Update News for June 2019 

Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:

• Table Ratings – We Changed Our Minds
• Table Ratings – FREE for Compulife Basic
• Table Ratings – FREE for Internet Engine
• Table Ratings – FREE for API Customers
• Table Ratings – Cost for Web Quotes
• Table Ratings – Expanding Products and Categories
• Our Current Programming Plans for 2019

These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.

Table Ratings
We Changed Our MindsIn the last couple of bulletins we had told you that table ratings would be coming to our Internet Engine software much later. After careful reconsideration we have changed our minds. Table ratings will be rolled out for internet quoting in the next month or two. After some discussion and innovation, we have come up with a way to do this that is relatively simple to implement. Here is how the option will be offered.

Table Ratings – FREE for Compulife BasicTable Ratings will be coming to Compulife Basic first. This is the web based version of Compulife that lets our subscribers run quotes from any device that has a connection to the Internet. It is also a stand alone version of Compulife that allows a subscriber to have a subscription for only $96 per year, which offers an $84 per year saving over the Windows PC subscription (which includes Compulife Basic for FREE).

Table ratings will be added to the list of health classes and when you click the down button will give you a list that looks like this:

• Preferred Plus

• Preferred

• Regular Plus

• Regular

• Table 1 (A)

• Table 2 (B)

• Table 3 (C)

• Table 4 (D)

• Table 5 (E)

• Table 6 (F)

• Table 7 (G)

• Table 8 (H)

• Table 9 (I)

• Table 10 (J)

• Table 11 (K)

• Table 12 (L)

• Table 13 (M)

• Table 14 (N)

• Table 15 (O)

Table 16 (P)

Once the newest Internet Engines (we offer linux and windows server options) are available, adding these additional classes to the client entry screen is the only change that we will have to make to be able to quote table ratings. The new version of our internet engine will know automatically what to do when we pass the new table health class variables, and will automatically go and get the correct quotes for that table. Product comparisons and individual quote pages will be the same.

NOTE:   When an individual quote for a table rating is produced, the quote will display Table C Non-Smoker or Table 3 Non-Tobacco, based upon whatever language the company uses to describe smokers/non-smokers and whether they use alpha or numbers to identify their table.

Table Ratings – FREE for Internet EngineInternet Engine customers will receive the new Table Rating quote option at no charge. The new engines will be made available after we have introduced this for our Compulife Basic customers, and AFTER we have implement the new counter mechanism for the internet engines.

The internet engine customer will have to make a simple change to accommodate the new engine’s counter mechanism. If the customer wants to offer Table Ratings for quote, they will need to make a further change to expand the health classes as discussed above. Beyond that, the new internet engine will be a plug and play replacement.

Why counters?

Until now we have had no internal mechanism for keeping track of the volume of quotes being done by any copy of our internet engine. That will change with the next version of the internet engine, which will be creating counters to track use on a “USER” basis, and on a total basis. Counters will be saved on the server running the quotes, and will not be accessible to any third party. Periodically internet engine customers will be asked to provide copies of their counter files as a reporting mechanism which is required by their user license. The files can be downloaded and emailed, Compulife will not need access to the customer’s server and the internet engine will NOT be communicating to Compulife in any way.

IMPORTANT:   The only thing we will be doing is counting the number of quotes. There will be no information about those quotes included in the counter files. They will tell us how many quotes have been done on a daily and monthly basis, and give us numbers by user for applications of our software that have multiple users.

One example of a multi-user installation of our Internet Engine is the web quote option that we sell for $96 per year. Each of our hundreds of web quote customers are running quotes from the same server and version of our engine. Differences between those quoting options are defined by what is in the “USER” folder for that customer. Each customer has their own control panel which allows them to decide which companies are quoted for their version of the web quotes. That information is stored in their USER folder.

Up until now, we have not had a mechanism to determine how many quotes any one of those users is producing on a daily basis. With the new engine we will be able to do that, and to monitor total quotes per day across all users. This will be important as quote volume will be tied to pricing for our new API option, and once the API option has been rolled out and is available, quote volume pricing will come to the Internet Engine.

Table Ratings – FREE for API CustomersAPI customers will have the Table Ratings option available included free, but the price of the API will be volume based. Here’s a tentative pricing schedule:

  1,000 or less quotes per month –    $396 per year (includes Compulife Basic)
  6,000 or less quotes per month –    $780 per year (includes Compulife Personal Use)
30,000 or less quotes per month – $1,200 per year (includes Compulife Standard Use)

All of these prices are less than the current cost of the Internet Engine, which is $1,500 per year (including Compulife Standard Use). The price for the engine will remain the same for customers doing 60,000 or less quotes per month. Any customer doing over 60,000 quotes per month will have the price of the Internet Engine increased to $2,200 per year (in addition to their Standard License of $300).

Some current subscribers to the Internet Engine, who are doing smaller volumes of quotes, will probably want to switch to the new API version of the software because their volume is relatively low and they will save money with the API version of quotes. The API customer will still be able to produce the very same quotes that they are producing now and still be able to fully customize their user interface and quote functions. Instead of delivering pages to the customer’s website, the API delivers raw output: company information and premiums. The user takes that data and imbeds it into their web pages and systems.

The other advantage of the API over the Internet Engine is that Compulife will take over the updating of rates and software, which means the user has less maintenance. The downside is that quotes will be coming from our server, and if our server goes down, so do your quotes. Having said that, reliability seems high. We have not had many issues with the web quote option for customers, and so we hope the same is true for the API (I should add that I don’t trust the internet).

Those doing over 30,000 quotes per month will need to buy the Internet Engine. First, we don’t want their high volume use dragging down our server performance. Second, anyone doing that kind of volume needs to pay for the server that they are running the quoting software from, and depending on volume they can get whatever type of server service they want/need, from shared hosting to stand alone equipment.

Table Ratings – Cost for Web QuotesCompulife Basic customers (who don’t have a PC subscription to Compulife) are allowed to purchase the web quote option but will NOT have the ability to add Table ratings to their web quote option. They will be able to get table rating quotes through their Basic version of the software. If they want Table Ratings added to their web quote option, they will need to upgrade to a PC version of Compulife.

Compulife Personal use subscribers (PC software), will be able to add the Table Rating option to their web quotes. The cost for this option will be an additional $96 per year. The logic here is quite simple. If you are purchasing the personal use version of our Windows PC software, you are getting a discounted price versus the Standard License for that software because you have agree to NOT provide quotes to other agents. That being the case, we assume that your use of the web quote option is for the same reason, you are not providing web quotes to other agents.

It is very hard to imagine why anyone would want to provide table ratings on a consumer quoting page. How would a consumer ever understand what is going on with table ratings, or which table rating might apply to their particular situation. We can’t imagine why the agent would want to add that to their web quoting page. Having said that, we don’t want to say no, and so if you are an agent and you want to add the Table Rating quote option to your web page, you can do so by purchasing the option for an additional $96 per year.

Agencies who are buying the Standard License of Compulife (PC Software) whose web quote option is often targeted for use by their agents, can add the Table Rating option for an additional $48 per year.

Table Ratings
Expanding Products and CategoriesWe told you in May that we would be working very hard to add more companies and products to the Table Ratings quotes, and during May we did just that. We want to thank those customers who have pro actively lobbied their companies to get us the table ratings information for their products.

We are still missing a number of companies and products but assume that is because most of our subscribers have already got the companies and products that they want and need.

If you can’t find a company and product that you need to quote table ratings for, please contact us by email and we’ll forward your email to our contacts with the company to try to wake them up. To add a company’s table ratings all we need from the company (and documented in writing from the company) is:

• • Does the company use letters or numbers to identify their tables?

• • Which tables does the company offer?

(not all have all tables)

• • What percentage is used to calculate each table?

(not all have the same percentages)

• • What basic rates do the table percentages apply to?

(not all use their standard rates for tables)

• For no lapse UL, we generally need rate tables and not percentages.

At first glance this may seem like a short list of things that we need but we still need them and we need them from the companies in writing. Sorry, but verbal tips are not enough. We will also want the company to give us a couple of sample quotes so we can make sure our quotes match.

If there is a product that you need added, let us know by emailing us at:

We will forward your request to our contact with the respective company and let them know that you want (and that we want) their products in the table rating option that is now available in our software.

Our Current Programming Plans for 2019The following is the current order for new work that we will be doing in 2019/2020:

• • Add the Table Rating option to the Internet Engine

• • Upgrade Internet Engine to Introduce Internal Quote Volume Counters (almost done)

• • Compulife API Web Quote Option

• • Overhaul Of Current Product Data Files

• • Introduction of New PC Version: CQS.EXE

• 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 2019 and into 2020. 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.