The
objective of this page is to provide guidance to software houses and
others considering the integration of the Polaris Run Time
Environment (RTE) into their system.
Why
integrate the RTE?
There are a number of
reasons why integration of the RTE is pursued and these are summarised
below:
|
End-users
of system |
Benefits
Sought |
|
Intermediaries
(including
brokers, banks and building societies and internet service
providers). |
·
Access
to a wide range of insurance products to enable rapid establishment
of a panel rating facility.
· Deployment
of an industry standard rating engine.
· Usage
of proven software for deployment on intermediaries systems, local
area networks, the internet or digital TV.
· Simplified
product and system
maintenance.
|
|
Insurers
|
·
Provision
of rating information to branch and head office
staff.
·
Auditing
of electronically rated business.
·
Replacement
of legacy rating engines.
·
Use
of a proven rating facility for handling of affinity and affiliation
schemes.
·
Rating
functionality for the internet or digital
TV.
|
Initial
Actions
Generally,
companies take the following high-level sequence of steps before beginning
the major RTE integration work:
|
Action |
Comment |
|
Ensure
availability of schemes from insurers
|
Where an
intermediary or software house wants to assemble a panel of schemes,
it is essential that the agreement of insurers to supply products is
obtained before any significant investment is undertaken. (Clearly, this will not
apply for an insurer’s internal deployment of the
RTE.)
|
|
Establish
requirements for data communication with
insurers
|
Insurers
typically want EDI but the message types, procedures and formatting
detail vary. |
|
Assess technical
feasibility against overall requirements and
design.
|
This will
involve discussions with Polaris as well as other
suppliers.
Polaris can
provide a copy of its rating engine for evaluation
purposes.
|
|
Write
the business plan |
This summarises
costs, likely revenues and timescales.
|
How
can Polaris help?
Polaris
offers assistance in the following areas:
1.
General information on the web providing overviews of Polaris and
its software.
2.
Overview presentation of the capabilities of the
RTE.
3.
Advice on the tasks involved in integration.
4.
Supply of indicative statistics for RTE
performance.
5.
Provision of an evaluation copy of the
RTE.
6.
Consultancy support on integration
issues.
7.
Sample insurance schemes for system
testing.
Polaris
charges for some of the software and services noted above.
Contacts
For initial discussion
please contact
Martin McLachlan
(martin.mclachlan@polarisplus.co.uk) or
Ann Reeves
(ann.reeves@polarisplus.co.uk) on 0207 265 5751.
