However, Thelma is now being marketed to other industries as "eCommerce in a Box" due to the speed and ease with which it can be configured and implemented for intelligent 2-way data interchange between organisations in any industry, or internally within large organisations, whereby a range of message types involving different data formats and standards, need to be moved back and forwards among a broad array of new and old ("legacy") hardware and software systems. Each participant in the "connected community" can build their own "intelligence" into the system through Thelma's rules-based engines.
"eCommerce in a Box"Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the different modes of deployment for Thelma?
- How is Thelma licensed?
- What is a "transaction clearinghouse"?
- Why is Thelma called an "intelligent" clearinghouse?
- Why is Thelma called an "any-to-any" clearinghouse?
- What about privacy and security?
- What is Thelma's technology platform?
"eCommerce in a Box"
To ensure generic configurability and to allow it to overcome the traditional barriers to business-to-business data interchange,
Thelma was designed around eight key functional considerations:
- Configurable to carry any type of data payload in any standard
- Real time or batch transactions
- Senders and receivers can have different technology platforms and be using different data standards
- Intelligent data extract and upload into back office business systems
- Rules-based decision tree analysis of data that can continuously improve as history develops
- Each trading partner's specific business rules can be applied to the data
- Full electronic audit trail of transactions
- Secure "chat room" stored within each transaction for sender & receiver queries
Frequently Asked Questions about THELMA
What are the different modes of deployment for Thelma?
Thelma can be configured to cover the full spectrum of eCommerce situations:
- Business-to-Business (B2B) exchanges – any situation where a business wants intelligent 2-way exchange internally or with other trading partners:
- Data aggregation: data extract, validation, translation, rules-based analysis, routing, upload, response, audit trail, issues tracking
- Transaction interchange: complex 2-way business interchanges; audit trail; issues tracking
- Mobile applications: connectivity with field personnel via hand held devices for data collection; submission / approval of work orders, safety certificates;
- Business-to-Consumer (B2C) portals – any situation where a business wants 2-way interaction with customers:
- Business "push": product / service information or results; invoices; reminders (email, sms); catalogues; special offers
- Business "pull": consumer profiles / preferences; contact details; payments; data collection
- Consumer "push": product orders; application forms; claims / payments; profile information
- Consumer "pull": membership / eligibility information; product information; test results; financial statements
- Middleware – any situation that requires interoperability between different technology platforms, between different organisations, or between divisions of the same organisation
Thelma is not sold as software, but rather licensed as a "hosted service", sometimes called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). There are distinct advantages of Thelma-SaaS for businesses:
- No software to purchase, which removes selection and buying risk;
- No version issues, the application evolves with Customer's business;
- ICSGlobal hosts*, operates and supports the solution to the Customer's requirements
(*note all or part of the solution (eg database) can be hosted in customer's facilities) - Customer can brand the application to look like their own;
- customers maintain ownership of the end-to-end data interchange processes;
- ICSGlobal manages risk, compliance, performance, updates, etc
- A tailored solution provides customers with economies of scale allowing for better quality components, tools and support
What is a "transaction clearinghouse"?
A "transaction clearinghouse" could be likened to an electronic post office, routing electronic transactions between senders and receivers. An everyday example is drawing cash out of an ATM that belongs to a bank other than your own. The transactions need to be "routed" from the other bank to your bank, and back again. This is what a clearinghouse does.
Drawing cash out of an ATM is also a good example because the various transactions involved in one cash withdrawal can be likened to those in financial transactions associated with an episode of patient healthcare:
- Step 1: check with your bank or credit card to make sure sufficient cleared funds are available (eHealth = "eligibility check")
- Step 2: deduct the requested amount from your account (eHealth = "claim")
- Step 3: write a receipt into your account for the deduction (eHealth = "remittance advice" or "EOB" (explanation of benefit))
Why is Thelma called an "intelligent" clearinghouse?
Transaction clearinghouses can be very basic or "dumb" in that they don't do anything to the transaction other than simply pass it to the addressee.
Thelma however is highly "intelligent", as it can be configured or "taught" by a series of rules engines to perform whatever functions are necessary in order to move any type of complex data transaction between large numbers of senders and receivers, each with different technology platforms.
Why is Thelma called an "any-to-any" clearinghouse?
Because just about every technology platform developed over the past thirty years is still in use somewhere in every health system, Thelma needed to be able to connect them all which is why it was designed as a flexible, configurable "any-to-any" transaction exchange platform.
Thelma's "any-to-any" capability means that it can be configured or "taught" to send and receive any type of electronic transaction, in any data format, between any senders and receivers. The table below summarises the key functionality within Thelma that enables this.
| Thelma Function | Description |
| Switching and Routing | Intelligent routing and tracking of transactions between senders and receivers |
| Translation | Converting transactions to different formats if the sender's format doesn't match the receiver's. There are dozens of different transaction formats and standards in healthcare, and hundreds of variations of these. |
| Code mapping | Converting data values as requested by senders and receivers allowing data to be loaded into their systems automatically eg convert M to Male |
| Batching / Unbatching | Some older technology platforms require that transactions have to be sent in batches rather than in real time. Thelma has to unbundle batches to perform any tasks on individual transactions, then re-bundle for on sending. If a batch contains transactions for multiple recipients, it has to be split into a batch for each recipient which is then tracked and managed by recipient. |
| Validation / Analysis | Check the data in each field meets the receiver's business rules, and perform any analysis or tests on the data, as requested by the receivers, to validate that the transaction is "valid" |
| Reconciliation | Reconciling what is sent against what is received. eg to check that payments equals the amount claimed |
| Extraction / Posting | Thelma has sophisticated data extraction & posting tools for connecting to customer's business systems. These tools make customer connections fast and simple. |
| Electronic Audit Trails | Allows users to search, query, view & archive / retrieve transactions |
| Security | Thelma can cater for all data security standards. As a minimum, Thelma utilises "Internet banking level" security. |
| Workflow | Thelma can be "taught" how and when to combine any of the above tasks to replicate each customer's existing business processes and workflow |
What about privacy and security?
From a security point of view, THELMA uses the same level of security as Internet banking.
From a privacy perspective, ICSGlobal is experienced in conforming with the privacy requirements of various countries, which don't seem to vary very much. In short, privacy legislation is about ensuring that data is not used for any purpose other than that for which it was originally intended, without the owner's consent. The privacy principles to which THELMA and its customers agree to operate under are written into our THELMA User Agreements, and before any party can send or receive data via THELMA, they must sign this User Agreement and in doing so commit to these privacy principles.
What is Thelma's technology platform?
THELMA is a proprietary solution, built, owned and operated by ICSGlobal. THELMA was built using the latest Internet application development technologies such as Java and XML on a J2EE platform. It is hosted on a Unix-based Sun/Solaris platform, providing a secure, high-availability, high-capacity, industrial strength service. Both the hardware and software have been designed to scale to accommodate any volume demands