I own part of a small (but highly automated) four-year-old title insurance agency in North Carolina. I've been the author of all its production systems and I am considering writing "Version 2." Presently, I know next-to-nothing about InfoPath (sorry Microsoft and Madison Avenue...) - and I think I should remedy this before making any Grand Plans for the upcoming re-tooling.
Our business workflow is as simple as it gets:
1. Our customers (all NC lawyers) use OUR MSWord form to complete an Application for Title Insurance. The form itself is available via FTP, web folder and/or download (via a custom-written ActiveX routine) off our SharePoint site.
2. The customer then sends the completed Application to us as an EMAIL attachment.
3. Our "receptionist" (a licensed title insurance underwriter) opens the mail and loads the customer's Application in Word.
4. After a little "manual" reviewing and elementary error-correcting (something I presume InfoPath would accomplish before the work is sent to us), the receptionist runs a VBA macro that transfers field-by-field the relevant customer data into the first draft of the Binder that the customer is requesting.
5. The underwriter puts some "serious human thought" into this request and then makes whatever editorial changes to the Binder Draft that the situation requires.
6. When completed, the Underwriter runs another VBA routine that (1) creates and automatically names a new Windows folder for this job, saves both the Customer's Application (as edited) AND our completed Binder in both MSWord *.doc AND PDF format. Data about this transaction is also automatically poked into an Access database.
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This, of course, isn't the end of the process. 60% of the time we must "amend" the original binder at least once (due largely to Lenders' requests) and then, after the lawyer closes the transaction, we must translate the "promise" in the Binder into a real policy of insurance. I figure that if you've read this far, you've got a sufficient systems-analysis grasp of this process do what I'm requesting - so I'll spare the rest of the detail.
I'm pretty happy with what we've developed. Our best turn-around time from the moment-of-receipt to the moment we send the completed binder back to our customer is three and one-half minutes; our competition is pretty proud of a 24hour turnaround.
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NOW TO MY REQUEST: I'd like someone thoroughly conversant with InfoPath to join me some evening (EDT) in a remote-access-session tour through this process and our existing Word-and-Access based system. Then, assuming we establish InfoPath is the appropriate train to board, I'd like to develop a program to educate me in what I need to know to create from scratch an all-new InfoPath version of our present system.
So I need a mentor. Assuming the initial meeting works as I#%92d expect, I#%92d propose to proceed with a formal (i.e., “paying”) consultancy arrangement.
Richard T. Rodgers, Sr.