While many of the winners of the RAVE Awardsare major names in the insurance software industry, ManagementData, Inc. (MDI), is an example of a smaller company stayingfocused on the needs of its customers.

MDI is an employee-owned company located in Birmingham, Ala. Thecompany's award-winning product, FIMMAS, was released in 1984 andsupports all life, annuities and specialty health products for bothindividual and group products, sharing common rules andconfigurable tables.

Patrick Michael, president of MDI, attributes the positivefeedback the vendor received from their customers as a reflectionon the company's culture.

“MDI has always been focused on customer service,” he says.“Being an employee-owned company, we can do whatever is necessaryto ensure that our partners are successful without the need tojustify our decisions to a board of directors. We are focused onresults and not profits.”

Michael explains that communication between MDI and its customerbase is what has made the vendor successful.

“We have regular meetings with our clients and we have anactive user group that provides the strategic direction for thedevelopment and support of FIMMAS,” he says.

Although the FIMMAS product is nearly 30 years old, MDIcontinues to tweak it regularly and make it adaptable for thechanges in the way business is conducted today.

“We have added several new integration points to the Internet,and allow for any report in FIMMAS to be automatically exported toexternal applications like Excel,” he says. “We have also addeddirect feeds to a chart and graphs that can be used to support amanagement dashboard capability. We have also added support formobile devices.”

FIMMAS runs on UNIX, Linux or Windows servers, according toMichael, and is database independent.

“Most course-of-business changes are implemented through ruleschanges and stored in custom libraries as objects,” he says.“However, source code is available to clients to facilitate addingnew rules when necessary. ACORD XML is one of many integrationmethods supported.”

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Second Place Winner: Life PAS

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