Upload
others
View
2
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Business Architecture Decisioning: A Transformative Approach to Solving Insurance Challenges
476
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Today’s Objectives
Session Learning Objectives:
Identify new ways of approaching the business architecture
and implementing IT infrastructure solutions
Evaluate whether proposed architecture solutions can
address both current and future insurance business
challenges
Reference real world case studies or our clients addressing
real world challenges
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Conventional Wisdom on Projects
Typical “MO”
Get everyone involved who may know
anything about topic
Everyone needs to “get comfortable”
Create tons of follow-ups
Review findings to get that illusive
comfort level up
Create huge backlog
Spend rest of project explaining to the
business why they can’t have the things
they thought they were going to get
We all grew up thinking that you need to think of everything
up front because it is too costly to find things later
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Einstein’s Definition of Insanity
Life Legacy Core System Replacement Statistics
Less than 21% of projects ever convert all of the business planned
Less than 18% of replacement projects come within a year of the original schedule
Less than 15% of projects come within 25% of the approved budget
Less than 7% meet the original ROI objective
Source: Sample of major policy administration projects since 2000 where a new vendor relationship was
established
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different results.”
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
A Problem-Driven vs. Solution-Driven Approach
• Consider underlying problems that are to be solved before determining the solution
Problem-Driven
Approach
• Assume that the problems and solution are known and just need to be delivered on.
Solution-Driven
Approach
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
-Henry Ford”
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Use a Problem-Driven Approach by Starting with Why
Transparency
Decisions and
judgment should be
based on “your why”
Frames up
everything
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
FAST Aligns with our Why
WHAT
HOW
WHY
Why?Technology should open up new possibilities for the
business rather than creating constraints
How?Provide a platform that will meet the current business
needs, but be able to effectively adapt to future needs
What?A brand new way of addressing core systems challenges
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Overall Business &Technical Objectives
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Technology for the Business
Technical Feature This is how we can…
Role-driven, intuitive user interface and configurable business processes
• Get new people (both business and IT) can be up and running very quickly, allowing you to manage through spikes of demand
• Answer customer’s basic questions without jumping from screen to screen
• Reduce number of people involved to solve an issue or perform a transaction
Configurable products, plans and groups
• Add or change products, plans and groups without any programming• Roll out products, plans and groups in a fraction of the time
Configurable business rules, calculations, and validations that are available on-line
• Automate for handling business exceptions• Have environments where many people know how to do a variety of
types of tasks
State of the art technology, software architecture, and tools
• Have quicker turnaround of change requests and new innovative features
• Have more of your business needs met for a lower budget
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Insurance Systems Evolution
What is the Next Generation
• Small components designed to be replaced
• Incremental replacement strategy can be used
• Appropriate balance between horizontal infrastructure (rules engines, workflow/ orchestration) and domain specific components
• Leverage/wrap existing components (i.e. don’t have to replace “whole systems”)
End Result
• Frequent upgrades and avoidance of future “big bang” projects
• Eliminate/minimize redundancy
• Implement new features incrementally
• Shorter project cycles
• Lower costs and risk
• Customers get the functionality they want, not something forced on them
Next Generation Technology for Life Insurance
Pre-1990 Monolithic systems
1990 – 2005 More targeted applications
2006 –2011 Consolidation attempts and
hub integration
Next Generation
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Business Process Driven
Application Commissions Regulations Authorization
Disbursements Accounting Suitability Underwriting
Policy Party Agent Correspondence
Collaboration Recruiting Notes Requirements
Banks Suspense TaxOther
Services / Components
Change how we think about IT Architecture to start with the business process
instead of the application or system
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Connecting the Business Process
Data Service(s)
•Pre-built components -Gathers appropriate data from various components
Decision Service(s)
•Calls rules engine to determine logic and forms
Calculation Service(s)
•Calls calculation engine to perform mathematic or formulaic calculations
External Service
•Makes a web service call to an external web service
Sub-orchestration
•Calls another orchestration
Orchestration
Business
Event
Business events are triggered in various ways
(a user clicking a button, a change in status,
or based on a specified schedule)
Orchestrations connect a series of activities
(data gathering, decisions, calculations, and
calls to external systems) to define the
business flow
Business events trigger orchestrations that tie together data rules calculations
and other processes
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Configurable Systems
Many areas that are normally “hard-coded” are now
configurable
Allows choice of configuration methods
Strong governance models
Configure inputs, outputs and calls to pre-existing
APIs or Web Services
Automated testing
Taking agility, flexibility, and configurability to the next level
• Business processes
• Products
• Commission calculations
• Commission schedules and
rules
• Integration
• Validations
• Business events
• Business rules and exceptions
• Data model
• User roles
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Software Configuration Process
Cost M
ete
rConfiguration Tools push
80-90% of the work closer
to the people who know the
requirements
Business
Partner
Liaison or
Customer BA
Software Vendor
ConsultantOff-shore or
local Developer
Software Vendor
Technical Lead
Enables the people closest to the specific business needs do the
work with the same amount of effort it would’ve taken them to
communicate and iterate
Eliminates interpretation and touch-points to significantly reduce
cost and risk while increasing likelihood the customer’s needs will
be met the first time
Groundbreaking tools and software governance finally provide ability
to profoundly change how insurers can manage software
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
The Only Constant is Change
Why should customers have to think of
everything up front?
Why do we have to spend time talking
about things we may never do?
• Why can’t the customer have something think of later in the
project instead of something they thought about in the
beginning?
– most times, the things they realize later are higher priority than when
they were in their “creative zone” thinking of everything they wanted up
front
Project teams need to accept the inevitability of change and
embrace it rather than resist it
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Comparing Implementation Methodologies
Challenged Failed Successful
49%
9%
42%
Challenged Failed Successful
Source: The CHAOS Manifesto, Standish Group, 2012
Both methodologies have advantages and disadvantages, but Agile has
had more recent success and is where most companies are trending
57%29%
14%
Challenged Failed Successful
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Avoid rebuilding existing legacy processes into modern technology
Taking smaller “chunks” incrementally rather than big scope
Limit “committees” and “group think” on basic decisions and
preferences by establishing accountability with a core group of decision
makers
Leverage an iterative, business process driven approach
Maintain architectural integrity that is in alignment with the overall
vision
Guiding Principles
Once established, it must drive decisions at all levels
Guiding principles help projects stay on course and help influence
prioritization
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Based in Madison, Wisconsin
Offers auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life
insurance, umbrella, business and farm/ranch insurance in
19 states
Been in business for more than 80 years
Ranks 373rd on the Fortune 500 list
American Family – Company and Personal Bio
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
American Family
WHAT
HOW
WHY
Why?Be able to explore new distribution and customers
How?Keep things lean and reduce constraints. Implement
flexible technology and processes to increase speed to
market.
What?Build an adaptable model to sell life insurance
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Approach
We were forming a new function…
Kept the team small
Secured a work location separate from American Family
Home Office
Analyzed current technology and capabilities within the
enterprise as well as outside the organization
Created an implementation strategy that focused on minimal
viable product
Formed agreements with selected vendors and service
providers
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Creating a Minimum Viable Product
Our goal was to get into production and let customer feedback
drive design
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Creating Business Alignment Among Vendors
We focused on getting everyone on the same page for
creating joint solutions
Aligned on project vision & approach
Vendors were able to understand all the pieces that needed
to come together
Our team created a foundation based on proposed
business process flows
Team identified ways to share information across
boundaries
Made decisions and assigned high level responsibilities
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Challenges
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Challenges
As with any project, we faced some challenges…
Meet aggressive deadlines
Adapt to a different approach and way of thinking
Manage mid-project operational
Align development milestones across vendors
Onboard vendors at staggered times
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Best Practices
We did a lot of things right…and we built a team that was
resilient to change
Leadership support
Agile development
Having a single business owner
Co-locating teams during key parts of the project
Automated testing
Team building
Alignment of goals
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Lessons Learned
Avoid travel to the east coast during the “snowiest” winter on
record
Spend time upfront to clearly define roles and
responsibilities
Agree upon methodologies and how to integrate plans
across vendors
Accept that the final outcome won’t be perfect
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Results
We did what we set out to do…
Implemented a minimal viable product in 8 months
Constantly prioritized what was most important
Used customer feedback to drive enhancements
IASA 87TH ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE & BUSINESS SHOW
Please Complete the Session Evaluation Form on the Conference App