Policy Admin Integration: Extending the Life of Core Legacy Systems
The policy administration system (PAS) is crucial to an Insurer’s business, but it is typically focused more on fulfillment and processing than on the marketing, sales and underwriting side of the business. Even a new PAS may not enable key initiatives such as agent collaboration, scaling your book of business, or entering new markets.
“Policy administration systems have delivered little to no value in helping insurers
underwrite complex products such as commercial and specialty lines.” – Gartner
If your PAS isn’t doing what you need, then you may need to consider replacement. But, this process involves discovering and reprogramming process rules and migrating rates and forms. It can take many years and millions of dollars to complete.
Underwriting is a core, strategic business process that should not be loosely handled by a PAS that “already does some underwriting.” As long as your legacy system is functional, and most of these systems are still solid, not to mention amortized, carriers should keep them humming and focus instead on a front-office, modern underwriting solution like the FirstBest UMS™ – a next-generation underwriting workstation combined with a business analyst workstation and a web 2.0 agent portal. The insurers can maintain a stable back-office operation, avoid the massive risk and cost involved in a core, legacy system replacement, and be able to focus on competing, innovating and growing the book.
If a carrier is looking for data management or product configurator capabilities, or if their PAS core processes can no longer deliver on requirements (e.g., multi-state policies, obsolete technological platforms), then the carrier may need to replace the legacy system. However, if a P&C carrier is seeking to better service their distribution channel in real-time, faster quoting, true collaboration, STP, and/or the ability to enter new markets—then deploying an integrated underwriting management system is a viable option to consider.
FirstBest UMS™ complements existing environments to improve and extend the life of core, legacy systems. It enables carriers to write more business and write better business while improving ease of doing business with distribution channels.