Neutrinos NeuSprout – Product configurator, the way forward for insurers

Today, with all the disruptions in the markets and lack of face to face, personal meetings possible, the insurance sector has been forced to look at alternative ways of approaching and servicing their customers. The one area where many insurers face a challenge is the rapid time to go to market with new products. Working with traditional methods, insurers spend months if not years before they can launch a new product. This in turn leads to a loss in business and new opportunities. 

Some of the challenges faced by insurers today are:

Cost

• Higher OPEX cost for resources (developer/tester) 
• Multiple enterprise system enhancement

Longer Implementation

• Multiple system enhancement 
• Multiple dependencies to various vendor readiness
• Multiple resource interdependence

Pricing Impact Review

• Lack of market impact analysis on the take-up rate 
• Lack of trend analysis to improve product innovatively

Coding Quality Impact

• Various system limitation resulting in hard coding 
• Multiple template rules to memorize, adapt and enhance

Talent Expertise 

• High dependency risk to single resource for the gatekeeper of product details 
• Multiple technical expertise for multi-system source knowledge 
• Introducing a configurator into an organization requires a considerable investment of both time and resources. 
• Capturing knowledge to define configuration rules is time-consuming, whether undertaken by a consultant or by a company’s personnel

So, this gives rise to a question – “How will companies create customer loyalty going forward as products become increasingly commoditized and new digital entrants disaggregate customer relationships?” 

It is quite interesting to note that Gartner had predicted over a decade ago  “… approximately 40% of Type A insurers in the United States will purchase or build new product configuration capabilities by the year-end 2004”

So, what is this product configurator? It is a tool or a solution that enables insurers to incorporate all the elements in an insurance product so that the final product meets the user’s expectation, which in turn will help to cover all their requirements and needs.  Today, most product configurators work on the digital platform and include applications that one can use through the insurance company website or an app that works across smart devices [phone, tablet and others] and helps the insurers to configure a relevant and “perfect” product.

Opportunity for change, for transformation 

Neutrinos launched a product configurator called “NeuSprout” to address the challenges listed above. This is a comprehensive solution to manage product lifecycle including configuration, calculations, validations rules and integration. NeuSprout expedites traditional processes from months/weeks to mere days, which redefines the way insurers go about the business.

What are the main features within NeuSprout? Read on to know. 

• A complete set of pre-built multi-line insurance product configuration templates provided out of the box. These templates consist of product definitions, calculation models & validation rules, rates and reference tables.
• Modelling a flexible framework for rapid configuration of new or client-specific product models.
• For each line of business, the associated calculations and risk screens are externalized. For example, Life premiums include all base life calculations.
• Predictive Analysis
  
• Claims  Adjudication

The era of – Acturers and Product Configurators. Companies often use product configurators to fulfil these needs, as they allow you to create new products quickly, based on specific parameters. Product configurators, however, come with their challenges. Introducing these involve considerable investment of both time and resources. While some companies still rely on excel sheets, some others have invested in configurators, but they come with predefined rules. Largely, insurance companies run on legacy systems and find it hard to meet changing needs.

The main stakeholders in the business of insurance are the actuaries/insurers and underwriters. With a good product configuration system in place, they can define the product structure, covering all stages of the policy’s life cycle:

• Underwriting;
• Policy management;
• Collection management;
• Claims management;
• Reinsurance management. 

Giving insurers the ability to make modifications and corrections to the existing product list, and the ease of computing the premium coverage amount, the product configurator brings with it a few benefits. The system also allows insurers to create rules and use the traditional excel sheets to pull in data from whenever required. 

The main objectives of NeuSprout were,

• Integration managed through web services in a consistent and future proof manner.
• Backend and frontend system was integrated to consume NeuSprout outputs 
• Product portfolio can be managed efficiently across front and back-office applications
• Central product deployment with integration via web services /APIs
• Central product repository across the entire application ecosystem 
• Testing timeline reduced enabling product launch in a quick time
• Products designed and built by the business users, not developers
• Cost reduction through elimination of duplication process check

Key benefits of NeuSprout are, 

• Speed to market – Standardized product architecture. Centralized source for all product information & reduced redundancies in multiple system rules and calculation change
• Ease of Integration – Deployment of change / new developments to backend systems  & provide efficient, reliable & secure data exchange between multiple enterprise applications. 
• Reduce product time to market – By setting up centralized product specification
• Customer behaviour and buying pattern – Product configurator also allows companies to research and analyze the customer preferences and behaviour patterns to offer better underwriting services, therefore being a customer-centric approach. 
• Minimal coding and higher returns on investment 

With such a robust system in place, Neutrinos has been helping companies redefine their remote insurance sales and new product launch abilities. And do reach out to us if we can help you transform your product lifecycle and business.