Ecosystem
Background
Establishing an insurance company from scratch is a multifaceted challenge. APR was engaged by an InsurTech client at an exciting point in their journey. The client was operating as a managing agent, and had a solid AWS infrastructure with which they had developed cutting edge customer facing technology that was already delighting a large number of customers.
Project Aims
The challenge was to design the remaining part of the ecosystem, including claims processing, experience analysis, financial reporting, risk and compliance. This project was substantially different from typical actuarial projects for a few reasons:
- The scope covered the entire insurance company technology ecosystem; not just the actuarial processes.
- There were no legacy systems, meaning that there were fewer constraints and more room for creativity.
- At the beginning of the project, the client was mostly staffed by talented software engineers with limited knowledge of insurance company operations.
APR's Role
APR was engaged to fill any knowledge gaps and help produce a blueprint for the team of engineers. In particular, APR was asked to:
- Gather specific requirements and document each of the insurance operations.
- Consider Day One capabilities as well as the end state ecosystem.
- Propose solutions that: fit into the client’s infrastructure; are not limited by how things are typically done, and; leave the flexibility required to fulfil the client’s ambitious plans to reinvent certain aspects of the insurance market.
- Make sure everyone had a consistent view of the overall requirement and the scale of the work required under each of the options e.g. what it means to use Excel for reporting processes.
Outcome
The scope of APR’s role changed during the engagement as the client’s team grew and new requirements became known. APR’s flexibility was an important aspect of the delivery in this project. The specific deliverables included:
- A series of workshops that ensured the Client’s staff were engaged in the design process and that the knowledge would be retained within the firm.
- A detailed description of all the major operations and how they fit together, including a collection of diagrams / blueprints.
- Prototype tools for a few of the new processes: expense analysis, an actuarial valuation and planning model, mortality experience analysis.
- Evaluation of some key design decisions which ultimately led to a single design proposal.