Policy Admin Vendor Competition Good for Insurers

The policy administration space is heating up here in the UK. Talk of eviscerated IT investment spending has been vastly overstated. Before the crisis really kicked off, insurers around the world were looking at how to address legacy core systems, and the level of RFI activity and policy admin systems deals supported this.  

The recent announcement of Allianz UK and TIA was an example of a large UK insurer taking on the challenge of the legacy drag effect. Today, this was followed by the announcment of AXA Commercial replacing the current mainframe system with Duck Creek’s Example platform.

Deal activity levels in the UK have seen a lull in the last twelve months, but Celent sees these two deals as a sign of the new times. Insurers will look to get back on track in IT investment as soon as possible, and most will have to face the challenge of replacing outdated core systems or at the very least, consolidating to a few of the best systems in house.

Both these examples highlight the investment that has been going on for sometime by policy admin vendors from outside the UK. Celent’s view is that the UK market has been underserved by PAS vendors for some time now, and an increase in competition can only mean more choices for the insurer.

This blog has been reprinted with permission from Celent. Catherine Stagg-Macey is a senior analyst in Celent's insurance practice, and can be reached at cstagg-macey@celent.com.

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