About Westphal Consulting, Inc.

Westphal Consulting was hired by a AAA-rated insurance company to develop a web-based policy generation application for professional insurance policies (not home, life, medical, etc). Insurance policies and accompanying documents are heavily regulated by federal and states. Each insurance policy differs from the state of issuance, product, insured ratings, and various endorsements included in the policy.

Problem

It has been too time-consuming to generate manual quote letters, binders, and policies for each submission received. The simplest way for the insurance company to maintain their documents is through MS Word format. The templates were created and based on various criteria, the fields were replaced with data stored in SQLServer. Documents generation and their storage as PDF have been a bit slow and cumbersome when tried through a windows application and it has also been difficult to do it through a web-based application. Furthermore, the setup for a user trying to use Word through a web application is complicated. There can be hundreds to thousands of documents to be generated monthly by 5 to 20 users.

Solution

We decided to use Aspose.Words for .NET because it quickly and easily enabled us to generate the necessary documents needed through a web application and allowed the users to keep their Word templates. Using ASP.NET, VB.NET, and SQLServer, 5 to 50 fields were placed into each template to generate a PDF document.

Preview of Web application to receive user input

Image 1: The web-based application takes input and [creates PDF files from word templates][2].

PDF generation view

Image 2:- A web application which generates PDF files from templates

Preview of resultant document

Image 3:- Preview of PDF file generated from templates

Experience

Finding a solution

I originally found Aspose in a trade journal. I looked at other products and did not find another product that worked as simply and quickly as Aspose.Words for .NET. I tried the free trial and Technical Support and was thrilled with the results. The support was quick and accurate, which is a welcome relief. Generally, I feel like I know more about a product than their own support, but this was definitely not the case with Aspose.

Implementation

Implementing the word portion of my project took less than one day. I knew how to replace fields with data using windows application development techniques, but when designing web-based applications, it didn’t work the same. I knew how to set up an ASP user to work with word documents, but I couldn’t imagine how that was going to work when the application was deployed. With Aspose.Words for .NET, I simply added less than 5 lines of code using the FormFields and Results functions and the functional portion was complete. I also needed to package documents into one complete policy which was very simple with the AppendDocument function in Aspose.Words for .NET.

Outcome

The application will be going live within a month and the users would be happier. Simple features such as watermarks made a big difference to their workflow too. Using Aspose.Words for .NET saved me at least a week or two in development time and made the application workflow much more smooth.

Summary

I think Aspose.Words for .NET is a great product and added to the professionalism of the application I developed. I would highly recommend Aspose.Words for .NET. I am planning on using Aspose.Words for .NET with a pathology application along with a medical transcription application I have developed.

**Pamela Westphal
**System Engineer
Westphal Consulting, Inc.