The Producer Strategy Modularity Validation Interface will be used by ALIP to retrieve the Strategy Modularity for the Producer at the time of issue of the contract. ALIP will make a request to retrieve the Strategy Modularity for the producer at the time of issue of the contract in the ACORD 22810 format. The input will include the product code, producer code and the strategies(features and selected option, Commission option selected) applicable to the product. The Application sign date will also be provided in the input. The external system will return the Strategy Modularity Applicable Indicator and the list of funds that are allowed on the contract if Strategy Modularity is applicable.
On receipt of the response, ALIP process server will convert the ACORD message received from this ESB, back to ALIP canonical format, and then provide the response back along with any error messages to the ALIP business configuration at the trigger points. If the external system does not return any funds, the strategy indicator will be set to No in the response by the integration, the fund block will be empty.
The Products which has UW on such as SFVUL, DA etc. Essentially, all Nontrad products.
All the Fixed and Variable Funds whatever is configured for the products. Athene's requirement is only for Fixed Funds but for future flexibility Variable funds are also included.
All the Fixed and Variable Funds whatever is configured for the products. Athene's requirement is only for Fixed Funds but for future flexibility Variable funds are also included. From testing perspective following funds are considered:-
Product: Fixed and MVA Annuity - Prorata
- Guaranteed Interest - 1 year
- Guaranteed Interest - 3 year
- Fund A: Money Market Base DA
- Fund B: HighYield Bond Base DA
Product: Fixed/Variable IA Input Entry
- Fund A: Money Market
- Fund B: HighYield Bond
- Fund C: Balanced
Product: VUL - SuppCov - A
- Variable Fund 10%
- Equity Indexed Test
- Flex Fixed Fund Account
Product: VUL - Required Premium
- Equity Index: S&P500 1 year
- General Account
- BGF Emerging Europe Fund
NOTE:- In integration there will not be any indicator to identify whether a Fund is Fixed or variable.External system will return list of fundcodes which will be redirected to ALIP as it is without specifying any indicator whether a fund is fixed or variable.
| TR ID# | Technical Requirements |
| TR1 | The ALIP workflow will invoke the Producer Strategy Modularity Validation Integration with the required input tags populated. The call will gothrough the ALIP Process Server which will translate the message to ACORD and invoke the external system. |
| TR2 | The response from the external system will provide a flag – Strategy Modularity Applicable – that will indicate if Strategy Modularity applies to the application and a list of fund account codes (one or more than one fund account code) will be returned if the Strategy Modularity Applicable Flag = Yes. |
| TR3 | If the external system does not return a list of funds, then the integration will assume that the Strategy Modularity Applicable Flag = “No” |
| TR4 | If the call to the external system fails, the integration will return a failure error message to the workflow |
| TR5 | If the external system fails to process the request correctly for any reason and returns an error, the same error will be returned to the calling workflow |
| TR6 | After successful processing,the external system will return a Success Response with the list of funds. |
| BR ID# | Business Requirements |
| BR1 | An External Call for Strategy Modularity Validation is to be done during application issue (when policy is about to be bridged) - ApplicationIssueService.The external call will return ""strategy Modularity Indicator"" for the agent and account code for fixed and variable funds.The service will be placed within the workflow ""Application Processing"" just before the issue service. All apps will pass through this validation.The service (strategymodularity) will be called only for some certain products. (The link of the workflow will be added with a condition which has all the supported plan codes)Error scenarios considered are –(1) If the API callout fails, then this is likely timeout related, an error block in XML will be created. (2) If the external system does not find any matches for the input provided (such as missing product, and/or funds), then it should return an error block. (3) If the external system does not return any funds, the strategy indicator will be set to No in the response, the fund block will be empty.Assumptions:It is assumed that no data change history is required The following scenario is not possible based on the understanding of input/output product allows funds A,B,C the external system returns D. |
Below steps are to be followed.
The business rules (called from Workflow/Page-end rules) on various trigger points in ALIP will invoke the Producer Strategy Modularity Integration Point with the user entered product code, producer code,Application sign date and the strategies(features and selected option,selected commission option) applicable to the product in input.
ALIP’s Process Server will receive the message and push it to the appropriate Producer Strategy Modularity spring chain to further process the request, based on the integration point.
The ALIP input received will be validated to check the mandatory parameters. Producer Code, Product ID and Application Sign Date are the mandatory parameters. If any of the parameters are empty, integration will return an error response to the calling workflow/rulegroup. There would be no additional data validation except mandatory field check.
. Features and commission are specified as optional parameters. As they are specified as optional parameters IX will forward the request to external system only with Producer code, Product ID and Application sign date. If the Agent have funds associated in external system it will return Valid response with fund codes. If Agent don't have any funds associated in external system it will return “No record found” error response.
. This chain will translate the input request from ALIP’s canonical XML format to ACORD 22810 XML format.
. The spring chain will invoke the Strategy Modularity web service with the ACORD message as the payload using the Strategy Modularity web service URL configured in the process server properties.
. The received Response from the webservice will undergo XSD validation for correct XML structure. If the XSD validation fails, appropriate error message will be returned to the calling workflow/rule group.
. The response from the external system will provide a flag – Strategy Modularity Applicable – that will indicate if Strategy Modularity applies to the application and a list of fund account codes (one or more than one fund account code). Its expected that Strategy Modularity Applicable flag received in this scenario is "Yes". If external system does not returns a flag/return a blank value then it will be set to "Yes" by the interface and forwarded to ALIP workflow/rulegroup in the response.
. If the external system does not return a list of funds, then its expected that the Strategy Modularity Applicable Flag = “No” will be received from the external system. If external system does not returns a flag/return a blank value then flag will be set to No by the interface and forwarded to calling ALIP workflow/rulegroup in the response.
. If the strategy modularity flag is set to No then, only a strategy modularity flag,producer code and Integration Operation SuccessIndicator will be in the response to the calling ALIP workflow/rulegroup. Fund block will not be the part of response.
. If the API callout fails, for any scenario like timeout error or input parameters issue then only a error block with error code and error description will be returned to the calling ALIP workflow/rulegroup.
. The received response from the external system, will be transformed to convert the response message from ACORD XML format to ALIP’s canonical XML format based on the conditions mentioned above in points 8,9 and 10.
. The resulting XML will then be returned to the invoking rule group/calling BC. The rule group/calling BC can then choose to process and display the needed details on the UI where it is plugged in.
N/A
NA
NA
| Success | Success Scenario Description | Message Code | Message Description | Message Type | Additional Comments |
| #1 | The Validation call was successful | 1 | Success | Informational |
| Error | Error Scenario Description | Message Code | Message Description | Message Type | Additional Comments |
| #2 | Unexpected error/exception in the processing. | NA | System Error | fatal | STRATTEGYMODULARITY_CALL_FAILED |
| #3 | XSD Validation Error | NA | XSD validation Error | fatal | STRATTEGYMODULARITY_CALL_FAILED |
| #4 | Timeout Error | NA | Timeout error | fatal | STRATTEGYMODULARITY_CALL_FAILED |
| #5 | No results returned | 1 | No results returned | Informational | NO_RESULT_FOUND |
| #6 | Validation Error | NA | Validation Error | fatal | STRATTEGYMODULARITY_CALL_FAILEDMandatory parameters missing. |
Interface can be plugged in the ALIP as per requirement of the client. From testing perspective, the testing of this interface will be collaboratively done with BASE team. The BC related changes( XML Tag creation/ Workflow/Rulegroups/Pagegroups updates) will be implemented by BASE team.
The trigger point that has been identified for testing by BASE is as described below:-
ALIP will call IX during underwriting process (before issuing a policy). Details of this call will be stored in a table in ALIP.
When the user performs manual Rate Renewal transaction within ALIP, the funds selected during transaction entry should be validated against the Strategy Modularity check upon clicking the NEXT button within Fund selection page (Transaction One Page Entry). If the policy’s Strategy modularity check indicator is set to true, business rules should call a new validation service called ValidateStrategyModularityService that will receive the list of funds selected by user.
ValidateStrategyModularityService will do the following -
• Check if the funds selected by the user for Rate Renwal Transaction and funds returned from the new strategy funds table (LIPS) during application issue (as described in Req 2) are matched or not. Iterate through all of the funds selected by user and set a tag,