—Dan McCoach, Head of North America Insurance, Life & Health, Celent
The importance of choosing the right policy admin system vendor
Insurance policy Administration System (PAS) modernization can be a career-making or career-breaking decision for life and P&C executives. It may only come around once in a generation, meaning that few life insurance executives have extensive experience navigating the complexities of choosing the right technology and vendor partner.
And the stakes are high. Consider that in many cases, an organization’s legacy systems are more than 20 years old and the new modern, policy admin platform should be expected to last just as long. Companies will have to live with whatever is selected for a long, long time. Policies sold decades from now will be administered on the system you choose today, a system maintained by the vendor you decide to partner with.
Following the best process, doing your due diligence, and involving the right analysts are all key pieces of the solution. But even when you do all of that, you’re still faced with a difficult reality:
Vendors will challenge your selection process at every step of the way from RFI/RFPs to evaluation to Proof of Concept. You’ve heard all the usual assertions before: our system is rules-based, no-code, configurable, end-to-end, cloud-based, etc… Of course, not all modern policy administration software is created equal.
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Potential problems arising from inflated vendor claims are present through the selection process. Consider what would happen if any of the following were compromised:
- New Insurance Product Development
- Configuration
- Integration Capabilities
- Cloud Compatibility And Upgradability
- PAS Suitability For Scale And Product Complexity
- Costs
- Implementation
- Increase Operational Efficiencies
- Data Migration
Even checking client references doesn’t guarantee the accuracy of policy admin vendor claims
And, a true understanding of a vendor’s actual capabilities can’t be derived just from their responses to your technical questions. And client references, while important, are usually not enough. Of course, in every case, a vendor will offer up the three clients they know will speak glowingly on their behalf. What you’re not going to be hearing about are the clients who suffered when projects ran long, over budget, or when integrations went badly, or communications broke down between the two sides.
So how do you engineer the selection process so that you create the best chance of choosing the right partner for the next generation platform?
Actionable advice on choosing the right policy admin vendor
At Equisoft, our 25 years of experience helping insurance companies implement policy administration systems, uniquely qualifies us to be able to offer: 12 specific, smart questions that leaders ask during the vendor selection process to get beyond a company’s assertions and unearth the truth about their ability to meet your specific needs.
Make these questions key elements of your selection to ensure you make the right choice for the next 20 years of your organization’s future. The work you do today—the smart questions you ask vendors and their clients—will pay off for years to come.
