What software package would you use......

[timheger]

Hello-

If time poster here....

I recently joined an agency as their CIO/CTO to help them bring to market a product that if successful will have us handling 150,000+ life policies. This is a brand new agency formed by several seasoned insurance professionals so there isn't any existing systems or clients to convert - it's all greenfield. The agency might write some P&C but mostly we will be focusing on gaining additional clients (who each will bring with them 50,000+ employees).

-Would you suggest a hosted solution or one which requires us to purchase and maintain our own hardware?
-Open standards like Java or a proprietary system?
-Web browser based or think client?
-Integrated accounting? If "No" - what accounting package do you use?
-What level of reporting do you currently use, is it easy to add your own reports?
-Would you suggest the ability to generate your own business analytics?
-Insurance company will do the billing (added after original post)
-Limited interaction with employees but would like to have web based portal when we do need to interact with them (added after original post)
-SAS 70 compliant and PCI if credit card payments will be taken (added after original post)

Of course I have a 1,000 more questions.... any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated.

Tim

[williduke]

For openers I have no specific software package to recommend, but I do have some questions you might want to consider.

Will you be doing the billing or will the insurance company be doing the billing?

Personally I would not even consider a system that is not hosted. Going forward the improvements will all be there in a hosted system without you having to get in sync or pay for them individually.

Do you want to be able to interact with your customer or their employees through the system? Or is this just for you interactions with your insurance companies and in house?

Open standards are good but I do not know if any system actually has them.

Java or not does not matter much anymore, just that it is browser based.

For browser based solutions be certain it supports not just Internet Explorer but also FireFox, Safari, Chrome and the Blackberry Storm browsers.

For hosted solutions try to find one that is SAS 70 compliant.

[Rus]

Why not use Salesforce.com and a strong document management software package?

[mica.cooper]

I have to be blunt. These are all great questions. As the CIO/CTO you would not be asking them, you should be answering them. This is basic CIO 101 type questions that anyone doing IT for 10+ years could easily answer. I would suggest that if your group is serious about success, they consider hiring someone who knows these answers. To me, it sounds like your trying to get us to do your work for you.

[jpmorgan5150]

We are a small P&C agency - 10 employees. We went with Nexsure after examining the options.

That said, you should really consider SalesForce.com. They have a life insurance plugin and also integrate with different accounting systems. Sounds crazy, but you can also integrate VOIP phones with their system so the customer account is pulled up based on the caller ID.

From a quick moving standpoint, they are LIGHTYEARS ahead of the other insurance industry vendors. They provide a ton of metrics and you can process and handle life insurance policies decently.

If they could integrate ACORD apps I would consider them; one of the management system vendors that understands policy management (and most really don't) could make a very, very good program using their Force.com platform...if the insurance industry had any tech skills!

Hope that helps!

[timheger]

I have to be blunt. These are all great questions. As the CIO/CTO you would not be asking them, you should be answering them. This is basic CIO 101 type questions that anyone doing IT for 10+ years could easily answer. I would suggest that if your group is serious about success, they consider hiring someone who knows these answers. To me, it sounds like your trying to get us to do your work for you.

Arrogance is assuming you have all the answers.... that's way I like to ask a lot of open ended questions. It's interesting you can come to such an opinion about my process and experience from a single posting - you must be an "amazing" person to work with.

I have been doing research on Gartner, Forrester, various and sundry Insurance IT websites, blogs and webzines. Each place has their resident bully who likes to let you know just how smart they are... you must be IJ's. In my 15+ years of analyzing, recommending and implementing enterprise software solutions I have learned that there are many correct solutions to any problem and often we become blinded by our preferences (mine is open source java based applications). In order to make sure I am seeing beyond my experience I like to pose fairly simple questions as not to taint the answers. The responses I would get if I ask for suggestions for open source java applications would be significantly different, and far less valuable, than if I just asked based upon a few high level requirements.

But of course you already know this being the IT sage that you are....

If anyone else has any suggestions or opinions I would truly appreciate your time and experience.

Tim

[mica.cooper]

Actually,
Your questions are too open and vague to answer. Only someone that worked in the office could answer them. Lets take "Open standards like Java or a proprietary system?" This really depends on how much money, staff, time, etc. We don't know that so recommendations are very difficult. It brings up questions like:
- Do you have your own programmers?
- Do you intend to hire or use programming services?
- Do you intend to commercially sell software or service?
- Do you have commercial experience?
- What is the timeframe for implementation?
- What is the acceptable level of risk?
- What is the attitude for vendor lock in?
- Is open source acceptable or just open standards?
- What software packages might need integrated?

Your questions only bring more questions. This is not bullying or arrogance but experience. I have seen far too many projects fail due to inexperience. The question shows that. FYI, Java is a language, ACORD is a standard.

[timheger]

Actually,
Your questions are too open and vague to answer. Only someone that worked in the office could answer them. Lets take "Open standards like Java or a proprietary system?" This really depends on how much money, staff, time, etc. We don't know that so recommendations are very difficult. It brings up questions like:
- Do you have your own programmers?
- Do you intend to hire or use programming services?
- Do you intend to commercially sell software or service?
- Do you have commercial experience?
- What is the timeframe for implementation?
- What is the acceptable level of risk?
- What is the attitude for vendor lock in?
- Is open source acceptable or just open standards?
- What software packages might need integrated?

Your questions only bring more questions. This is not bullying or arrogance but experience. I have seen far too many projects fail due to inexperience. The question shows that. FYI, Java is a language, ACORD is a standard.

Here's my answers to your questions... thanks for the questions.

- Do you have your own programmers?
Yes -will outsource the initial installation to the vendor and then existing staff will do maintaince.
- Do you intend to hire or use programming services? Both - Will need to add to staff depending upon what standard I go with J2EE or MS based.
- Do you intend to commercially sell software or service?No
- Do you have commercial experience? My partners have significant insurance expertise in commercial, P&C and Life.
- What is the timeframe for implementation? We would like to have our first client live by Q3 09
- What is the acceptable level of risk? Software vendor risk - low to medium low. Technology risk medium and time to market medium.
- What is the attitude for vendor lock in? I really don't like vendor lock in as it puts all the leverage with the vendor. At a minimum I will expect a full set of documented API's based upon a technology that has a significant number of developers already available in the market such as Java or MS. The vendor solution must also be modular so that if we find a better point solution it can be implemented via webservices, XML, SOAP, etc.
- Is open source acceptable or just open standards? Either one is acceptable - open source has it's drawbacks but at a minimum I would expect to be able to extend the product without the involvement of the vendor - no black box solutions.
- What software packages might need integrated? I see this as having three distinct buckets of functionality - the process to manage the information between the governmental agency and my company, secondly managing the business and lastly between our business and carriers. The optimal solution would cover the entire life cycle from end to end but that's highly unlikely so having an integration layer based upon XML, SOAP or webservices becomes a must.

[mica.cooper]

The question about commercial was intended to mean, do you have experience producing software for the commercial software market.

The answers here point to using a commercial software package which is lower risk and shorter timeframe. Developing one is high risk. I also suspect you don't have the budget to hire several competent developers at $100+K each. Hiring lesser developers also puts the project at high risk. Since you don't intend to sell it, it doesn't seem like developing software is cost effective.

I think you might consider hiring developers to add on to a service like Salesforce. These developers will cost less and take less time to meet your needs.

[timheger]

The question about commercial was intended to mean, do you have experience producing software for the commercial software market.

The answers here point to using a commercial software package which is lower risk and shorter timeframe. Developing one is high risk. I also suspect you don't have the budget to hire several competent developers at $100+K each. Hiring lesser developers also puts the project at high risk. Since you don't intend to sell it, it doesn't seem like developing software is cost effective.

I think you might consider hiring developers to add on to a service like Salesforce. These developers will cost less and take less time to meet your needs.

Thanks for the clarification - I have and am working in the enterprise software industry right now focusing on extending commercial packages to meet the requirements of the client. The vast majority of the packages I work with are Java based. The usual implementation team can be as large as 50 developers with the average being around 20 (both off and on shore). I agree that to develop a completely net new application would be crazy so I am looking to find a 70%+ solution and custom develop the balance to meet our unique business requirements.

I haven't worked with SF in 4 or 5 years and will take a look at the current offering - honestly wouldn't have ever thought of looking at them.

[jpmorgan5150]

As I mentioned, we looked at Salesforce. From the time I first saw them a couple years ago to now they have completely upgraded their offerings. They have been impressively quick.

[angelov_2]

I work in big insurance company Vienna Insurance Company and we use the best insurance software which name is INSIS http://www.insis.bg for contacts Bulgaria,Sofia Cherny vrah 16 phone +359 889053006

[lucia]

I can tell you that there is a system called InsFocus which is a very complete package for insurance companies. Its main feature is insurance analytics or the so called insurance business intelligence and supports various business areas such as underwriting, claims, reinsurance, actuarial, accounting and marketing .

[Rainmaker]

I have seen a lot of agencies brag about spending north of $1,000,000 on developer fees for creating their own CRM's because they have such 'unique' needs. Tragic. There are so many 'off the shelf' solutions that are hosted, and have the ability to be modified (either by you, you and the solutions internal team, or by you and an external consultant) for a fraction of the costs associated with a completely custom developed solution.

So I suggest a hosted off the shelf solution that can be easily modified to suit any uniqueness to your firm and it's needs. I myself have been extremely impressed with Salesforce.com.

Food for thought.