European Policy Administration Systems 2005: Life Insurance and Pensions Vendors

European Policy Administration Systems 2005: Life Insurance and Pension Vendors

Celent projects total spending on policy administration systems for European life insurance and pension vendors will reach $383 million by 2010 and profiles the vendors competing for market share in this growing market.

Competition in the Life and Pensions policy administration system (PAS) space in Europe is fierce as a result of new players entering the market. In the Celent report, European Policy Administration Systems 2005: Life and Pension Vendors, Celent profiles and compares 19 vendors, examines the adoption of new solutions, and projects overall spending on PAS.

Several new trends have emerged, according to the report. Over half of the systems reviewed in the report were developed using modern technology, with Java solutions most popular. And systems are now componentised, reflecting larger carriers use of component replacement to mitigate the risk of a large-scale end-to-end PAS replacement. There is also wide use of Web services and service-oriented architecture as a result of the search for flexible solutions that address modern-day problems.

But while new options are available, the adoption of the new solutions in the last three years has been slow, with single-digit sales resulting from low levels of spending on technology by most carriers. However, Celent projects spending will increase in the next two years when carriers of all sizes will have both the budget and the willingness to address the challenge of legacy replacement. "Total spending on policy administration systems will reach $383 million by 2010, with the largest year on year increases in 2006 and 2007," says Catherine Schmitt, senior analyst and author of the report.

The landscape may be challenging for vendors trying to stake a claim in an expanding market, but the time is right for carriers searching for new options. Buyers of PAS systems in Europe now have a wide choice of fully functional, componentised, modern solutions available. This report explores and compares the range of options available to carriers.

The report also uses Celents new ABCD Vendor View, which is a standard representation of a vendor marketplace designed to show at a glance the relative positions of each vendor in four categories: Advanced technology, Breadth of functionality, Customer base, and Depth of client services. Unlike a simple "four-quadrant" map, solutions in the upper right are not necessarily the best solutionsin an area as complex and idiosyncratic as policy administration, there is no one "best" for all cases. Insurers should consider which factors in breadth, technology, experience, and client service are most important to them, and use the profiles and comparative tables in this report to generate their own short lists. Only vendors that are fully profiled in the report are included in the ABCD Vendor View.

The vendors with full profiles are ALICE Software Service, Bravura Solutions, CGI, CSC, eBao Technology, EDS-SOLCORP, Exaxe, Financial Information Technology, FINEOS, Mastek, Percana, SunGard Sherwood, and Sapiens.

Vendors with limited profiles are SAP, Tata Consultancy Services, and Unisys.

The 79-page report contains 4 figures and 75 tables.

A table of contents is available online.

of Celent's Life/Health Insurance research service can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.