Standard software and norms: a promising combination

Standards from the back end to the front end

As is well-known, modern insurers are increasingly using standard software for policy management in the digitization process – and some like to use it as a cloud solution as well. By doing so, they remain flexible, can develop new products more quickly, digitally streamline product-related processes, and keep IT costs under control over the long term as well. No one in particular among the numerous startups in the Insurtech industry came up with the idea of wanting to develop a standalone solution. Naturally, standard software also needs to be customized and, above all, filled with individual insurance products. And yet, the advantages are particularly obvious in policy management.

However, a modern back-end is only as good as its ability to showcase its advantages in the front end as well. What is the purpose of optimized back-end processes, which must be individually connected to sales channels and intermediaries? Ultimately, the best products are not very useful if cumbersome technical connections, long server response times and extensive adaptation efforts in case of changes and new products put front-end connections under never-ending construction.

Simply use BiPRO standards and call it a day?

"But there have already been norms and standards for this for some time!" is what the knowledgeable industry expert will interject at this point and thus naturally point out the path that is more evidently demanded by IT managers in insurance companies nowadays. Only very few insurers can and want to forego directly providing standardized and fully functional interfaces for comparison portals, platforms, groups, and sales partners. The norms of BiPRO e.V. (Industry Institute for Process Optimization) have prevailed as a standard in new and existing business processes over the past several years. Using these norms promises significant streamlining and automation of process landscapes that have often organically grown over the years, all of which have one thing in common: they are as diverse as all the companies that participate in them. To use the efficiency benefits, the increased structures must be made BiPRO-compatible. However, that requires a high amount of initial and maintenance effort. This is also considerable when using what are known as BiPRO adapters, a software solution for transferring the data format of individual formats to the standardized BiPRO format.

Policy management with "On-demand BiPRO"?

However, the efforts can be significantly reduced if a BiPRO standard on one side is accompanied by a defined data and process model of a standard software on the other side, such as those of in|sure products. Once configured, data transformations per adapter can directly and fully utilize the strengths of BiPRO standards in this case.

Does this bring us virtually maintenance-free "on-demand BiPRO"? No, definitely not. But it brings us significantly closer. Even if cleanly defined formats are prevalent on both sides of the transformation process, each insurer must have enough entrepreneurial leeway for illustrating individual products and processes. Furthermore, the transformation process should never again ruin the freedom obtained via a modern policy management system as it makes its way to points of sales and service. As a result, policy management as a standard solution without BiPRO at all is no longer an option for many IT experts in insurance companies.

The BiPRO adapter solution: Not "on-demand", but it's going in the right direction!

BISS, one of the early BiPRO protagonists, has developed a BiPRO adapter that is specially tailored to the demands of modern policy systems. The main difference with the classic BiPRO adapter for use with proprietary interfaces is first of all the connection — integrated in the product — to the standard software's generic APIs. Second, the difference lies in the prepared interfaces and processes for automatically accepting product configurations and transformation rules from standard software or from the artifacts exported from the same.

adesso insurance solutions and BISS are currently working on combining the in|sure and the BiPRO adapter XALEO at a corporate start-up in record-breaking time. Once this connection between in|sure and XALEO is made, it is clear that the full potential thereof lies in use at additional insurance companies.