for Today’s Challenges
and Tomorrow’s
Opportunities
Today, social, technologi- cal, economic and political turbulence is creating disruption and opportunity at a startling pace. Many
insurance companies (insurers)
have focused solely on reducing
operational expenses through cost-cutting and have chosen to largely
ignore innovation as a potential
growth factor. Not surprisingly,
these companies now stand unprepared for the fast-paced
changes rippling through the market, placing them at a further competitive disadvantage.
A New Normal
This sustained, rapid pace of change has raised the bar
to a new level, thereby creating a new normal. Insurers
are challenged to compete effectively, remain profitable,
retain top talent, offer alternative distribution channels,
and increase customer-centricity in terms of products
and services. In the new normal, a long-term vision is
more critical than ever to insulating and “future-proofing”
business and IT investments, and to meeting the business
demands of today and tomorrow.
Insurers of all sizes and in all segments of the
industry are identifying ways to make visions reality. By
focusing on increasing underwriting profitability and
analysis, getting new products to market faster, heighten-
ing customer-centricity through portals and self-service
technologies, or creating rating flexibility, leading insur-
ers are transforming their businesses and investments
in new policy management solutions are key to this pro-
cess. These new solutions, which are swiftly conquering
legacy core administration systems in the marketplace,
help insurers accelerate progress toward their goals, while
delivering increased business value, market position and
return on equity (ROE).
According to recent analyst reports, and in spite
of the malleable mindset of insurance technology buyers,
economic reports and even company and policyholder
culture, 2011 will see pumped-up demand for modern
SOA, Java-based policy management solutions that not
only out-perform legacy systems, but offer new capabilities to compete in the new normal. Such systems are
designed to rapidly adapt to cyclical business changes,
build and deliver innovative products, services and real-time access, deliver customer and underwriting performance insight, all while maintaining a low total cost of
ownership ( TCO).
New Policy Solutions for the New Normal
Critical to choosing a new policy management solution
is selecting one that is functionally-rich, yet provides extensive configurability to meet business-specific requirements. It should include business process management
(BPM) capabilities, a modern user interface (UI), a robust
data model, support industry standards, and have an agnostic SOA platform with pre-built, reusable services.
Equally important, is extensive real-time access, mobil-
ity enablement, rapid product configuration and market
delivery, out-of-the-box rules, product templates and in-
tegration, embedded business analytics, reinsurance man-
agement, and a forward-thinking roadmap that anticipates
future business changes.
Recognized with a “positive” rating in Gartner’s
2010 MarketScope report on North American property
and casualty (P&C) policy management modules, Insurer
Policy, delivers these required elements with a healthy
dose of insurance industry expertise and the capabilities
of a BPO group to back it up. Also important is the fact
that Insurer Policy is a component in Innovation Group’s
award-winning Innovation Insurer suite, an integrated
platform with best-of-breed components (policy, claims,
analytics) using a single data model, rules, process and
configuration toolset.
Based on a business architecture model, Insurer
Policy includes business functionality and intellectual
property (IP) developed over 20 years, but built on a new
modern, 100 percent Java, SOA architecture from the
ground up. Insurer Policy includes customer relationship
management (CRM), product configuration and management, rating, quoting, underwriting, case management,
policy issuance, service, billing, financials, compliance,
reinsurance and integrated analytics. It provides a combination of full-service capability and flexibility, with out-of-the-box direct portals for agents, customers and direct
sales. Most importantly, Insurer Policy offers delivery options including on-premise, ASP, BPO or SaaS, critical for
the new normal.
P&C insurers thriving in the new normal know
policy system replacement with flexible delivery options
is crucial to survival, competitive positioning and future
agility. Insurer Policy provides the flexibility required to
Denise Garth
By Denise Garth
WhIlE IT IS PRETTy MUCh ACCEPTED that change is constant, the speed at which change occurs fluctuates dramatically. In terms of insurance, the last few years have seen change explode in unprec- edented, unpredictable and uncontrollable ways, putting an end
to an era in which minimal change reflected a status quo in the industry.
