#3 Deadly Sin of P&C Policy Admin
Ignoring Future Requirements
My previous blog posts in this series detailed two serious property and casualty (P&C) administration “sins”: treating policy admin like unrelated business requirements and designing a solution from within the context of a single product.
Equally as damaging is sin #3: assuming you’ve designed the entirety of the product.
When it comes to the development of P&C policy administration systems, the old adage that, “The most important requirement is the one you haven’t thought of yet” applies. Policy admin systems take time to build and they’re designed to last. That means it’s inevitable that requirements will shift during the life of the system. Things change and opportunities arise. If an insurance carrier’s system wasn’t architected with change in mind, they’ll be hamstrung in their ability to respond. A system cannot be designed to meet only the needs of the current product structure.
Let’s take the example of adding the option of trailer coverage to an existing personal automobile product. If the policy admin system was built inflexibly, changing the product becomes a major project, if it’s possible at all. With a flexible, adaptable system — one designed with change in mind — it’s a matter of simple configuration.
Product specifications and options aren’t the only requirements that change. Distribution methods are constantly evolving and expanding. Inorganic growth often necessitates adjustments throughout the policy admin system. An insurance software system built without considering these possibilities can cause opportunities to be lost or squandered.
That’s why Sapiens’ suite was designed to anticipate and embrace product evolution to allow and support changing structures — even ones that haven’t been conceived of yet. When the time comes for a tweak, it’s configuration, not a full-scale coding effort.
Stay tuned for sin #4 in this series.
For information on all the P&C policy admin sins, please check out my NEW white paper: The Seven Deadly Sins of P&C Policy Administration.
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John Pettit John Pettit is the head of Sapiens’ North American P&C Insurance Platform, with nearly two decades of experience in the P&C insurance market. He previously served as the founder, CEO and president of Adaptik Corporation, a North American insurance software firm that was acquired by Sapiens.