MultiProdutos is a software application developed to create, maintain, fit and integrate to every market insurance product either through parameterizations or trigger of external engines the Insurance Companies may provide. Thus, it is possible to calculate and compare many products, prices and services, besides automate customer service centers and points of sale.
Today, this product is sold as a sales tool, enabling to compare different product prices and technical conditions to ensure that you are able to provide your customer with the best offers.
Basic system functionality
1. It enables the operator to enter the required data to insurance calculation only one time regardless of how many products are included in the comparative calculation. It also applies to insurer profile questionnaire.
2. Internally, it distributes input data to each product in the same way a communications protocol does, translating the input data in a format the insurance product requires to perform calculation. This can be done either through internal calculation engine or components the Insurance Companies may provide.
3. After data translation, the system triggers server-based calculation engines, which returns every product results in a single screen, enabling you to compare products. This comparison can be done by lower price, lower deductible, better business terms, better product considering coverage it offers, technical aspects, and so on.
4. The system provides a suggested discount engine to improve product prices based on preset margins. For example: The Insurance Broker allows the operator to offer a 10% discount to every comparative product. The discount-aware system suggests discounts in a way a more complete product can have a lower price than a simpler product. This contributes to the operator sales augments.
5. Since the operator provides the customer with each product costs and terms, he/she is able to negotiate with the customer and change settings to reach a perfect condition.
6. At that moment, the operator issues a proposal that can be sent simultaneously to printer, fax or customer e-mail.
7. When customer close the deal, the system automatically requires supplementary data to policy issue taking in account specific data requirements of each Insurance Company. This means that supplementary data input screens are dynamically built enabling the system to capture data each Insurance Company needs—regardless if our system needs such information—and store them in its database by recording them in Insurance Company-specific transmission files. After input, the system generates transmission files and feeds the Insurance Broker administrative system, as well as any other integrated systems through on-line transfers and/or electronic file exchange.
8. If the customer fails to close the deal, the system maintains a prospect management which schedules this proposal to the next insurance renewal.
Calculation monthly update criteria
Sistemas Seguros provides services of development, fit and general maintenance even in the cases such products use external components Insurance Companies provide.
Product update criteria are as follows:
1. Product update processes based on components Insurance Companies provide, like Dlls, WebServices, etc: This process depends entirely on Insurance Companies who provide components.
Firstly, the Insurance Broker must get from Insurance Companies consent for use of its insurance calculation component (usage license). Secondly, Insurance Broker must enter agreements with Insurance Companies binding them to send component updates regularly to Sistemas Seguros so them can be used. Than, Sistemas Seguros staff performs all programming, setting and maintenance work related to these components to make them to interoperate with MultiProdutos.
2. Validation Test: MultiProdutos features vehicle fleet calculation capability and it is used to system validation. To put it simple, our technical staff has built a vehicle fleet that currently totalizes about 300 vehicle models, including all market categories. It is the foundation for our validation tests, which is performed by calculating all vehicles from this fleet and checking the results—one by one—with the calculation software Insurance Companies provide every time product maintenance takes place.
Every item above is under complete control and monitoring, which is done by a system specifically developed to manage insurance product updates within MultiProdutos. Such system enables us to check rating term, time spent in all product updates, who are the Sistemas Seguros technicians engaged in the update effort, warn our technicians when they need request material to Insurance Companies and/or Brokers, control set deadlines to each customer update, among many other functions that contributes to improve the system rating update process.
The time period Sistemas Seguros sets in contract to perform a new system component deployment is 90 (ninety) days, and to render periodic maintenance and update tasks is 7 (seven) working days. Both deadlines are set in contract because Sistemas Seguros doesn’t know which technology and what changing level will be applied by Insurance Companies, since there is no industry standard and components are developed in an individual basis by Insurance Companies on its own criteria, which can or cannot make Sistemas Seguros work more difficult.
Currently, our team is performing updates and validation tests within 03 (three) working days (average time) from the day we receive updates from Insurance Companies until it is available to our customer.
Existent issues related to Insurance Companies interaction
Intending to offer a first class service, Sistemas Seguros lists all issues related to interaction process to Insurance Companies that may negatively impact our job and procedures to minimize them.
1. The first issue rising from insurance multi-calculation process refers to the Insurance Company willingness to be part of it, mainly the so called “first line” Insurance Companies. They think the Insurance Broker sales team will be unable to highlight each product technical and business advantages, which can lead a customer to make a lower cost-based choice. Thus, we suggest the Insurance Broker to schedule a meeting with Insurance Companies representatives to show them a technical presentation of MultiProdutos so they have a chance to know better the features our system provides aiming to avoid this kind of operator attitude.
2. The second issue refers to lapsed time between Insurance Company calculation component version release and our technical staff to perform update and validation processes and Insurance Broker release it to go live. To better explanation, let’s talk a little about our experience in the insurance market. Since 1991, our technical staff has been developing insurance rating plan application to many Insurance Companies who distribute it to insurance brokers, the so called Insurance Calculation Kits. Nowadays, we provide this service to some Insurance Companies, reaching a monthly distribution of more than 10k software copies. So we can say we have a deep knowledge of Insurance Company procedures related to releasing, changing and updating rating plans because we are de force behind this effort from analysis to programming, validation, media duplication, kits labeling and submission. Based on our knowledge of such process, we are aware that even if Insurance Companies want to release their component updates in advance so Insurance Broker is able to match its new multi-calculation application version to Insurance Company new version release, it is a hard-to-reach goal. Every Insurance Companies for whom we provide services send us rating plans and final software version in the day of media duplication–media containing software for distribution, i.e., even the software programmers have such information within the time period we need. Thus, the only way Sistemas Seguros has found to meet MultiProdutos user needs is to suggest an operating agreement between Insurance Broker/Company by which Insurance Broker can keep selling insurance based on previous rating plan for more 15 days after new version delivery for update. Of course, this may give raise to other issues. For example, the insurer customer may call directly the Insurance Company and have a different price for the same insurance calculated by MultiProdutos. Our experience, however, has been shown that most of times the costs Insurance Company provides is greater than Insurance Broker costs, which improves the insurance selling during the updating period.
3. We consider the third issue the boresome one, because not even Insurance Companies are able to solve it internally in their distributed kits. This is about the launching of new vehicle models. Picture the following situation: Insurance Company builds its rating plan and distributes the new software version to all partner brokers on the first month day. This is an expensive and complex process. Nowadays, we are not aware of any Insurance Company who distributes updates more than once in a month. Now let’s suppose that on the 10th day same month a given vehicle manufacturer launches a new car model. What happen? Every Insurance Broker who received the Insurance Calculation Kit on the 1st month day is unable to provide quotes for this new model because it is not in the distributed lists. How Insurance Companies have solved this issue? Simple! They provide a service center when the Insurance Broker can get a quote for this new car. Many times, however, the Insurance Company does not have a rating to this new model too, even because insurance ratings are based on experience and incurred loss ratio—both inexistent since this is a new model. The Insurance Company than associates this new model to a similar vehicle category until it is able to perfom actuarial calculations to obtain a specific rating and provide quotes to the new model. Also, some Insurance Companies distribute in-advance bulletin to Insurance Brokers instructing them to use the “X” model when calculating the insurance of new model. This second solution is the only one that solves the issue for MultiProdutos. When Insurance Company indicates a model or category the new model fits in, it makes possible a MultiProdutos quick change to assume this condition without prejudice to calculation of such model. Some similar, but more serious thing occurs in the middle of the year, when all vehicle manufacturer launch next year models. For example, in June or July this year, probably, most of vehicle manufacturer will be launching next year lines. If release of Insurance Company Kits doesn’t match launches of one or another manufacturer we have the above issue in a greater scale and this will be solved only by means of operating agreements with Insurance Companies, which foresees such situation.
4. The last issue that may negatively impact MultiProdutos results is simple and required but cause problems because it directly affects the items above. This is the internal process of multi-calculation system validation and deployment in Insurance Broker servers. We know the worry of system technicians about maintenance tasks performed in shared, server-based software applications and we know it is needed. A multi-calculation system, however, is under continuous maintenance. Let’s suppose 4 system integrated Insurance Companies, all of them with at least one update per month. Chances of all of them send their updates in the same day are very low. Thus, we can have an update per week and many times the server responsible team delays an update deployment to wait another update, which leads to entire update process delay. In cases like this, Sistemas Seguros recommends the using of MultiProdutos dedicated servers. To solve this issue, Sistemas Seguros also make available a different service, by which calculation server remains in its premises and is accessed by customer through data private lines or directly through the Internet.
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