If a vendor is truly using new technology, it should be able to demonstrate an insurer's product running on its system as part of the sales process. "Since one of the tests of new technology is flexibility, buyers should put the vendor to the test and require a proof of concept or test drive".

Buyers also can look to vendors to see through the hype and get to the nuts and bolts of a system. "Another must-do is to speak to other insurers who have implemented the vendor's technology," he adds. "The real-world implementations tell the most complete story -- both the good and the bad."

Decisions such as the one made by The Main Street America Group to select rules-based policy systems built on Web-based platforms such as J2EE or Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.) .NET are likely to become more common because "the new generation of policy administration systems substantially delivers on the long-standing promise of software that gives the business greater control," "This new generation [of vendors] has focused very hard to define what is core to a policy admin system and what is ancillary, and they're providing it in a services-oriented environment that can speak very readily to other services and systems to provide the ancillary capabilities."

The result is a degree of capability unmatched by legacy systems for providing -- and further driving -- the higher levels of functionality increasingly demanded by distributors and end customers. Newer systems exceed older in their abilities to quickly deliver more-complex products, extend services to agents, provide an account rather than a product view of customers, and incorporate a wider range of data from external sources to drive more-sophisticated underwriting.

ADORESOFT