Even if they went paperless (yeah, yeah, we know), insurancecarriers would still be responsible for producing prospectuses formany of their products as required by the Securities and ExchangeCommission and various departments of insurance throughout thecountry. AXA Financial, parent of the Equitable Life Assurance Co.,found that the typesetting requirements to produce such copiescould be handled just as easily in house, particularly if thecompany acquired the same printing software used by its outsidevendor.

AXA already did much of its printing in-house, but the morecomplicated world of financial printing called for more precision.[Forms and flyers] are different than legal documents. Theyrewritten in different terms, said Richard Rogers, manager of thee-publishing division for AXA. It is easy to do marketing materialin Word or Quark, but to do a prospectus requires a high-endsystem.

AXA had used outside vendors for years, but with its number oflife insurance and annuity products growing, Rogers said, Wereached a certain level where it just made sense to bring it backin house. We felt it would be less expensive and we would havebetter control over the quality. We also felt we would have bettercontrol of the content and how we could re-use it for otherproducts.

AXA has 54 products that require prospectuses for SEC filings.Constant updates for those various filings meant whatever systemthe company chose would be in use often. We looked at the numbersand the financial printing industry in general, and it bore itselfout, Rogers said.

The company began by looking at three differentvendors. Rogerssaid fromthe start AXA leanedtowards XyEnterprises XML ProfessionalPublisher package (XPP) for one simple reason: It was the samesoftware being used by AXAs outside vendor.

XPP automates the composition of data generated by financialservices companies by using an information repository of XML-basedstructured data. The system can turn that XML data into fullyformatted documents complete with complex tables, math equations,footnotes, a table of content, and indices. It can also produce PDFor HTML documents.

Key features include XML and SGML support, batch composition,and sophisticated composition controls. Its XML and WYSIWYGcapabilities lent itself to our needs, Rogers said.

After selecting XyEnterprise, Rogers said AXA went through threestages in the implementation process. Before installation, once wedecided on the product, we brought together all the groupsinvolvedIT, production, legal, and a representative from ourpresident, Rogers said.

Over a period of six to seven weeks, the data from the legacysystem was ported to the XPP system, according to Rogers. But thatwas only the beginning. Once the system was installed, it requiredresources to run the program. That meant personnel. You have tomake a commitment, Rogers said. It is not an easy program to learn,but weve maintained a strong, core group of people.

Quick success is something you hope for with any software buy,and AXA was able to experience that feeling. We went through ourfirst update season, and the numbers we thought we would save wereeven greater than anticipated, Rogers said. Plus we got the projectdone quicker than we had in the past six or seven years.

Network installations are never completed without some problems,but Rogers believes keeping IT involved from the start haseliminated at least some of them. Paper may be on its way out inthe insurance industry, but reports and prospectuses are not goingto go away as long as state and federal governments have anythingto say about it. ROBERT REGIS HYLE

THE COMPANY: AXA FINANCIAL
ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: $400 BILLION
WEB SITE: www.axa-financial.com

THE PRODUCT: XML PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER FROM XYENTERPRISE
WEB SITE: www.xyenterprise.com