Separate Product from Process for Product Agility

Traditional core processing systems hinder speed to market, with even simple insurance product changes taking months and new product development sometimes taking years. The value of a modern core processing system is its ability to "separate product from process".

In separating product from process, the insurance product information, data and rules, contained in various hard-coded legacy operational systems is externalized and stored in a central product repository that can be easily accessed by all systems and trained business users - providing unparalleled product agility.

Centralized configuration allows insurance products to be defined as components that can be re-used across lines of business and geographic regions. Through inheritance, insurers can re-use and configure these product components from the product repository to modify existing insurance products or build new ones-in weeks instead of months-without affecting processes. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to get products to market.

Separating product from process reduces implementation times radically; the first insurance product can be implemented within six months and subsequent products can be implemented within four to six weeks. Products can even be developed concurrently. Building insurance products from proven, well-tested components also reduces the risks involved when launching new or modified products, and it improves both governance and compliance by providing a clear audit trail of a product's history.

Rules and tools-based insurance product configuration enables trained business users to change and develop products. The end result is that insurance product design, development, and management can be controlled by the business- while IT is freed up to work on other initiatives-and true speed to market can be achieved.