mekon recommended a solution built around the Antenna House XSL Formatter Server. A J2EE webservice interface was written to expose all required XSL Formatter options.

XSLT transformation of the Business Object Model XML to XSL-FO for output to PDF or direct printing via the XSL Formatter.

Free text content created as XHTML and embedded in the XML for transformation.

Mekon XSLT/XSL-FO resource provided for the on-going conversion of all existing Quotation and Schedule outputs to the new solution.

XSLT re-use achieved through the creation of common libraries, the grouping of related outputs to use a common code base, and the use of existing code as a starting point for a similar, but not related, output groups.

Benefits

  • Improved document quality achieved through the superior pagination functionality offered by XSL Formatter
  • The webservice interface allows the functionality to be plugged into any Travelers solution, offering both PDF generation and direct printing
  • Provided an improved XHTML editor for the creation of free-text clauses
  • Access issues eliminated by the removal of ActiveX components
  • The business project was completed to stricter deadlines than would have been possible using internal staff alone
  • All source code was managed and supported by Mekon for the duration of the project. It is now under the management and support of Travelers with Mekon acting as second line support with a defined service level for urgent issues