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Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement Digital Insurance?

TransInsure

Legacy constraints are one of the reasons of delay to implementation a Digital Insurance strategy. Generally the vision is that mobile and web portal solutions need to be integrated with the Back-End legacy systems to prevent inconsistency of data. If we accept this constraint, we will delay the implementation of Digital Insurance with many years as legacy problems and constraints are not easy to solve. Connecting modern mobile apps and portals to legacy systems will need most of the time a full redesign of the legacy system environment.

There is a way out of this problem. The implementation of an Enterprise Service Bus and a transactional database outside the legacy environment, for example in a cloud are the basis of integrating the mobile and web functionality with the back-end legacy systems. This view needs adaptation as it changes the dominant position of the legacy systems as the single source of truth which could be a bridge to far for many people in the organization. However it is the way to decouple the IT components and a start to implement a more agile IT system environment. How does it work?

The implementation of Insurance services on mobile devices connected to a transactional database in

the cloud which is connected to the legacy back end, needs a state of the art IT design developed by

experienced (in Digital Insurance) IT architects and designers. These architects and designers are by

default not available in the organization as IT is legacy back-end focused. The available IT architects and

designers in the IT organization are lacking experience and knowledge in this field. They have to be

involved and educated but knowledge and experience from outside will help to define an agile, scalable

and sustainable Digital Insurance solution architecture.

In between the mobile application and the legacy systems a transactional database will be implemented

containing all data, necessary to deliver products and services through the mobile applications. Data

components included are leads, customers, distributors, quotations, policies, claims, cases, documents,

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Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement Digital Insurance?

TransInsure

payments, messages, calendars, etc.. The transactional database contains real time data and is available

24x7. The mobile and web applications are using and feeding the transactional data.

The legacy systems will be integrated through an ESB which will transport and convert data to and from

the legacy systems. The connection to the legacy systems does not have to be a real time connection as

the transactional database will be highly accurate depending on the usages of the mobile and web

applications. The more the mobile and web applications are used by all customers and partners the

more accurate the transactional database will be with less concerns about a small percentage of data

fed by the legacy systems. The legacy systems will still be the single source of truth as 100% of the data

is stored in these systems for regulatory and compliance purposes.

The preference is to store the transactional database in a cloud outside the company’s datacenter to

prevent that this will be another obstacle. Cloud computing is safe when implemented by experienced

and reliable vendors who will help to convince regulators on the security and compliance topics. In a

later phase cloud computing should be a part of the data center strategy and this (maybe temporary)

cloud hosting by a provider of the transactional database could be integrated in a new data center

strategy.

It is of course easy to write this approach down in a few sentences, the architectural design and

implementation is more complex. The experience is this can be implemented in 3-6 months with the

right mindset and skilled people involved.

Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement Digital Insurance? TransInsure.

Paul de Bruijn

Singapore, September 29, 2015

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