Thoughts on the approach to modernising legacy portfolio management/processing applications in the insurance industry

1. 1
Insurance Application Modernisation
v1.0 – 2015-12

2. 2
Brian Maguire – brian@budavar.com
http://www.budavar.com

3. 3
Modernisation – The Challenges
• $m’s spent encapsulating business logic and rules into code
• Difficult to justify a full systems replacement (risk, impact, result)
• Many organisations are advocating “Transformation (essentially
Code translation)” led initiatives.
• This approach is both flawed and precarious
• It is Flawed in that;
– Rules encapsulated in language-A are translated into language-B
– Translating procedural languages to Java, C#, etc means pushing a
procedural model into an OO model without any benefits
– It results in an OO model based on program structure of the original
system and not a real world model based on the business
– It leads to a system that is incomprehensible to original team and a
complete mess to any new developers in the targeted language
• It is Precarious in that it presents a false sense of hope

4. 4
Architecture View – Business Focused
Finance
(GL, AR, AP, etc)
Reporting,
Analytics BI
Personal and
Environmental
Data Capture
Correspondence
Management
Security Access
BPM Work
Flow
Business Rules
Integration
Management
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
Commission
Sales Channel
Management
Product
Management
Actuarial
Governance, Risk
Compliance
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS – Industry Specific
TIER 2 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – SUPPORT THE BUSINESS – Industry Specific
TIER 3 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – CONTROL FOUNDATIONAL – Non-industry Specific

5. 5
Architecture View – Business Focused
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS – Industry Specific
Policy Unit
Management
Automated
Transactions
Billing
Collections
Policy
Management
On-line
Transactions
….. …..….. …..…..

6. 6
Single Core Application – High Investment – Code Driven Configuration
Architecture View – Today’s Environment
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Commission
Sales Channel
Management
Product
Management
Actuarial
Governance,
Risk
Compliance
TIER 2 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – SUPPORT THE BUSINESS
Finance
(GL, AR, AP,
etc)
Reporting,
Analytics BI
Personal and
Environmental
Data Capture
Correspondence
Management
Security Access
BPM Work
Flow
Business Rules
Integration
Management
TIER 3 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – CONTROL FOUNDATIONAL – Non-industry Specific

7. 7
Modernisation Goals
• The Goal should be to deliver “Modernization” not “Translation”
• Modernization is a path to;
– Reduce Cost on new initiatives (Products, Distribution channels, etc)
– Release business rules from code into configuration models
– Protecting core value built into the existing application stack
– Decommission of some legacy functions and integration of modern
components into the overall solution
– Present a modern UI and UX to the user and client community

8. 8
Modernisation Architecture Principles
• The architectural principles can be referred to as “Separation of
Interests” and “Application Layers”. The target is to follow a roadmap
that;
– Delivers agility in meeting market needs
– Mandates a rapid rollout of modernised UI and UX
– Provides protection of “perceived value” from spend to date
– Enables flexibility in choice of technology components that meet business
needs
– Results in a modern integrated solution stack
– Protects the business from the hassles of technology change
– Involves the business fully in the delivery of the business focused
initiatives
– Transitions to the desired state over a maximum 2-3 year timeframe

9. 9
Modernisation Execution Requirements
• Demonstrated and proven knowledge of the business vertical being
addressed
• A fully functional and easily configurable UI / UX component that
enables rapid transition to a modern experience for the user
community
• Deep knowledge of the incumbent legacy application(s)
• A proven set of components to provide rapid configuration and
management capabilities in key areas that will provide the best
positive impact to the business
• A solid roadmap that does not fundamentally change for each client
• A core team of “experts” who truly understand the challenges from
business, application, architecture and technology perspectives
• A toolset that allows rapid legacy application analysis, rule extraction
and code refactoring

10. 10
Building Out a Roadmap
• Identify the key areas of pain
• Focus on fast value that will have a positive impact on the business
• Be seen to deliver
• Publish the roadmap and communicate progress challenges
• Run the project outside of normal project channels and
administration
• Re-use, before Buy. Before Build

11. 11
Deliver a Modern UI / UX
UI / UX Layer Focused on Insurance Transactions
Integration Layer working with Web Services or JSON API’s
Browser Based Mobile Ready Process FocusedSocial
Conformity
Secondary
Systems for
additional relevant
data, etc
Foundational
applications for
rules, documents,
etc
• Legacy system will be service
enabled via;
– Business Transaction wrapper API’s
– Transaction decomposition

12. 12
Single Core Application – High Investment – Code Driven Configuration
Architecture View – Primary Areas for Componentisation
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Commission
Sales Channel
Management
Product
Management
Actuarial
Governance,
Risk
Compliance
TIER 2 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – SUPPORT THE BUSINESS
Finance
(GL, AR, AP,
etc)
Reporting,
Analytics BI
Personal and
Environmental
Data Capture
Correspondenc
e Management
Security Access
BPM Work
Flow
Business Rules
Integration
Management
TIER 3 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – CONTROL FOUNDATIONAL

13. 13
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS – Industry Specific
Policy Unit
Management
Automated
Transactions
Billing
Collections
Policy
Management
On-line
Transactions
Architecture View – Primary Areas for Componentisation

14. 14
Single Core Application – High Investment – Code Driven Configuration
Architecture View – Secondary Areas for Componentisation
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Commission
Product
Management
Actuarial
Governance,
Risk
Compliance
TIER 2 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – SUPPORT THE BUSINESS
Finance
(GL, AR, AP,
etc)
Reporting,
Analytics BI
Personal and
Environmental
Data Capture
Security Access
BPM Work
Flow
Integration
Management
TIER 3 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – CONTROL FOUNDATIONAL
Sales Channel
Management
Correspondence
Management
Business Rules

15. 15
Core Insurance
Processing
Policy ClaimsNew Business
Party
Management
Prospect and
Quotation
Management
TIER 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS – RUN THE BUSINESS – Industry Specific
Policy Unit
Management
Automated
Transactions
Billing
Collections
Policy
Management
On-line
Transactions
Architecture View – Secondary Areas for Componentisation

16. 16
Architecture View – Technical Conversion
Convert all remaining transactions
(which are essentially batch) to be
initiated by a generic transaction
engine
Convert the DB to
be SQL DDL driven
if not already done
Refactor the platform specific
COBOL code to a standard version
such as micro-focus
Version control and change
management are handled via standard
Git or SVN tools

17. 17
Thank you