Update News for July 2021
Update News for July 2021
Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:
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Compulife Monthly and Mid-month Updates
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Please Check Your Mid-Month Update Settings
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Mid-Month Updates During June
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Term Insurance Sale?
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Compulife Batch Analyzer
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A Special Offer For Canadian Life Companies
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Remember, Inflation Is Coming Fast
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We Are Testing The New CQS.EXE
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Our Current Programming Plans for 2021
These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.
Compulife Monthly and Mid-month Updates
To review, monthly updates are once a month, at the end of the preceding month, for the month that follows. If you are reading this bulletin it is likely because you just finished getting and processing the July 2021 monthly update which we would have posted on June 30th. You will know that the software updated successfully if this bulletin popped up automatically.
Mid-month updates can occur ANYTIME between monthly updates. Mid-month updates are INCREMENTAL meaning that ONLY those files which have changed since the beginning of the month will be in the midmonth update. At the beginning of the month the midmonth update file is usually small, but as we progress through the month the files will get larger as more changes to other files are made.
Monthly updates replace virtually ALL the files in the COMPLIFE folder. Some that are particular to you, such as your settings and templates, do not change. The reason we replace all the files is so that if someone were to miss a monthly update or more than one, then the current monthly update refreshes everything and we do not have to be concerned that something might have been missed in a long chain of incremental updates.
The latest monthly update, together with the latest midmonth update at any given time, constitutes the latest files for the entire Compulife program.
VERY IMPORTANT: Midmonth updates can occur anytime.
How you get midmonth updates, and how often you get midmonth updates, are settings under the “Options” menu at the top of the Red Menu. If you click on “Options” you will see an option near the end that says:
“Enable automatic downloading from internet”
IMPORTANT: This option needs to be checked. If it isn’t, then click on it to check it.
Right after that option is this:
“Number of days between update checks (0)”
VERY IMPORTANT: This option should have either the number 1 or 0 (zero) as the value.
If the number is set to one then ONCE each day, when you start Compulife, the computer will reach out to the Compulife servers on the internet to see if there is a newer midmonth update. If there is no midmonth update the program will continue as normal. If there is a newer midmonth update the program will tell you and you can tell it to go ahead and get the midmonth update.
If the number is set to zero then it means that EVERY TIME you start Compulife it will check for an update. If your internet connection is fast, and MOST of you will now have fast internet connections, this “check” is also SUPER FAST because the file that is downloaded to see if there is a newer midmonth update is VERY, VERY TINY.
Those of you who have the value set to more than one are really missing out on getting important updates when they become available.
Others, and you know who you are, have had to use different setting than we have discussed because you are running on computers that are NOT always connected to the internet, or through networks that BLOCK our program’s access to the internet. And don’t get me started with the problems that we get from some anti-virus programs, some of which are more like viruses people pay to put on their computers.
There were a lot of important midmonth updates in June that brought this to a lot of customers’ attention.
In the U.S. we had one week where there was one update per day over a 3 day period. There was also one day during the month where there was one update in the morning, and another that night because one company released new rates at the beginning of the day, and another company released new rates at the end of the day. Yeah, we don’t get it either.
With Covid slowly disappearing, and the return to a more normal life, companies seem to be getting back into gear and we expect to see a steady flow of updates moving forward.
In Canada, one Canadian life insurance company had a “sale” on their term plans which ended on June 7th. Those who did not get the June 7th midmonth update were quoting premiums that were “too low” and complaining to us that we needed to update our software because the “sale” was over. We had updated our software, they just didn’t get the midmonth update because the values for days between midmonth update checks was set TOO high.
By way of explanation to our U.S. subscribers, where we have never seen a term insurance “sale”, this particular company in a move to boost business put a 10% discount on ALL premiums (not on the policy fee) including a 10% discount on ALL future renewal premiums. Yes, this is peculiar behavior (that’s behaviour in Canada) and what makes it more peculiar is that Compulife has this fantastic option for life insurance companies and actuarial firms called the “Compulife Batch Analyzer”. There is NO NEED to slap an across the board 10% discount on everything.
The Compulife Batch Analyzer gives a life insurance company the option to set up and run thousands and thousands of quotes on a batch process, delivering all the results to a “CSV” file that can be used with a spreadsheet program like Excel. How fast can it go? The Batch Analyzer can pump out about 6,000 quotes per minute (that’s 6,000 spreadsheet lines per minute). After careful scientific testing we have discovered that this is a bit faster than the average person can do it manually.
U.S. subscribers will notice that some companies have increased the frequency of their rate changes, some rates going up and some going down. A certain amount of this is a direct result of this important tool that a lot of U.S. companies now use, which allows them to pinpoint what changes they need to make in order to get their products positioned properly in this increasingly competitive market.
By sharp contrast we have not yet had even ONE Canadian life insurance company purchase the Batch Analyzer. Instead they seem to think that slapping a 10% discount on ALL premiums is a sensible way to make premiums more competitive and boost sales.
What’s really strange about this is that the company, for some ages and face amounts, was already HIGHLY competitive (as in the cheapest) and the company did NOT need to lower prices in those examples to generate more business. What that means is that they left a lot of “money on the table” which means that if your premium is already the lowest at say $1,000, and you lower it to $900, then you just blew $100 you didn’t have to blow because you would have gotten that deal at the higher $1,000. Now multiply that $100 mistake by all the other cases that were sold like that during the sale, and then by all the years that you will continue to give that $100 premium discount (mistake), and a life company can pay for a Compulife Batch Analyzer in seconds.
Compulife is making a special offer for Compulife’s Batch Analyzer for Canadian life companies. This offer is intended to “prime the pump”.
The first 2 Canadian life insurance companies that buy the Compulife Batch Analyzer for the normal price of $1,920 (annual fee) will get the Analyzer for 2 years for $1,920. This special offer is ONLY good to the end of September. Further good news, this is $1,920 in Canadian dollars (for Canadian customers). If we get no takers by the end of September we will simply declare the Canadian market to be hopelessly disinterested in being competitive.
Now before our U.S. company customers get mad at us, there is a deal for you also. Compulife currently offers a 10% price reduction (for all software) by buying 2 years instead of one, or a 20% discount for buying 3 years instead of 2.
EXAMPLE: A life insurance company buying the batch analyzer is paying $300 + $1,920 = $2,220 If the company buys 3 years instead of 1, the total is $3 X $2,200 X 80% = $5,328. $5,328 represents a saving of $1,332.
Everyone in the financial industry should know that we are moving rapidly into an inflationary economy. Those of us around during the Jimmy Carter years will know what I am talking about. It is my view that the Biden inflationary economy is going to be a lot worse than Carter. When inflation hits, it means our costs and therefore our prices are going to have to increase.
Paying 3 years at one time not only mean that you get the 20% discount (a fabulous return on your investment) you are also LOCKing in the price for 3 years. If we do increase the prices, there will be NO price increase for those who paid ahead for 3 years. Those who pay annually can be faced with increases in software fees annually.
In fact we expect to have more on the subject of price increases in the fall. It has been a long, long time since Compulife has had a change in prices.
Our programmer has been working to remove a programming component from our software called “Delphi”. Delphi is a programming tool that generates the screen and menus that you see in Compulife. It has been part of our Windows software since the time we first rolled out Windows software. It is also one of the reasons that our software “looks” dated and old fashioned. While current subscribers worry much more about function than appearance, newer software prospects tend to put a lot of emphasis on how it looks. That’s going to be changing with the new software, and while we are at it, we are retooling some of the menus to make them easier for new customers. Existing customers will NOT like the new menus at first but we are convinced that you will like them once you get used to them.
The first goal was to convert the program “as is” to get rid of Delphi. That work is coming to an end. I was actually surprised how much the converted screens looks like the old screen created by Delphi. The Delphi to C++ converter that Chris our programmer has been using has done an amazing job. Having said that, a good tool in the wrong hands does not work well but in this case we have a tool in great hands and Chris is doing outstanding work. As the English would say, “I’m chuffed”.
There are remaining bugs and portions of code left to convert and Chris continues to work on that. Once we think it is working as it should, he will begin changing the Red Menu, Client Entry Screen and the subordinate Red Menu “options” and “Manage Product Database. He will also be moving some of the Red Menu options to the Enter Client screen so that the OLD Red Menu becomes much simpler than it is now.
If that sounds confusing, it won’t be as confusing once you see it. Further, the current comparison windows, single product display, Pick 12 and Analysis screens will have NO changes initially. Once again, I am amazed at how much those screens without Delphi look and work just as they did with Delphi. I am very pleased; that’s American/Canadian for I’m chuffed.
Once this work is completed we will roll out the new CQS.EXE which you will be able to use while still having access to your current GOWIN.EXE. We want you to have the option of either program as we then direct our attention to the new “data structure” and overhaul of our database technology. Once we start rolling out the new data files, those new data files will be what the new CQS.EXE uses. The existing data files will continue to work with the old GOWIN.EXE.
As we have promised, you will have both old and new on your computer for a few months (after the job is done) to ensure that everyone is happy with the new software and that our internet engine customers have updated and are using the new data files. Once that is all settled we will then retire the existing windows software and old data files.
And finally, once that happens some big changes can then begin to happen. The new data structure will allow us to quickly abandon many old limitations which will simplify our system. Following that we will incorporate new features and functions that will help us to dramatically improve our product.
The following is the current order for new work that we will be doing in 2021:
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- Introduction of New PC Version: CQS.EXE
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- Overhaul Of Current Product Data Files
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- Introduction of Compulife Basic Plus (with Pick 12)
Anyone with questions about any of these upcoming projects can call Bob Barney to discuss:
Please don’t email me essay questions, just call. If I’m not in, email me your phone number, I’ll call you.
These planned objectives will easily consume our programming time during 2021. The good news is that once the product data files have been converted, and we have introduced the new CQS.EXE, and upgraded our internet engine to use the new data files, Compulife will be turning it’s full attention to our web based, Compulife Basic software. The long term goal is to have a web based product that does everything our PC based software does.
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