Key Components of a Modern Product-Agile P&C Policy Administration
More than just being built using the latest and greatest programming technology, modern systems enable insurers to achieve product agility by providing IT and business users with the ability to manage the entire product lifecycle, resulting in faster time to market and reduced costs.
Modern policy administration systems include product configuration at their heart, which enables insurers to "separate product from process" for "true" speed to market. Product information that was traditionally contained in various hard-coded legacy operational systems is instead externalized and stored in a central product repository that can be accessed easily by all systems and stakeholders. Insurers can inherit or assemble re-usable product components from the product repository to modify existing products or build new ones-in weeks not months-without affecting processes, which dramatically reduces the time it takes to get products to market.
A modern P&C policy administration system adheres to several specific criteria:
Rules and Tools-Based.
A rules and tools-based system provides a robust toolset that trained business users can use to configure, update, and extend the solution without IT involvement. Through a rules- and tools-based system, insurers can become self-sufficient quickly minimizing dependency on the vendor to make product changes; products and the entire product development process are highly configurable.
Centralized Product Configuration.
With product components stored in a central product repository that can be accessed easily by all systems and stakeholders, insurers can inherit or assemble re-usable product components from the repository to modify existing products or build new ones-in weeks not months.
Provides product lifecycle management capabilities
With visibility into the product development process, insurers can track and manage all tasks and key participants involved with developing and managing products to eliminate bottlenecks, balance workload and get quality products to market faster.
Includes an Intuitive, Web-based User Interface.
An intuitive interface enables users to learn about the system quickly and navigate through it easily, which improves user adoption rates and increases satisfaction. Being web-based enables producers and underwriters to access the system from anywhere, making it easier for producers to do business with you.
Enables Straight Through Processing and Supports a Balance of Automation and Underwriter Involvement.
Straight Through Processing is a critical foundation for online sales; it reduces the time between application and policy issuance by reducing manual touch points, which reduces errors and risk. In addition, automated underwriting streamlines your processes eliminating the errors that can result from duplicate data entry and redundant processes, allowing underwriters to focus on writing more profitable business. When required, modern systems can also provide insurers with the right balance between automated underwriting and human underwriter involvement for decision based underwriting requirements.
Built with Current Programming Languages, it Leverages a Service-Oriented Architecture and Supports Open Industry Standards.
Modern policy administration systems are built using the latest software development languages such as Java; a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) lets insurers choose best-of-breed solutions from different vendors and integrate them into a system that best suits the company's needs. SOA can be used to integrate one policy administration system with another, and it can link a policy administration system with multiple free-standing applications and middleware.
Supporting industry standards such as XML for data transport allows information to pass more easily between dependent systems which is critical for complex IT environments that must be agile and able to adapt quickly.
