Are you a victim of a legacy system that makes it impossible to automate any part of your process? Does your system have no API that could connect with external platforms, excessive licensing or maintenance costs, and your data cannot be extracted without paying additional fees on top?

There is a better way to achieve efficiency, sustainability and success.

A new breed of insurtech startups are already transforming the insurance software landscape with streamlined quote and buy engines, configurable rating engines, and a rich set of API linkages to common third-party platforms. As the world moves ever closer to fully on demand micro insurance with short term policies, efficient and automated processing becomes paramount.

What are the challenges?

However, converting from an existing entrenched system to one of these agile newcomers remains a challenge. As a first step, you have to work out what you need the system to be able to do. Are you looking for full automation or simply would like to improve part of your existing process? Are you looking for a specific technology that helps your value proposition e.g. IoT for home, telematics for motor, or AI-powered chatbots for commercial lines?

Some specialist insurtechs focus on one of these areas each, while others aim to provide a complete system. Issues such as data migration and interfacing with your existing legacy system could be minimised or completely removed as part of this implementation.

There are many types of insurance software providers out there. SaaS solutions can be and have proven to be valuable to businesses, but the key question is – how does one select the right SaaS partner among a myriad of competing providers? It is, obviously, important to find a partner that has both industry as well as technical experience, but there are also other areas worth considering. For example, some businesses may want a comprehensive SaaS solution, while some may opt for a hybrid proposition to combine with some parts of their existing infrastructure. In the case of the latter, it is important to ensure that these are indeed compatible and can integrate as seamlessly as possible.

What should you look for when choosing your SaaS partner?

Below we list a number of areas that could provide a good starting point in your search:

• Openness – when choosing a vendor, transparency and communication is key. If they are local to you then visit their offices. If not, ask for a video meeting with key members of their team. You should also see a demo of their platform, if they don’t let you play around with it yourself but only give supervised walkthroughs or show videos then you should wonder whether their product really works as advertised.

• Recommendations – you should ask around within your industry to see whether your peers have used the vendor and what their experiences have been. At the very least the vendor themselves ought to be able to refer you to some of their existing satisfied clients. That way you can gauge their customer service.

• Exit clause – ask potential vendors about the exit clause. Will they lock you in for too long a period? How amenable are they to helping you port your data to another platform if you decide to leave? A confident vendor who believes in their tech won’t have a problem with the prospect of you leaving, since they will think their offering is worth staying for. Test this out!

• Tech – does the vendor’s technology have all the key features you require? If a platform is suitably mature you may not be too concerned about functionality but more about the skills of the team and the timeline that they can commit to. Make sure that you have a detailed contract to cover any eventuality in case the delivered platform doesn’t live up to your expectations.

• Team – checking the team’s credentials or experience could be a way to work out whether they can deliver this project in house. For example, if you want to build a chatbot that is integrated into your existing system, you would be better off working with a vendor that has both development expertise and insurance product knowledge, versus one that may be lacking in one of these areas.

There are other key factors to take into account such as cost, timelines, and whether they can commit to ongoing maintenance and servicing of the platform. It’s a good idea to shop around to compare prices and tech specs and find a balanced solution that fits your needs.

For a detailed and more insightful discussion and how we might add value to your business please contact us on info@tapoly.com or visit our website at https://www.tapoly.com/SaaS/