Software Product Manager, 1985 November - 1989 December
Excel-A-Rate Corporation
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Excel-A-Rate developed and marketed (leased) PC-based software systems for rating commercial insurance policies to independent insurance agencies located in the state of California. Sadly, Excel-A-Rate ended business operations in the 2nd quarter of 1990 (a few months after I left to work at Citicorp).
Managed two programmers for enhancements to commercial insurance rating systems, including Commercial Automobile and Garage, Commercial General Liability, and Commercial Fire and Allied Lines.
Designed and developed enhancements for modernizing and integrating the product's user interface, including the system menus, policy storage subsystem, and company rating information subsystem. Implemented these features using Realia COBOL on the IBM PC with PC-DOS.
Designed and developed the software tools for generating windows, menus, color support, and reports in Realia COBOL on the IBM PC with PC-DOS.
Managed the conversion of all rating systems to Realia COBOL from Ryan-McFarland COBOL, yielding over 300% increase in software operational speed and increased programmer productivity.
Designed and developed a Commercial General Liability (CGL) classification cross-reference guide. Developed this product with Realia COBOL after evaluating Realia's compiler and source debugger.
Upgraded the Special Multi-Peril rating system (especially the General Liability Rating System) to include the new Commercial Package Policy rates and rules published by the Insurance Services Office (ISO) in RM/COBOL with PC-DOS.
Designed and developed a structured programming macro library for Microsoft MASM to provide easier maintenance of the assembler code to which the RM/COBOL programs were interfaced.
Managed system integration and quality assurance testing prior to product release.
Managed release of software revisions to customers, including identification and collection of those files changed for the version to be released.
Authored and edited the software revision notices and product advertising.
Provided telephone and technical support to the customers.
Installed cabling for an EtherLink LAN of IBM PC/AT's. Upgraded the LAN server to Advanced NetWare SFT I from NetWare 286.
Administered network system security (user/access rights) and system backups.