KPT/CPT

Business Partner HostBridge helps extend the value of IBM System z technology at KPT/CPT

Founded in 1890, KPT/CPT is a Swiss health insurance provider serving private and corporate customers. In 2006, the company helped found Online Easy AG (OLEAG) to help insurance companies comply with new Swiss federal laws for digitizing healthcare information. Specifically, the laws require that all residents carry a health insurance card containing basic digital healthcare information and that residents have their health records in digital form by 2015. A primary mission for OLEAG was developing a technology platform based on an open, extensible architecture to help it:
● Meet digital health record requirements for integrity, portability, privacy and security.
● Create an interactive, collaborative community for everyone involved in healthcare in Switzerland.
● Build a common platform that can access and interact with data housed in many systems.
● Allow providers to keep and use the systems and data they currently use.
● Reduce costs.

Taking advantage of the cloud to connect thousands of users
In 2009, OLEAG launched a private eHealth cloud solution. After the initial rollout to founding members, the company will make the cloud available to Swiss care providers, insurers and residents. Ultimately, the cloud may connect thousands of physicians and other health professionals, hospitals and other medical facilities, product and service providers and the nation’s 83 health insurance companies with their tens of thousands of employees and millions of Swiss residents. The eHealth cloud solution includes platform, software and Data as a Service (DaaS) components and is intended to serve users nationwide, from individual citizens to global enterprises.

To capitalize on the cloud’s benefits and advantages, enterprises must of course connect to the cloud. As the driving force behind OLEAG, KPT/CPT was first to recognize the promise of the cloud. The cloud would enable the company to offer a visionary health insurance solution to its 380,000 customers and other Swiss residents. However, KPT/CPT first had to work out a critical technology challenge: cloud integration. Though the cloud’s core infrastructure is designed to support many of the front-end systems residents and companies use—such as browsers running on PCs and laptops, mobile phones, handheld devices and customer systems—it is up to participating companies to make their data, applications and systems cloud-compatible. For KPT/CPT, the challenge was to integrate its mainframe into the cloud. The company’s solution is both a success in its own right and a proof of concept (POC) for other providers that intend to plug into the cloud.

Preserving existing investments and business logic
To run its business processes, KPT/CPT relies on an IBM System z9® mainframe running IBM CICS® Transaction Server V3.2 software, along with CA Technologies applications and Inter-K ERP software that provide master data management, policy management, claims, billing, collections and other functionalities. Four years before the Swiss government enacted the new digital health record laws, KPT/CPT implemented a customer-facing portal allowing policyholders to access and update certain personal or family data, review coverage or check claims statuses. In embracing the cloud vision, KPT/CPT had to rethink its existing technology strategy. During the analysis process, the company faced several critical decisions about whether to replace or reuse primary systems such as its user portal, mainframe platform and ERP system.

The decision to replace the organization’s user portal was relatively easy. Because the eHealth platform offered far more functionality and a much richer user experience at a significantly lower cost, KPT/CPT was ready to change. The company’s mainframe-based ERP and other systems, however, created a more challenging situation. Ultimately, KPT/CPT decided it was more advantageous to preserve the many years’ worth of application logic and data resources that it had already invested in its mainframe-based applications. Therefore, the business sought a solution to help modernize its mainframe resources and enable them to work within a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Working with IBM Business Partner HostBridge
KPT/CPT implemented the web services/Extensible Markup Language (XML) integration solution for CICS software-based applications and System z® data from IBM Business Partner HostBridge Technology, LLC. Installed on the mainframe under the CICS software, the HostBridge application accesses mainframe data and application logic (metadata), generates data streams and automatically converts the data streams to integration-ready XML. Within the HostBridge development environment, the XML is used to create web services. The HostBridge software supports virtually all the standard services protocols, JavaScript technology-based programming and a wide range of mainframe application and data types. HostBridge software offers rapid development and deployment, integration flexibility and reliability, scalability, performance and high-fidelity replication of source applications.

Because KPT/CPT integrated its mainframe data with the eHealth cloud solution, its customers can now access their insurance information; modify personal data such as addresses, email addresses and phone numbers; request changes to coverage; and perform other self-service tasks previously unavailable. Additionally, KPT/CPT employees have full access to the business processes they need every day.

For more information
To learn more about IBM CICS software, contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/software/htp/cics

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