European Policy Administration Systems 2007: General Insurance Vendors
Abstract
Detailed profiles and comparisons of 14 vendors and limited profiles of an additional 20 vendors reveal policy administration systems are becoming cheaper, more flexible, and increasingly offered with .NET.
There are a wide range of choices of policy administration systems among both established vendors and entrants. This market is changing due to consolidation among European vendors. One notable example, the acquisition of Sirius Financial Services by Software Solutions Partners, will change the UK vendor landscape for both brokers and insurers. Celent expects this evolution will continue as a result of the injection of private equity, initial public offerings, and more acquisitions, according to a new report, , Celent's second report on the European vendor landscape for general insurers.
"As prices drop, implementations become quicker, and vendor options become more plentiful, now is indeed a very interesting time for general insurers to be considering a new policy administration system," says Catherine Stagg-Macey, senior analyst in Celent's insurance practice and author of the report.
Entrants offer more flexible pricing models, moving away from per module/user to the number of policies processed or a percentage of the premium. Technical flexibility has increased. Solutions offer multiple integration options and many operate on more than one platform. More .NET offerings are available in 2007 than there were in 2005, reflecting the general market acceptance of both technologies.
Celent's new report is designed to help insurers understand this marketplace. The report contains detailed profiles of 14 policy administration systems and limited profiles of 20 additional systems. The report uses Celent's 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 solutions--in an area as complex and idiosyncratic as policy admin, 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 shortlists. Only fully profiled vendors are included in the ABCD Vendor View.
The vendors with full profiles are 3i Infotech, Accenture, ALICE, Anodas, Fadata, IDIT, ITN, RDT, Sapiens, Sirius, Software Solution Providers, Innovation Group, TIA Systems, and Xchanging.
Vendors with limited profiles are CSC, Duck Creek, eBaoTech, Ebix, FIS Software, Genasys, Guidewire, Harlosh, ITN, Javision, Open Square, Room Solutions, SAP, Software Solution Partners, and Tata Consultancy Services.
The 114-page report contains five figures and 74 tables. A table of contents is available online.
Members of Celent's Property/Casualty Insurance research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.