Policy Administration Projects Still Salient

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Columbia, S.C. — A survey probably isn’t necessary to confirm policy administration as a top-of the mind concern for insurers. Indeed, the results of Fiserv Insurance Solutions’ third annual polling not only confirm the notion, but note that the trend is upward.

While respondents queried about plans for core system projects have placed policy administration at—the top for all three years, the percent rose to 87%, up from 75 % in the 2007 survey.

Likewise, claims projects, the second place response following policy administration with 44%, have also increased steadily for three years.

As for technologies, service oriented architecture/service integration was the dominant category (55%) in the responses about most important technologies. Straight through processing and predictive analytics were both identified as very important technologies for the participating companies’ business drivers. Also identified as Important were electronic bill presentment and payment technology, workflow integration, improved claim management, and less expensive operating platforms and server virtualization.

Interestingly business process management (50%) outranked data accessibility layer technology (32%) in importance, which is a reversal of their rank in 2007 and perhaps an indication that insurers are looking to processes optimization as a boost to the bottom line as the soft market lingers.

Considering the primacy of policy administration and claims, the results seem indicate that insurers are considering technologies to improve service and support business needs, while realizing process efficiencies. “The results show a focus on efficiency with strong interest in diverse systems working together easily and in component-based architecture,” says Todd Eyler, chief technology officer of Fiserv Insurance. “Creating system interfaces eats up large blocks of time, and insurers are interested in technology that solves that challenge so they can work on significant issues like customer service and business management.”

Source: Fiserv Insurance Solutions

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