Java and Service Oriented Architecture help leading insurer reach new markets

The new Java platform positioned the insurer to utilize new and growing aggregator sales as well as reduce service center costs via self-servicing functions. Moreover, the insurer was able to win new business opportunities as a result of the reduced time-to-market and lower costs the platform delivered through component-based reuse, which was an added advantage of the platform’s agile development methodology and industrialized design.

Client background This general insurer operates in multiple geographies with businesses in both mature and emerging markets.

Business challenge The insurer needed to go to market with a new product proposition for Motor—to exploit the commoditized nature of the direct motor business via the Aggregator Channel. The Aggregator market—via their dedicated portal—integrates with the respective insurer’s Direct Channel with an enhanced customer journey to drive additional take up in business and add-ons via the enhanced proposition.

The goals of this roll-out included getting a larger share of the aggregator market and gaining more affinity deals to increase revenues. An affinity deal is when one party seeks to add value for its existing customers by selling products and services (that it doesn’t currently provide) on behalf of another party looking to acquire new customers by using the strength of another organization’s relationship with its customers.

The insurer's Personal Line Insurance Business needed a major architecture overhaul to fulfill the business challenges in the Motor business.

Through a long history of engaging in successful projects with the client, Accenture developed a strong knowledge of the insurer’s products and industry. Plus, the insurer wanted to base its solution on Accenture’s Policy Administration Capabilities, of which only Accenture possessed the necessary specific technical detail to implement. Therefore, Accenture was the ideal choice with the right IT experience and skills to work on the existing architecture.

How Accenture helped Accenture helped the insurer implement a multi-channel platform partially custom-built on Java in order to support a service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach—using Accenture’s Policy Administration System as a basis for the new web architecture, which allowed 24/7 access.

The solution was comprised of a set of Web User Interface (UI) and Java component-based services that integrated tried and trusted systems with new sales channels to provide rich and robust insurance propositions to a wider customer base. The project utilized the new web architecture and a Spring technology stack (an open source framework providing infrastructural services support) that was designed to address complex architecture concerns (transaction management, logging, etc.), out of the box.

Accenture brought two unique aspects to building the solution:

• TheSOAapproachallowedreuseofall the original Policy system services by creating wrappers around the legacy system’s code. This meant that there was minimal change required for the legacy code, which made the migration to the new technology platform simpler and more predictable.

• Thewrappedservicescanandwerebeing re-used from a framework perspective across multiple Lines of Business.

• Accenturebuiltacustomdesignrepository (DR) tool to standardize and automate the design and build, and fix processes of the solution. The DR tool supported the capture and specifications of a variety of interfaces and interface types, with reporting and validation to facilitate an integral robust design.

Accenture helped a leading general insurer implement a new multi-channel platform partially custom-built on Java to support a service-oriented architecture. The result: greater market share and bottom line growth.

With the new system, the insurer would have over 130 services to support the customer journey across key insurance transactions in the value chain. The customer would have a new, easy-to-use interface to provide quotes, purchase policies, amend policies, and conduct renewals online with minimal service center support.

During the course of this complex, large-scale integration, Accenture provided the following services:

•Consulting

•Systemimplementation/integration

•Applicationmaintenanceanddevelopment (AM/AD)

•Changemanagement(guidingtheinsurer through the business change brought about by the new web architecture)

•Postgolivesupportandoptimizationsupport with other suppliers (e.g., IBM)

The Accenture team included 150 professionals at its peak and made use of the Delivery Centers for Technology in India and the Delivery Center for Technology in Madrid.

High performance delivered The Java platform positioned the insurer to utilize new and growing aggregator sales, handling 500,000 quote requests a day in Q1 2013, and increasing policy sales from 200 sales a day in August 2010 (initial go-live), to 1,000 a day in April 2013. The platform also helped the insurer to reduce service center costs and build brand loyalty by providing robust self-service to an increasingly tech-savvy customer base—all using a new, more efficient user interface with the new web architecture. Moreover, the insurer was able to win new affinity deals due to the reduced time-to-market and lower costs the platform delivered through component-based reuse, which was a result of the platform’s agile development methodology and industrialized design.

The sophisticated, enterprise-scale Java solution helped improve delivery quality across applications, reduced application development efforts and delivery costs, and leveraged emerging technologies to deliver an enhanced user experience. Due to the SOA approach (and how the SOA linked into the legacy system), existing services could be leveraged for new products and services.

Furthermore, the insurer also managed to have a premium brand migrated onto its new web architecture—which combined with the new business brought on due to the integration—helped achieve the initial goal of selling 400 policies a day (a number that was eventually exceeded).

Pleased with the results of this integration, the insurer started a new project in late 2012 to extend the web architecture to a number of its other businesses.

moneysupermarket.comxxxx

Web Phone Post

Contact Center Integration • Re-use CC client, integrate with Quote engine

• Re-use existing docs capabilities

Aggregator Websites

Web Architecture

Enterprise Service Bus

Back-end Systems

Finance MI MarketingPricingAnalytics

Address Lookup etc.

Contract Center

CC Client Docs

Affinity Partners

Partner1

Partner2

Partner3

AggregatorGateway

Brand 1

Brand 2

Brand 3

Brand 4

Service Fulfillment • Leverage processing strength • Leverage past investment • Evolve & replace

Business Mgmt. & Optimization • Monitor, measure, analyse

Business/Technical Integration • Re-usable business services • Consumerable by and front-end • Near real-time MI

User Experience • Agile & flexible platform • Scalable & standardised • Reduced cost/speed of change

Direct Web

Policy QuoteDynamicPricing

BB kk S tSyste s

Web Web Phone Phone Post Post

Aggregator Websites

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LDAP

WCM

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www.aggregator1.com

www.aggregator2.com

Customers

www.aggregator3.com

Architecture Overview

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About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 266,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.