Published on 31-Oct-2011
"We chose IBM WebSphere BRMS, infrastructure and connectivity components to create an agile platform. Our investment in IBM technology has delivered tangible benefits to support our near- and long-term business and IT goals." - Director of Systems Development, Latin American insurance company
Customer:
Latin American Insurance Company
Industry:
Insurance
Solution:
Business Process Management (BPM), Service Oriented Architecture
Overview
A Latin American insurance company depended on business rules throughout its operations, but these were embedded in code. The company implemented a web-based platform with decisioning capabilities using IBM WebSphere ILOG resulting in cost savings and growth in new business.
Business need:
In a highly competitive market that is poised for growth, the company is gearing up to capture market share and better serve its business partners, agents and policyholders by building smarter and more agile processes.
Solution:
The Latin American insurance company streamlined its processes and built a web-based platform, which leverages IBM® WebSphere® ILOG® JRules Business Rule Management System (BRMS) and WebSphere infrastructure and connectivity components in a service oriented architecture (SOA).
Benefits:
· 70 percent improvement in speed to market with rule changes occurring in days or real-time versus months and the ability to implement new portals in 4 weeks versus over 3 months
· 90 percent increase in straight-through-processing resulting in cost savings and growth in new business
· Greater transparency and consistent enforcement of risk and corporate guidelines with comprehensive audit trails of rules and decisions rendered
Case Study
Company background information
A Latin American insurance company with a global presence provides its clients with tailored solutions built on its in-depth skills in all lines of business and international markets. The company provides a comprehensive portfolio of products which encompasses commercial, property and casualty, health and life insurance coverage. With approximately 5 million policyholders, the insurance company works with a network of 8,000 agents.
The need
In a highly competitive market that is poised for growth, the company is gearing up to capture market share and better serve its business partners, agents and policyholders by building smarter and more agile processes. A key requirement for the company was to modernize its existing IT infrastructure, which was predominantly a myriad of legacy systems that were costly to maintain and difficult to integrate. Moreover, business rules that support various risk and corporate guidelines such as who is eligible for what product and at what price were embedded as code in these systems. This was having an impact on the carrier’s ability to implement policy changes quickly, meet transparency requirements and support its growth objectives.
Solution Components
- IBM® DB2®
- IBM WebSphere® Application Server
- IBM WebSphere DataPower®
- IBM WebSphere ILOG® JRules®
- IBM WebSphere Message Broker
- IBM WebSphere MQ
The Latin American insurance company streamlined its processes and built a web-based platform, which leverages IBM® WebSphere® ILOG® JRules Business Rule Management System (BRMS) and WebSphere infrastructure and connectivity components in a service oriented architecture (SOA). The platform supports corporate customers (for instance, the company offers insurance coverage to the employees and customers of major financial institutions and various retailers) as well as selling directly to consumers via its agent/broker channel.
The WebSphere BRMS-based platform is used to automate and add decisioning capabilities to various functions such as offering insurance quotes, underwriting and pricing policies, as well as determining monthly payroll deductions. The company can easily create portals with a customized look and feel for the various corporations with whom it has contractual agreements. In the latter context, BRMS is used to determine what content and screens to push out to users based on their profile and the information provided.
Insurance processes are essentially governed by policies, procedures and regulations. One finds business rules in virtually every aspect of an insurer’s business. The Latin American insurance company chose ILOG JRules to automate a wide range of processes across the enterprise. The first project was underwriting (auto) which was successfully deployed within eight months. It then expanded the usage of BRMS to other lines of business and processes including underwriting (health) and creating dynamic portals. The carrier is in the midst of extending the usage of ILOG JRules to claims processing and has plans to automate such functions as product recommendation and fraud detection in the near future.
The benefits
- 70 percent improvement in speed to market with rule changes occurring in days or real-time versus months and the ability to implement new portals in 4 weeks versus over 3 months
- 90 percent increase in straight-through-processing resulting in cost savings and growth in new business
- Greater transparency and consistent enforcement of risk and corporate guidelines with comprehensive audit trails of rules and decisions rendered
For more information, visit
ibm.com/websphere
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software:
DB2 Universal Database Data Warehouse Standard Edition, WebSphere MQ, WebSphere ILOG JRules, WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Message Broker, WebSphere DataPower Appliances
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America October 2011 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DataPower, DB2, ILOG and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.