Topics are organized in the following sections:
The state-of-the-art data centers that house AppliedOnline are located in Tier 1 Internet provider buildings with many safeguards in place to help to ensure that your data is always available. Because the centers serve as major hubs for all Internet traffic, many redundant features are in place that essentially leave no single point of failure. The building system design starts with redundant power and Internet circuits entering the facility from multiple sides to protect against "back-hoe fade" or substation problems. Inside the facility, everything has a redundancy factor, including the power switch gear, generators, air conditioners, UPS, and networking equipment. In addition, the building is a secure structure that was built to withstand hurricane force winds, with an interior structure for the data center that has no exterior walls. The property is protected by security cameras and is staffed 24 hours a day by security personnel. Entry to the building requires verification of credentials through physical or biometric authentication. Access to interior facilities is controlled through pass cards and keys. The actual AppliedOnline equipment resides behind an additional set of keyed locks.
The VisionOnline server farm within the data center is also well protected by redundant load balancers, firewalls, and clustered data servers.
VisionOnline has been live since September 2002.
Your data is protected from outsiders by multiple security levels, including intrusion detection capable firewalls. All users authenticate to a Microsoft Windows Active Directory. Users are required to have passwords that meet security requirements and must be changed on a regular schedule, and failed logon attempts are logged. Consecutive failed logon attempts result in the user account being locked, requiring intervention by Applied Systems to return the user to an operational state. Your Internet transmissions are sent over a secure channel provided by the 128-bit bidirectional packet level encryption in the required client. The AppliedOnline network is also constantly scanned for viruses.
We use clustered data servers to provide the file storage space necessary for VisionOnline databases. Each agency is given a unique data location within a common storage environment. Access to that location is controlled through a vast set of user security policies, NTFS permissions, desktop restrictions, and logon scripts.
Your data is backed up nightly. Full data backups are performed during the weekend and are stored off-site for six months. Daily differential (changed file) backups are performed Sunday through Friday and are retained for four weeks before the tapes are reused. This backup policy provides for the recovery of current business information due to unexpected loss for any day within a four-week period, and retrieval for historical purposes for any week within the past six months.
The system engineer security experts maintain and monitor the various firewalls and other intrusion detection equipment between AppliedOnline and the Internet. In addition, we monitor the Active Directory error logs for failed logon attempts and other security messages.
Having a dedicated data server could mean that some of the high-level options built into the system would not include or protect your data. The data servers at VisionOnline include some of the most advanced fail-safe technologies available and are connected to a high availability Storage Area Network (SAN). To dedicate a server to a particular agency produces a single point of failure that our standard deployment strategy has been engineered to avoid.
Our Support staff has access to VisionOnline from their desktops for the purpose of aiding our customers. There are procedures in place that determine what technicians are and are not allowed to do, as well as internal auditing mechanisms to monitor activity. In addition, your permission is required for any "Shadow" request initiated by Support or any Administrator.
The Systems Engineers are responsible for the day-to-day operational state of the system. As the responsible party, they do have access to the entire system. This access is limited to the most senior engineers and help desk employees. All information on the system is off limits for any purpose other than what is necessary to maintain the environment. This includes the data in your agency folder, which is owned solely by you. Furthermore, access to your data is strictly forbidden unless prior authorization has been granted.
Application servers are shared and are placed into load balanced groups. All user connections are spread across the application servers based on active user count, maximum user count allowed, processor utilization, and memory utilization. Load balancing also allows us to add or replace servers without requiring any changes to the user's connection properties.
Denial of Service (DOS) attacks basically overwhelm the capacity of the target by flooding the device with more traffic than it can handle. DOS attacks are prevented by having policies in place on the equipment that cause it to ignore repeated requests from the same source(s) for services that can cause this type of flood effect (like PING). One of the benefits of being in a Tier 1 Data Center is that the network traffic coming into the center is monitored for these types of traffic patterns, and when a pattern is identified, the source ports are shut down before the destination equipment can be overwhelmed. In addition, the load balancers and firewalls that are in place at AppliedOnline can also recognize these DOS attacks and take corrective action to ward off problems.
For Vision printing, VisionOnline supports only those printers that are listed in the Applied Systems General Hardware Configuration Guidelines. For printing outside of Vision, e.g., printing email messages, VisionOnline will support most printers. We utilize a universal printing system on our servers and a client component on your workstation which allows us to support your printer without having to install special print drivers.
We can implement login time restrictions for your users that would prevent them from initiating a VisionOnline session outside of business hours.
For AppliedOnline, fax@vantage has split the fax doc management component from the communication component so that you can still send and receive faxes through your local phone number. The Remote Port Manager (RPM) software, which handles the fax communications, will be installed onto your existing fax@vantage server when you are ready to start faxing with AppliedOnline. All faxes generated by your agency, from any location, will flow to the RPM where they are transmitted. Inbound faxes are received by the RPM and uploaded to the AppliedOnline fax@vantage server. Inbound routing can be via email, to the fax@vantage client, or to a local printer.
Note: All items that you want to fax via fax@vantage must be accessible from the AppliedOnline environment. If you have an image, document, etc., on your local workstation that you want to email or fax through fax@vantage, you must transfer it to AppliedOnline via email or the AppliedOnline Upload Center.
Bandwidth guidelines for VisionOnline are outlined Workstation Requirements for VisionOnline section of the Applied Systems Configuration Guidelines.
Review the Remote Connection section of the Applied Configuration Guidelines for information regarding the type of Internet connections that are appropriate for use with AppliedOnline.
The local time zone of the data center (Central Time) is used for all email and file time stamps.
When you log off your VisionOnline session (by selecting Start, Logoff or by double clicking the Logoff icon on the desktop), all running programs, including Vision, are properly closed. Your Vision database connections are correctly cleaned up by the Vision program.
When you disconnect your VisionOnline session (by clicking the X in the upper right corner), your session is still active and your programs continue to run. If Vision is running when you disconnect, your database connections remain in place. Database Connections can cause problem for SQL Database Maintenance and backup programs; therefore, all disconnected sessions on VisionOnline are reset if they remain disconnected for more than five minutes. You should always log off your VisionOnline session when you have finished working. Logging off will better protect your Vision data and will ensure the functionality of users who are actively working.
We don't typically reset idle sessions, because resetting a session without properly exiting Vision could cause locks to be orphaned and could cause other Vision issues. However, idle sessions may be reset during any of the scheduled Maintenance periods --another reason that it is good practice to log off your session at the end of the day.
Also, most Internet Service Providers (ISP), routers, and firewalls have settings that can cause an inactive session to be dropped. If you find that your VisionOnline sessions are frequently being disconnected, check your Internet connection configuration.
Yes. In the interest of providing the best possible performance, security, and access for all users, we have implemented some restrictions on Internet web surfing. We do not restrict the sites that you may browse, but to protect against virus infiltration, we do not allow any downloads to occur except from sites that have been pre-approved. We also restrict streaming video and audio content. If you need to access sites with this type of connection, we ask that you do it from your local workstation and not through AppliedOnline.
Internet sites that use "cookies" to store user information regarding that site connection are stored within the user's personal profile space, so your "cookies" are protected on our system. Visiting websites from within the AppliedOnline session has the same level of security that you would have when visiting them from your office or home PC. And, Yes, Internet Explorer "favorites" are stored per user, so they will be saved too.
Please contact your Applied Systems Sales Representative for more information regarding third-party software installation.
Is Adobe Professional (Acrobat Writer) available on AppliedOnline?
No, Adobe Professional is not available in your AppliedOnline session. Adobe Reader is available. Vision also provides a PDF printer, which can be used to generate PDF output of ACORD forms.
The data is yours at all times. As such, you have the right to request a hard copy of that data at any time. A small fee may be charged to process the request.
If your data is configured to the latest released version of Vision, there is no in-house configuration charge.
This process is scheduled to minimize downtime. Our goal is one-day turnaround, barring any errors in the process. This means that if you sent your backup in on a Monday, Tuesday would be used to restore and validate the data, and access would be granted on Wednesday. During that time, you would still have access to your office system for read-only purposes.
Up to three monitors are supported in a Microsoft Local Area Network (LAN) environment. In a remote access environment, multiple monitors are supported only with Remote Desktop version 6 or higher.
Yes, you do, through an Applied Systems developed application, The Account Console (TAC). TAC provides designated users (Agency Administrators) within your agency the ability to perform administrative tasks like resetting login passwords and disabling login accounts without the need to place a Support call. Agency Administrators can also view which users are currently connected, send instant messages, view and clear open files, and log off sessions. Several Reporting tools are also included in TAC, like the Audit Report, which reports login and logoff times for each user; the Internet Usage report; and even a TAC Audit report, which lists all account changes that have been made by the Agency Administrator while in the TAC program. Finally, the ability to Shadow another user's session in real time gives your Agency Administrator improved troubleshooting and training capacity, right from his or her own desk.
Yes. The AppliedOnline Outlook email client can be configured to connect to another email server-- either your in-house Exchange server or another Internet email provider. The Configuring Outlook on AppliedOnline for Additional Mail Services document takes you through the steps required. However, we do require that the default Internet mail service remain in place so that we can contact you with notifications of maintenance schedules.
For AppliedOnline to communicate with your Exchange server, some registry changes must be made and specific ports must be opened on your firewall to accommodate the email traffic. Configuration documents for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 outline the changes required.
Global Address Book functionality is not included in the standard Internet email service offered on AppliedOnline. If you need to keep your Global Address Book, you may choose to keep your in-house Exchange server.
You can purchase Extended Network Accounts at a discounted rate for users who only need access to AppliedOnline for email and to use the Microsoft Office suite of products. Extended Network Accounts do not increase the number of Authorized Seats that can concurrently access Vision.
This technology may be possible if Exchange services are used. There are many variables that must be considered. Contact your Sales Representative for more details.
Can my existing mail file (.PST) be uploaded to AppliedOnline so I can access my existing messages?
We do allow users to transfer existing email .PST files to AppliedOnline subject to size restrictions and virus scanning. Contact Support for details and further assistance with this type of file transfer.
Yes, ConneXion is available for VisionOnline.
Yes. IVANS download functions the same way on VisionOnline that is does for you now. VisionOnline has a leased line connection to IVANS, which means that you don't have to worry about modem issues or busy signals.
That depends on the kind of download options that are supported by your vendor. If your vendor has a Web interface, you can connect to their website via the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon on your VisionOnline desktop. You can then download directly to your agency data directory on VisionOnline. If your vendor does not offer a browser interface, you will have to download using their software installed on your local workstation, just like you have been doing. After you download the files to your workstation, you will connect to the AppliedOnline Upload Center website to transfer the files to VisionOnline. (For more information, read AppliedOnline Upload Center.) Once the files have been copied (in just a matter of minutes), you can open a VisionOnline session and run the standard Batch Update From Files utility.
VisionOnline is capable of integrating with most rating companies that currently integrate with Vision.
Images are scanned on your local workstation using your existing hardware and software. Then you can transfer the image files to VisionOnline via the AppliedOnline Upload Center. Once the files are transferred, the Vision Attachment workflow functions the same way it does on a traditional network. Image files can also be emailed to your @insuremail.net email account, and manually saved to the Vision Unrouted Image folder.
Month-End does not have any significance in the backup scheme, and, therefore, does not affect your accounting methods or schedule. Run Month-End when it is most convenient for you.
Vision is designed to operate best with a minimum 800x600 screen size. Before you use the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection client to connect, set your monitor properties to 800x600, and set the Remote Desktop Connection, Display, Remote desktop size slide control to 800x600. Higher resolutions are also compatible with Vision.
Last Revised: August 21, 2013 11:13 AM