Technology Proof of Concept Sample

3/29/2016
TECHNOLOGYPROOFOFCONCEPTSAMPLE
TECHNOLOGY PROOF OF CONCEPT SAMPLE

An example of documentation prepared to support an architectural assessment
completed for a small system. This document is a good example of how the
methodology can be employed on a project of any scale. Due to the small scale of this
project, three documents were combined into this document: Current Situation
Assessment, Requirements De nition, and the Proof of Concept evaluation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Technical Proof of Concept phase is concluded with the presentation of this
document.
The results of this phase are clear: The consultants feel that Clipper is a viable tool for
development of the new AAA system which will replace the current AAA application at
the XYZ Company.This opinion has been reached after a two-week investigative
process which involved a ve-day site visit to the XYZ, followed by consultation with
industry experts in the areas of systems development, networking, and database
management systems.
The only major inhibitor to using Clipper is its performance when providing on-line
update access to large les. The volume of data for tracking movements is very
large.However the performance impact can be minimized by transferring data to offline read only les for report generation.
Development in Clipper offers a clear advantage in terms of maintainability. Clipper is
an easy to use language which is known by many developers.Increased maintainability
results in greater opportunity for evolution of both the application and its use by the
XYZ.Since Clipper uses an industry standard X-base le structure,the XYZ is
strategically positioned to take advantage of other development tools in the future
while maintaining their investment in existing data bases.
1.INTRODUCTION
The XYZ Companys (XYZ) current AAA system (AAA), in production since July of
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1990, was originally intended to enable a reduced staff in the Administration Section
to ef ciently and effectively process a large volume of claims; this goal has not been
achieved.In addition, the current AAA lacks important functionality, and does not
provide effective use by multiple departments.
The current AAA was developed in an environment, ZIM, which is not familiar to
many computer specialists.As a result, enhancements to the existing system are not
easily accomplished and in many cases have been abandoned.
In April of 1993, the XYZ issued a request for proposal (RFP) for development of a new
AAA to meet its requirements. They identi ed a development environmentusing
Clipper to ease implementation of any future requirements.
With extensive experience in the Clipper environment, the consultants were
concerned that a solution developed with Clipper would not support a mission critical
application such as the XYZ AAA.
In response to the RFP, the consultants proposed a technical proof of concept as the
rst step leading to development of the new AAA system.
1.1Purpose of this Document

This document details the ndings of the XYZ Company AAA System Technical Proof
of Concept phase.
The technical proof of concept is the rst phase in development of a new AAA system
for the XYZ. The primary objective of this phase is to evaluate the viability of a Clipper
solution.
The preparation of this document followed an on-site technical investigation of the
XYZ environment, the current AAA, and requirements for the replacement system.
1.2Factors Considered in Evaluation of Clipper

The following factors were considered in the evaluation of Clipper as a suitable
development tool for the AAA System:
XYZs hardware and software environment;
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XYZ development standards;

requirements for the new AAA System;
current and anticipated data volumes;
system performance requirements;
access requirements for system users;
application maintainability.
1.3Document Structure
This document is organized in the following sections:
Section 2: SUMMARY OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
This section addresses issues including internal and external systems interfaces, the
technical environment, and operational standards and policies in describing the
current XYZ AAA.
Section 3: EVALUATION OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
This section evaluates the current environment in terms of its strengths, weaknesses,
and opportunities for improvement.
Section 4: REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW AAA SYSTEM
This section describes issues surrounding development of the replacement AAA
system, addressing existing technical problems and new technical requirements .
Section 5: EVALUATION OF PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
This section discusses an evaluation of Clipper as a tool for development of the new
AAA.
2.SUMMARY OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

2.1Existing Applications Environment
2.1.1Overview
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2.1.1Overview
The XYZ Company (XYZ) administers the Assistance Program (AP).This program is
designed to provide assistance to shippers and manufacturers located in the Region,
by reimbursing carriers for reductions in rates.
The program divides carriers into four major groups:
The Rail Program
The Basic Westbound Program
The Selective Westbound Program
The Intra Program
Before becoming eligible for assistance, participants make application to the
Company.Upon authorization, the participant is added to the list of authorized
carriers, and claims may be processed.
Claims are received by the Company for carriers requesting reimbursement under the
program.Before claims are approved for payment they must be veri ed.This
veri cation will ensure that the claim is correct, and that the movements and
commodities meet the requirements of the speci c program group.
Once claims have been veri ed and approved for payment, the Finance and
Administration section carries out the payment process through the Payment System
(PS).
Based on information gathered during the claim veri cation process, a carrier may be
audited.Results of the eld audit may be fed back into AAA in the form of comments
regarding a speci c carrier.
2.1.2Major Data Stores

Volume of data is one of the major factors which will in uence the viability of a
system developed with Clipper.The following table summarizes the volume
contribution of the data stores which provide the greatest volumes of data to the
current AAA.
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CURRENT SYSTEM: VOLUMES IN MAJOR DATA STORES

Entity
Size (bytes per record) Number of records Data Volume (MB)
Participant
Carrier
Application
16.14
Certi cate
15.37
License
39,795
80.31
Claim
71,655
10.52
Payment
71,019
Total
133.43
Participants
All organizations involved in the program.These organizations include carriers
(authorized and pending authorization), agents, and banking institutions, among
others.
Carriers
All carriers that have been authorized to participate in the program.
Applications
All applications for participation in the program that have been received by the XYZ.
Certi cates
All certi cates that have been issued to authorized carriers.
Licenses
License information for every carrier.
Claims
All claims that have been received by the XYZ.
Movements
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Contains information on the movements which make up each claim.

This data store is not used by the current system.
Payments
All claim payments.
2.1.3Internal System Interfaces

Payment System (PS)
Payment data is exported from the current system, producing a text le which is
imported into PS by XYZ staff.
Audit Control Language System (ACLS)
Various data necessary to perform a eld audit on randomly-selected carriers is
exported from AAA, producing a text le which is subsequently imported into ACLS by
XYZ staff.
Payment at Year End Process (PAYE)
Special payment commitment and nancial code numbers are speci ed in
AAA.These numbers will indicate, following payment import into PS, that payments
should be made according to the PAYE.
2.1.4External System Interfaces

Carriers
Carrier information is currently received in hard-copy and input into AAA by dataentry staff.
2.1.5Current Users
The following table will summarize the current AAA user distribution at the XYZ.
SUMMARY OF CURRENT USERS
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Business
Group
User Type and Description
Number of
Users
Administration Certi cation: Data entry and veri cation of

applications, certi cates, and licenses.
Claim Control: Claim data entry.
Veri cation: On-line claim veri cation (desk audit)
via ad-hoc query.
General: Modi cation and Reporting.
Supervision: On-line claim authorization, ad-hoc
query access.
Management: Payment authorization, ad-hoc query
access.
Field Audit
Field Audit: Field audit of carriers using data imported

into ACLS, AAA query
Supervision: AAA query
Management: AAA query
Finance
Generation of payments and PS import.
2.2Existing Technical Environment

2.2.1Hardware Platforms
At XYZ, all machines are Intel-based and vary in con guration and capacity from 1 MB
286/12s to 16 MB 486/66s, as described in the following table:
Purpose
Make and
Model
Con guration
File Server
KEEN-3334
486 DX2/66i 16/1.2 GB

mirrored
Quantity
(server OFFICE)
3 x 16-bit NIC
Application/Database
Business VEISA 486 DX/50e 16/2 GB
Server
mirrored
(server Head Of ce)
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3 x 16-bit NIC
Application/Database
Server
Zenith
386 SX/33e 8/300 MB
Z-386/33E
mirrored
(server REGION)
2 x 16-bit NIC
Communications Server
Tandon
286/12MHz
2 x 9600 bps modem
Mail Gateway
Epson Equity
III+
286/12MHz
Remote Access Gateway
Epson Equity
III+
286/12MHz
9600 bps modem
AAA Workstation
Tandon
286/12MHz 1/No HD
8-bit NIC
Field Audit
386 SX/25 4/120
and General W/S
8-bit NIC
Personnel
386 SX/25 8/120
and RIMS W/S
8-bit NIC
Payment Workstation
Field Audit Laptop
PS Workstation
digital
486 DX/33 4/120
DECpc LPv
433d
16-bit NIC
Toshiba
386 SX/25 1/120
T3200
8-bit NIC
Clone
486 SX/33 4/120

16-bit NIC
9600 bps modem
Field Audit Laptop
Toshiba
486 DX/33 4/120
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Network Admin
Workstation
T4100
Xircom Pocket Ethernet
digital
486 DX2/66 12/250
DECpc LPx
466d2
16-bit NIC
2.2.2System Software
The XYZ computing environment features a Novell LAN with DOS-based workstations.
Machine
Operating System Application Software
Server OFFICE
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
Novell Netware
WordPerfect 5.1, WordPerfect Of ce 3.1,

Lotus 1-2-3 (2.2, 2.4, 3.1), dBase III+,
TimeLine 5.0, R&R Report Writer 4.0,
3.11 (100 users)

Hotel Directory System,
Harvard Graphics (2.3 and 3.0)
Server Head
Microsoft MSDOS
Of ce
5.0
Off-line access to AAA data.
Novell Netware
3.11 (100 users)
Server REGION
Microsoft MSDOS
ACL, RIMS
5.0
Novell Netware
3.11 (100 users)
Communications Microsoft MSDOS
Netware Asynchronous Communication
Server
5.0
Services
Mail Gateway
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
WordPerfect Of ce
Connection Server
Remote Access
Microsoft MSDOS
Gateway
6.0
Remote Access
Microsoft MSDOS
Carbon Copy
PC Anywhere
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Gateway
6.0
AAA
Workstation
Microsoft MSDOS
5.0
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
Field Audit
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
and General W/S

Personnel
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
and RIMS W/S

Payment
Microsoft MSDOS
Workstation
6.2
PS Workstation
Microsoft MSDOS
6.0
DSS Communication package.
Field Audit
Laptop
Microsoft MSDOS
6.2
WordPerfect 5.1, Lotus 1-2-3 2.2
Network Admin
Workstation
Microsoft MSDOS
6.2
Microsoft Windows 3.1
2.2.3Communications
The XYZ internal environment consists of a Netware 3.11 segmented ethernet LAN.
LAN communication is via Novells SPX/IPX protocol over thin ethernet (10Base2 thin
coaxial cable).
A communications server provides remote dial-in to corporate systems via two
dedicated modems.
Access to corporate e-mail is provided by a WordPerfect Of ce Mail Server and
dedicated modem.
Remote connection to the network is via a Carbon Copy Gateway and a PCAnywhere
Gateway, each with a dedicated modem.
Connection to PS for corporate nancials is via dedicated modem shared by the PS
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workstations.
2.2.4Peripherals
All modems communicate at 9600 bps.
Network printers are workstation-attached laser printers from Hewlett Packard (HP):
LaserJet, LaserJet III, and LaserJet IIId.
Individual printers include laser printers: HP DeskJet, HP LaserJet, HP LaserJet IIp;
and impact printers: Panasonic KX-P1592, and Star NX-1000.
The following diagram provides a conceptual view of the current XYZ computing
environment.
[1]
[2]
2.3Organizational Standards and Policies
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2.3Organizational Standards and Policies

This section describes the technical standards and policies currently in place at the
XYZ.
2.3.1Technical Standards
Network
Novell Netware 3.11
SPX/IPX protocol
10Base2 Ethernet
Application Development
Clipper 5.0
Paradox
dBase III+
Server
Minimum: 386 DX/33 8 MB RAM, 300 MB mirrored disk
Preferred: 486 DX2/66 16 MB RAM, 1.2 GB mirrored disk
Workstation
Minimum: 386 SX/25 4 MB RAM, 120 MB HD, MS-DOS 5.0
Preferred: 486 DX/33 8 MB RAM, 175 MB HD, MS-DOS 6.2
Applications
WordPerfect, WordPerfect Of ce, Lotus 1-2-3, TimeLine, Harvard Graphics, Hotel
Directory System
2.3.2Technical Policies
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2.3.2Technical Policies
Some operations which impact other on-line users (such as selection of carriers for
audit) are now done against a copy of AAA data, resident on another server.
Index regeneration is performed when indices become corrupted (possibly due to
workstation crashes, etc.)
All servers are backed-up nightly from the LAN Administration Workstation.Tapes are
stored off-site with a four-week rotation.
2.4Operational Organization
2.4.1System Support and Maintenance
Network management, software support, and preliminary hardware support is
provided by the XYZ Systems Administrator.
Additional hardware support is provided by local service organizations.
Support of the current AAA is provided by the XYZ systems administrator, and by XYZ
corporate IT staff via one of the remote access gateways.
2.4.2System Operation
In terms of AAA usage, the XYZ organization consists of three sections:
Administration
This section is responsible for carrier certi cation, and claim control and veri cation.
Field Audit
This section is responsible for eld audit.AAA usage is limited to data extraction and
on-line query.
Finance and Administration
This section is responsible for generating payments and importing those payments
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into PS.
3.EVALUATION OF CURRENT
ENVIRONMENT
3.1Introduction
The current system has some strengths, omissions, and many problems which concern
all users, and which have highlighted the need for a replacement system.
This section will discuss the problems, strengths, and opportunities for improvement
of the current system.The issues discussed in this section are a combination of
observations made during the technical proof of concept site visit and interviews, and
of issues raised in the Request for Proposal Terms of Reference and supporting
documentation.
3.2Observations
3.2.1System Usage Issues
From a user perspective, the primary problems with the current system involve
response time and system availability.By far the worst problem is the fact that when
payments are being run, no other AAA users may access the system; other problems
include
response time of up to seven minutes for claim deletion,
year-end report completion time of seven days,
noticeable system response degradation during report generation.
3.2.2Operational Issues
From an organizational perspective, the primary problems with the current system
involve the omission of key data, and the inability to provide system
enhancements.Speci cally, the problems are:
claim movements are not tracked,
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no automatic claim veri cation is performed,

existing reports are limited and generation time is unacceptable,
required reports are not available from the system and cannot be developed,
ad-hoc requests for information cannot usually be ful lled,
interfaces to internal and external systems are inef cient and subject to human error,
lack of expertise with ZIM internally and locally makes system enhancement and
extension very dif cult and risky,
system is no faster than the manual method, and expected reductions in staff have not
occurred.
3.2.3Strengths
The single strength of the current system is in the area of claims control.The system
provides acceptable tracking of carriers and their claims throughout the certi cation,
claim, and payment processes.
3.3Conclusion
The desire to replace the current AAA system has been expressed and supported
throughout all phases of this project to date, beginning with the XYZ project initiation
report in March of 1992.
A replacement system would offer improvement in each of the following areas:
Accessibility,
Performance,
Maintainability,
Unful lled Requirements;
All of the problems experienced with the current AAA fall within one of these areas.
3.3.1Accessibility
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3.3.1Accessibility
Accessibility in the current system is impacted as users perform database-wide access
through payment generation.Essentially, all tables are subjected to a le-lock which
overrides and disallows all other attempts at locking at any level.
3.3.2Performance
AAA performance problems are evident in unacceptable response times, and are a
function of workstation capability, ineffective use of workstation memory by AAA,
database design and distribution, and network performance.
3.3.3Maintainability
Maintainability problems are caused by the environment under which the current
system was developed (ZIM); this development environment is not supported locally
or internally by the XYZ.This has impacted the ability of the XYZ to make corrections
and enhancements to the system.
3.3.4Unful lled Requirements

Data capture and tracking problems are a symptom of requirements which have not
been ful lled by the current AAA.Essentially, development of the current AAA was
never completed, so required functionality is not available.
3.3.5Architectural Issues
The current AAA application does not make effective use of workstation memory.As a
result, increased memory capacity does not improve performance of the application,
and does not allow for installation of additional software components such as virus
protection software.
The network has limited bandwidth, to the point that large volume transactions are
likely to have a signi cant impact on overall performance.Further, the network
segmentation is such that cable lengths are at their maximum.
Novell-recommended procedures aimed at ensuring network performance and
stability have not been implemented.A procedure should be established to cycle (cold
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boot) each server at least every 30 days.At the time of writing the Of ce server had
been operational for 131 days and the Region server had been operational for 53 days.
A procedure should be implemented to regularly purge deleted data to free up disk
storage.
At the time of writing, the CACHE BUFFER for the Region server was at 42%.Any
number below 50% should be investigated because running too low can lead to a
system crash. Another couple of MB of memory on the Region server may be
warranted.
Archival of data does not take place.The database design and apparent table-wide
techniques of some processes in addition to the retention of historical data contribute
to the unacceptable response time of some processes.
4.REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW AAA SYSTEM

4.1Introduction
Assessment of Clipper as an environment under which a replacement system could be

developed must take into consideration the current and future system requirements
and issues.
Issues such as changes in usage and data growth, as well as requirements re ecting
availability and accessibility are described in this section.
4.2System Usage Requirements

4.2.1User Identi cation
SUMMARY OF USERS AT REPLACEMENT SYSTEM START UP DATE
Business
Group
Number
of Users
Administration Customer
Service: Carrier certi cation and maintenance of carrier
data.
Claim
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Data Entry: Data entry of non-machine-readable claims.

Control and input of machine-readable claims for
veri cation.
Post Audit: Veri cation of sampled machine-readable
claims following veri cation and payment.
Veri cation: Resolution of problems with machinereadable claims.Carrier assistance with machine-readable
submissions.
Supervision: On-line claim authorization, ad-hoc query
access.
access.
Field Audit

into ACLS, ad-hoc query
Supervision: Ad-hoc query
Management: Ad-hoc query
Finance
Generation of payments and import into PS.
SUMMARY OF USERS AT SYSTEM MATURITY

Business
Group
Number
of Users
Administration Customer
Service: Carrier certi cation and maintenance of carrier
data.
Claim
Data Entry: Data entry of non-machine-readable claims.
Control and input of machine-readable claims for
veri cation.
Post Audit: Veri cation of sampled machine-readable
claims following veri cation and payment.
Veri cation: Resolution of problems with machinereadable claims.Carrier assistance with machine-readable
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submissions.
Supervision: On-line claim authorization, ad-hoc query
access.
access.
Field Audit

into ACLS, AAA query
Supervision: AAA query
Management: AAA query
Finance
Generation of payments and import into PS.
4.2.2Accessibility and Usage

Access to data and system functions should be controlled on a per user basis.This will
avoid inadvertent changes to data, and lead to higher productivity as users are not
presented with options for which they do not have permission.
4.2.3Performance
XYZ studies have suggested that a clerk can capture up to 100 movements per
day.Performance must be such that this expectation is met.
With the exception of movement data entry, performance requirements have not been
speci ed.However, the general requirement is that performance must be improved
when compared with the current system.
4.2.4Growth Trends
The AAA user community is not expected to grow.Rather, use will grow within each
user group as efforts are refocused, and business requirements change.
4.2.5Policy and Regulatory

New policies at the XYZ have set a maximum delay in claim payment of 20 days
following claim receipt.
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Claim movements must be tracked in order to measure the effectiveness of the

program.
4.3Operational Requirements
4.3.1Availability
The system must be available to all users between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM,
with minimal performance degradation caused by multi-user data access.
Maximum acceptable system downtime is seven hours.
4.3.2Maintainability
It is expected that system software and related components will be maintained by
local computer professionals and XYZ systems staff.
4.3.3System Management
XYZ systems staff will manage the system (backup, archival, etc.)
4.4Internal Interfaces
The development environment must be exible enough to allow enhancement of
existing interfaces and development of new interfaces, as these become necessary.
4.4.1Corporate Financials (PS)

The interface between the replacement system and PS will not vary from the current
interface; the interface will remain a text le export from AAA and import into PS by
XYZ staff.
4.4.2Audit Control Language System (ACLS)

The method of selection of carriers is expected to change in the interface from the
replacement system.This selection will take the form of a exible query, enabling the
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random selection of carriers, based on various criteria.

The data interchange will not change from the existing AAA method, in which a text
le containing data for the selected carriers is exported from AAA and imported into
the ALCS by XYZ staff.
4.4.3Payment at Year End Process (PAYE)

The interface to this system will remain the speci cation of special payment
commitment and nancial coding numbers which will indicate, following payment
import into PS, that payments should be made according to the PAYE.
4.5External Interfaces
The development environment must be exible enough to allow enhancement of
existing interfaces and development of new interfaces, as these become necessary.
4.5.1Carriers
It is expected that two methods will be used to receive carrier claims into the new
AAA:
data entry from hard copy submitted by carrier
ext le import
The methods by which carriers will submit claims in electronic form for import into
the replacement system are:
diskette
le transfer via modem (future requirement)
In order to facilitate preparation of claims by carriers, to be submitted electronically, a
carrier claim submission application must be developed.This system must have
minimal requirements in terms of additional components required for use by the
carrier.The system must produce the text le required for import into the replacement
AAA system.
5.EVALUATION OF PROPOSED
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5.EVALUATION OF PROPOSED
ENVIRONMENT
5.1Introduction
The replacement AAA System must provide all of the capabilities of the current AAA,
in addition to unful lled requirements of the XYZ, while providing enhanced
availability, performance, and maintainability.
This section will discuss the ndings of the Technical Proof of Concept and the
reasons for concluding that Clipper is a viable tool for development of the replacement
AAA system.
5.2Approach for Evaluation

Throughout this evaluation process, the consultants are specialists in networking,
systems development, and database management systems have drawn upon their
experiences and those of the Project Advisor. Experts at Computer Associates and the
consultants Technology Network were also contacted.
The Technology Network (TNet) provides specialists in speci c technology areas for
work on projects, world-wide.The TNet experts consulted in this evaluation effort
specialize in systems development environments (including Clipper) and database
management systems.
The Project Advisor is a central repository of information relating to all projects,
world-wide.The project advisor provided information on projects using Clipper in an
environment very similar to that currently in place at the XYZ.
Computer Associates (CA) are the makers of Clipper (now called CA-Clipper).CA was
consulted regarding the capabilities of Clipper in an environment similar in volumes
to that currently in place at the XYZ.CA provided guidance on the performance
bottlenecks to be avoided in a system with such large data volumes.
5.3Performance Constraints
The use of Clipper as a tool for developing the replacement AAA System is constrained
by performance factors.
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Performance and availability is acceptable in systems which do not have large numbers
of distributed users accessing complex data bases. For large Clipper systems, however,
a great deal of attention must be paid to the data processing model in order to ensure
acceptable levels of performance.
5.4Data Volumes and Retention

The volume of data that will be captured in the tracking of claim movements and its
effect on performance and availability has been a major focus in the Clipper
assessment.As data volumes increase, the amount of time required to add, update,
query, and report on the data also increases.
In general, it is required that data be retained in an on-line state for one year, at which
point the data may be placed in a ready off-line state for two to three years.After three
years, the data may be archived for infrequent report access.
REPLACEMENT SYSTEM: EXPECTED ANNUAL GROWTH IN MAJOR DATA
STORES
Entity
Size (bytes per
Growth (records per
Growth (MB per
record)
year)
year)
Participant
Carrier
Application
Certi cate
License
Claim
18,000
Movement
2,000,000
Payment
15,000
Total
783.92
791.30
5.5Maintainability
As mentioned several times in the request for proposal and supporting
documentation, the current AAA is not maintainable.There is no available pool of ZIM
knowledge, and as a result the XYZ has been forced to nd work-arounds and return
to manual processes wherever the current AAA fails them.
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Clipper has a well-known, intuitive programming language. This enhances the

maintainability of a system written in Clipper. Clipper is a local and corporate XYZ
standard with many local and XYZ internal experts available for application
maintenance.
5.5Critical Components of Proposed Environment

This section will describe the components critical to the success of developing a
replacement AAA system using Clipper.
5.6.1Transaction/Archival Model
There will be approximately two million new movement records added to the database
each year.This is a large transaction volume no matter what database is in use. Adding
records to such a large data store could result in a signi cant response time
degradation.
With this in mind, such updates to the database should not occur when other users
may require access.To allow for this, the application should be structured such that
potentially lengthy transaction updates are applied to the database in isolation from
other types of access.
On-line query, report generation and ACLS extracts may be targeted directly at the
off-line database, keeping in mind that the latest transactional updates (e.g.
movements entered today) will not be available.
Retention of data for long periods will cause substantial performance degradation in
all areas of data access.For this reason, when data is no longer required for frequent
access, it should be placed in an off-line read-only area and nally archived.
5.6.2Hardware Architecture
One of the largest factors impacting database performance under Clipper is the speed
at which the database indices are updated.Network communication rate, workstation
processor speed, and available memory are the most important factors in increasing
the speed of index update.
These performance issues will become increasingly important as the system matures
and the volume of data continues to grow. To ensure that performance is maintained
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to acceptable levels. Operators requiring update access to data should use fast 486
class PCs with at least 8 MB of memory. Clipper developed programs are able to
directly access Expanded memory on PCs. The Architectural Issues identi ed in
Section 3.3.5 should be addressed to generally improve network performance.
5.7Considerations for the Future

Clipper databases conform to a widely adopted industry standard de nition called XBase.This means that there are many products available for managing future system
growth and enhancement.These include query and reporting tools, executive
information systems, and other development tools and environments.
Clipper applications may be extended with other, more powerful, programming
languages such as C.This provides the opportunity for seamless integration of new
technologies with the application.
5.8Conclusions
Based on the detailed assessment of the XYZs technical environment and anticipated
requirements of the new system, SHL believes that Clipper will provide an adequate
tool for development of the new AAA System.
The main factors considered in this evaluation were the current technical
environment, Clippers suitability for development of AAA requirements and the
ability to attain expected levels of performance and system maintainability.
Clipper may not be an ideal development tool for large systems with complex database
structures, high data volumes and large numbers of distributed users. However it is
well suited to the new AAA System. The data base structure is fairly straight forward
and data volumes for on-line access can be kept low by transferring large transaction
les to a read-only area for report generation. Users of the new system are also
centralized in a single of ce and will access the new system with fast 486 class
personal computers.
On average, each carrier has ve licenses.
One modem is shared between both PS workstations.
Record sizes are based on XYZ preliminary database design speci cations.
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ParticipantGrowth gures are not known for non-carrier participants.

CarrierEach carrier may have a license, certi cate, and application for both Intra and
Westbound programs.
ApplicationApplications that are not authorized are still stored on the system.
LicenseLicenses are renewed each year.This means that yearly license volumes grow by
the number indicated plus the number of current carriers.
MovementThe XYZ cost-bene t analysis states that 20% of movements are expected
to be submitted in non-electronic form and that of these 20%, only 23.5% will actually
be entered into the system.The resulting reduction in total number of movements
(306,000) per year is not re ected in this table.
PaymentPayment record growth assumes that all claims are paid
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1 Comments
Hi Craig,
The sample of PoC provided by you was excellent. Thank you. Could you please
suggest books or sites where I could nd more sample case studies of the PoC.
Thanks & Regards,
Seema
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TECHNOLOGY PROOF OF CONCEPT SAMPLE

1.1Purpose of this Document

1.2Factors Considered in Evaluation of Clipper

XYZ development standards;

2.SUMMARY OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

2.1.2Major Data Stores

CURRENT SYSTEM: VOLUMES IN MAJOR DATA STORES

Size (bytes per record) Number of records Data Volume (MB)

Contains information on the movements which make up each claim.

2.1.3Internal System Interfaces

2.1.4External System Interfaces

User Type and Description

Administration Certi cation: Data entry and veri cation of

Field Audit: Field audit of carriers using data imported

Generation of payments and PS import.

2.2Existing Technical Environment

486 DX2/66i 16/1.2 GB

Business VEISA 486 DX/50e 16/2 GB

386 SX/33e 8/300 MB

Remote Access Gateway

386 SX/25 4/120

and General W/S

386 SX/25 8/120

and RIMS W/S

Field Audit Laptop

486 DX/33 4/120

386 SX/25 1/120

486 SX/33 4/120

Field Audit Laptop

486 DX/33 4/120

Xircom Pocket Ethernet

486 DX2/66 12/250

Operating System Application Software

WordPerfect 5.1, WordPerfect Of ce 3.1,

3.11 (100 users)

Off-line access to AAA data.

Netware Asynchronous Communication

and General W/S

and RIMS W/S

DSS Communication package.

WordPerfect 5.1, Lotus 1-2-3 2.2

Microsoft Windows 3.1

2.3Organizational Standards and Policies

2.3Organizational Standards and Policies

no automatic claim veri cation is performed,

3.3.4Unful lled Requirements

4.REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW AAA SYSTEM

Assessment of Clipper as an environment under which a replacement system could be

4.2System Usage Requirements

User Type and Description

Data Entry: Data entry of non-machine-readable claims.

Field Audit: Field audit of carriers using data imported

Generation of payments and import into PS.

SUMMARY OF USERS AT SYSTEM MATURITY

User Type and Description

Field Audit: Field audit of carriers using data imported

Generation of payments and import into PS.

4.2.2Accessibility and Usage

4.2.5Policy and Regulatory

Claim movements must be tracked in order to measure the effectiveness of the

4.4.1Corporate Financials (PS)

4.4.2Audit Control Language System (ACLS)

random selection of carriers, based on various criteria.