No custom code

Without the time hindrance of custom code, AEGON Equity Group used Pervasive integration to swiftly complete their legacy systems-to-Web project.

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AEGON moves to Web sites powered by ATG Dynamo; Pervasive integration is a key to project success

AEGON Equity Group (AEG), a member of AEGON Insurance Group, is part of one of the world’s largest providers of financial services and investment-oriented products, including life insurance, annuity and investment products, and mutual funds. AEGON Equity Group represents the national operations of three companies: Western Reserve Life Assurance Co. of Ohio, InterSecurities, Inc. and IDEX Mutual Funds.

To expand online business capabilities for these member companies, AEGON Equity Group began a project in 2001 to initiate new interactive Web sites powered by ATG Dynamo®. The customizable ATG solution set enabled AEGON to develop personalized portals that would give the company new capabilities to manage customer relations and conduct online business transactions. AEGON Equity chose Pervasive Software to provide seamless data transformation from its legacy systems to Web applications.

Integrating data from legacy systems with Web applications

Information accessed by employees, partners and customers through AEGON's Web sites needed to be continuously updated with data processed in the companies’ various backend information systems. Making that information available through the new Web applications required integrating data from disparate legacy systems into a uniform format accessible through the Web sites.

Pervasive offers best ROI

Prior to implementation, Peter Murdock, Senior Database Designer for AEGON Equity Group, evaluated a number of integration solutions. Because AEGON’s process required connectivity to more than one legacy system, Murdock knew that writing scripts to bring in information from each would be time consuming, inconsistent and, in the end, inefficient.

AEGON Equity Group needed a process that would facilitate a smooth, uniform flow of data between systems and that could be easily fine-tuned to incorporate any changes in business rules or data sets. Pervasive was chosen to complete the new e-business infrastructure because of its functionality and ease of use. “Pervasive offered the best return on investment,” says Murdock. “I looked for an integration solution that would give the company exactly what Pervasive provided: direct connectivity to numerous legacy systems, extensive mapping capability and fast processing. In terms of value, there was no comparison.” Implementing the ATG Web applications required an initial loading process, which involved transforming and migrating information on more than a million insurance policies as well as demographic details on more than 100,000 agents. Data had to be mapped from different legacy sources, including AS400, Oracle, SQL Server and mainframe VSAM, into Oracle tables that could be accessed via the Web tool ATG. “We were able to complete the entire loading process within 36 hours. To initiate these sites would have taken much longer without Pervasive,” says Murdock.

Pervasive’s intuitive map designer enables the user to visually map from source to target and include in the transformation process whatever data manipulation is required. The expression builder within the map designer provides further capability to perform lookups, call other applications, and define complex rules for cleansing and validating data.

AEGON advances move to Web system with Pervasive mapping capabilities

The extensive mapping capability of Pervasive has made it possible for the AEGON Equity Group companies to leverage the value of critical data processed in mainframe systems by making that information available to all the partners involved.

Murdock adds, “The benefit has not only been speed but also the accuracy of the data. From the initial loading involved in deployment, through the automated process we now have in place, Pervasive has performed flawlessly, and that has enabled us to get significant information, including business transaction results, to all parties quickly.” Since the initial deployment of the sites, Pervasive has continued to play a critical role as the integration bridge between AEGON Equity’s legacy systems and new e-business applications. Daily updates involve integrating hundreds of changes in policy information as well as customer and agent profiles information. Data from several mainframe feeds goes through one of four Pervasive transformation processes, involving between 12 and 20 conversion maps.

“Daily transformation processes are automatically triggered through the integration engine, and the information is mapped into Oracle tables. These tables are the information source for our Web sites,” explains Murdock. “Some of the Pervasive maps we created are very straightforward; others are quite intricate as far as the amount of data manipulation, cleansing and validation involved.”

No custom code leads to faster project deployment

With Pervasive, AEGON has found that the elimination of custom code enables fast information loading for swift deployment of new Web applications. Pervasive’s extensive connectivity provides easy access to critical legacy assets through new e-business technologies and automation of the integration engine facilitates fast, accurate updates of business-critical data.

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