How do I build an Insurance Cost calculator in Frontpage?

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Guest

I am starting on a web site to quote on Insurance based on the answers from
the user. I will like to build into the web site a calculator to do the
estimate. Can this be done directly in frontpage or do I need another program
or add-on?
 
Requires that you have ASP, ASP.net, PHP, or CFM coding and database skills.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
Hi,
Unfortunately FP doesn't have a button you can push labelled "create
insurance calculator" - it might be in the next version though :-) Who's
insurance quotes do you want to return? Your own companies or do you want to
compare quotes from several companies? Sorry to say but I think you're going
to have to do some work here...
 
Hello Willo,

There are two methodologies both of which require writing code that
FrontPage will not generate. You use FrontPage to create the form but
writing code is needed for the calculations and for sending results back and
forth from the web server.

There are two approaches; client-side and server-side. Insurance quotes can
be done as client-side code using JavaScript because it allows the prospect
to do 'what-if' costing without round-trips to the server each time he or
she submits the form to recalculate.
There is no database required at this point. The down-side of client-side
quoting is that anybody can view the JavaScript source code that is used to
run the numbers by using the browser's "view source" feature. There are
methodologies that make it extremely time consuming to make it possible for
somebody to deduce what the actual Javascript code represents however, that
is called obfuscation and for all but the most determined hackers with
extraordinary programming skills I can assure you that it would be extremely
costly and time consuming for anybody to figure out your numbers. Another
down-side is the fact that the prospect remains anonymous and you have no
way of following up for upsell and/or closing.

Insurance quotes are also often RFQs (Requests For Quotation) and that type
of quote is usually done using server-side code. This approach uses the form
to submit all the data to the server where the server-side code such as ASP,
PHP or ASP.NET runs the numbers and returns a quotation to the prospect's
inbox via e-mail. It can be the smarter business methodology as it allows
for at least one additional e-mail follow-up so you can stay in touch with
your leads giving you a chance to close.

There is also a hybrid model of course that strives to achieve the best of
both worlds. That I surmise would depend on the type of paper you are
writing and the quantity and complexity of the terms. If you're running a
business and want to achieve this goal you'll have to hire somebody to
develop the code from scratch or have somebody find scripts that may or may
not be exactly what you need and then have them modified to function with
your website. I can help with any solution in this regard noting I only work
with FrontPage customers hosted on a Windows platform.

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee "Regional Information Services"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
 
Another downside to client-side is the possible that users can or do not run JavaScript on their
machine, either by choice or by corporate guidelines. Server-side eliminate this issue.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
Wow! You sound like me about a year ago. I'm an insurance agent posing as a
web developer (not very well I might add). Here is my 2 cents (trial and
error tested). If you are primarily looking at life insurance, it is
possible (maybe reasonable) to create a calc like feature. However, it will
get very time consuming, and complicated, and your end result will probably
not resemble others on the net which will turn users off. Other than life
insurance, there are just too many variables to try and execute a workable
quote engine. I finally found that the best solutions lie in finding help
from your ins company, or an outside source that develops for your ins
company. There are more and more companies offering quote engines that you
can integrate with your site, and if yours is not one, you might consider
looking into some others. You should be able to find something for life
insurance as it is huge on the web. We are currently working with Zurich to
offer their life products on our site.
Tell you what, I could go on forever, but to keep this post from getting to
large, feel free to contact me via my website at http://www.weismanins.com.
I would love to share some of my goods and bads with you to save you some
time.

If you don't feel like contacting me, try http://www.ams-services.com/, or
priority data (don't remember there site, but google them, you'll find'em).
Or just google something like insurance agent quote engine. You might have
to tinker a little to get the search results that you want as you will have
to sift through the gagillion websites trying to get you to get a quote from
them.
Anyway, don't be shy, I had a really rough time with this, and I think I
could save some trouble.
 
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