Insurance providers have to deal with highly complicated tasks. Managing teams, vendors, and clients adds an extra layer of complexity to the average operations. How can you optimize processes and boost overall performance? Proper software solutions seem to be extremely effective in the long-term perspective. Learn what advantages insurance product development can grant for your company.
Understanding Insurance Software
Technological innovations drive the efficiency of the insurance industry on all sides. Specialized insurance software is designed to meet operational and consumer demands on a new level. It also powers the creation, distribution, and administration of the private insurance business.
Companies get to automate tasks, organize claims, and manage policies in a single system, which saves tons of time and money. Modern solutions also focus on customer needs by offering contextual communication, exceptional experience, and quick solutions to potential problems.
Key benefits of software product development in insurance
Operations in insurance have a lot of complexities, which can be easily overcome by modern tech solutions. Here are the basic benefits to consider:
- Increased effectiveness. Improve operational productivity through optimized and automated operations. Store all the information in one central database to save time on the further search.
- Tailored customer experience. Create personalized software with easy access to policies, claims, and customer support. Increased convenience fosters stronger customer relationships and higher user retention.
- Data-driven decision making. Collect, analyze, and present information in effective ways. Use data analytics and reporting tools to get valuable insights into operational processes, customer behavior, and current market trends. This data-centric approach facilitates informed decision-making, which allows businesses to adjust their strategies, launch effective marketing campaigns, and reveal growth potential.
- Regulatory compliance and security. Create opportunities for strong data analytics and reporting capabilities. Conduct compliance checks, data encryption, and secure verification procedures to protect sensitive content. Adhere to industry regulations, eliminating risks of data breaches and non-compliance.
- Flexibility. Ready-made software solutions often have constraints that might not perfectly align with the precise needs of your insurance company. Custom software can be created to meet project-based requirements. As business progresses, further expansion becomes possible thanks to the high degree of adaptability.
- Optimized claims processing. Improve the claims processing, from the initial submission to its ultimate resolution. Empower insurance providers to establish detailed rules, addressing a wide range of business situations.
- Competitive advantage. Offer insurance software with unique features, improved service quality, and modern functionalities to gain a competitive advantage. Distinguish a company from competitors to attract new customers and build a better standing in the market.
Primary features of insurance software
Customized tech solutions can cater to various insurance needs. You can integrate different features to achieve end-to-end functionality when developing insurance products.
- Customer relationship management software (CRM) enables effective interactions between teams, distribution channels, and other parties involved. You can tie up workflows within a unified portal rich with functionality.
- Video KYC solutions allow for real-time video authorization to create a secure way for customers to register virtually.
- Underwriting helps assess the company’s risk in insuring a home, car, or an individual’s life. You can execute the process automatically to save manual efforts and reduce human errors.
- Document management streamlines work with important documents, such as policy apps, customer contracts, policyholder agreements, etc.
- Workflow automation software provides special systems to manage business processes focused on human resources, marketing, and more.
- Policy management helps register applications, estimate risks, deliver information, modify insurance conditions, and handle claims. Proper software helps regulate group and individual policies to keep businesses within the legal field.
- Fund management splits different events into taxable and non-taxable. Specialists tools ensure automatic reports/orders generation, order handling, fund registries, etc.
- Claims management software leverages tools for risk assessment to detect fraud, generate automated feedback for users, and support claims workflows.
We also recommend reading our guide on how to create an insurance app.
Types of Insurance Software
As an entrepreneur, you get to pick from two types of insurance software to adopt: a readymade solution or a custom one. Both have positive and negative aspects, so you should select a system which suits your business initiative best. Here are major features of both types:
- Ready-made.Pre-programmed applications have fixed sets of functions and offer low customization opportunities. They may have excessive tools for small businesses and offer insufficient uniqueness for large ones. However, they work perfectly well for average-size companies.
- Custom.Tailored software programs are made from scratch to fit specific client requirements and needs. Developers can add any preferred module to do the trick. Tailored apps are customizable and more profitable in the long-term perspective, but they need to stand on a good vision of your strategic goals.
Steps of Insurance Product Development
The development of insurance software is a complex process that plays a key role in the productivity of the insurance segment. Let’s delve into the main stages that constitute the insurance software product development cycle. We share the experience of how our own insurance software experts get the job done.
Step 1. Brainstorming
A professional team must collect all the requirements and generate progressive ideas. This analysis is organized by senior members who have extensive knowledge of creating similar products in the insurance segment. All deliverables can make up a loose roadmap to the final product or a simple list of concepts to research, evaluate, and rule out in the second stage.
Step 2. Research and planning
Developers study future software's purpose, end-user specifics, and client expectations. With these details, the developers can gain a basic insight into the product. They then continue the discussion to clarify more relevant information.
The comprehensive research guides the creation of a detailed project plan, which includes scope, timelines, resource allocation, and budget considerations. We also select a technical stack based on the project's requirements. This may include .NET and JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue.
Step 3. Design
The visual aspects need to be connected with the functional aspects of the software during this phase. In this context, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers create intuitive, visually appealing designs. The stage involves creating wireframes and prototypes to visualize the software's flow and layout. Product development in insurance needs to process complex data and present it in a clear and precise manner.
The team crafts comprehensive SRS documentation based on the software requirements and specifications. This documentation serves as the cornerstone for shaping the product's architecture. It is intricately linked with the design document specification (DDS), which considers risk assessment, product durability, design modularity, budget constraints, and project timelines.
The design approach serves as a blueprint outlining all the structural elements of the product. It also establishes communication channels and data flow with external and third-party modules, creating a comprehensive framework for software development.
Step 4. Programming
Once the design is finalized, the development team, armed with .NET and JavaScript expertise, begins writing the code according to DDS. The team follows the coding instructions defined beforehand. The necessary instruments and programming languages from the pre-planned tech stack are put to work.
.NET provides a robust and versatile framework for building scalable and secure applications. JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue offer dynamic and interactive front-end capabilities. The development process relies on the best practices, ensuring the accuracy of the codebase. The result of this stage within the product SDLC is to get a functional software system and a document of source code.
Step 5. Quality assurance and testing
During this stage, the developers and testers work together to polish out the software product. QA engineers perform different types of testing to reach the quality standards defined in the Software Requirements Specification (SRS).
- Functional testing ensures that the technology corresponds to the stipulated standards.
- Performance testing evaluates the speed, efficiency, and responsiveness of the software product. Stability under different workloads also needs to be examined.
- Unit testing scrutinizes individual components to detect and eliminate potential vulnerabilities or imperfections.
- Security testing validates the system's integrity and protection against threats. Different types of vulnerabilities need to be addressed separately.
- Usability testing is processed from an end user's perspective to determine if the system is easy to navigate and utilize.
If QA experts encounter any errors or glitches, they will collaborate with developers to fix these issues. They continue the testing process until the software demonstrates flawless performance and meets the initial requirements.
Step 6. Deployment
Project managers collaborate with clients to ease the deployment or release of software. Deployment involves product configuration for an on-premises server and/or a cloud-based infrastructure. The .NET framework's flexibility enables smooth deployment. JavaScript frameworks ensure seamless compatibility with web browsers, making the software accessible to a wide range of users.
Step 7. Release and maintenance
A well-executed release strategy requires user training, documentation, and customer support. Continuous monitoring and post-release updates are essential to maintain the software's optimal performance and address any unforeseen issues.
Ongoing maintenance will be vital to keep the tech solution updated, secure, and responsive to evolving industry needs. This phase includes regular updates, security checks, and risk mitigation. .NET and JavaScript frameworks simplify the maintenance process, allowing developers to improve the product’s features and capabilities over time.
Things to Consider for Software Product Development in Insurance
Specialists should consider the key aspects of the creative process. Here they are:
- Development complexities. Building insurance software is a complex process, requiring advanced calculations. For this reason, it is essential to estimate the necessary expenses and timeframes for such projects. You should be ready for long-term investments and similarly long development when it comes to a strategic product to address your business needs.
- Customization. The ability to optimize software to specific requirements helps the insurance company to reach strategic goals in the future. You may provide a brief description of the key information or an in-depth analysis of what needs to be integrated into the final product.
- Cloud vs. on-premise. When creating insurance software, you must choose between cloud-based or on-premise solutions. Cloud-based systems provide scalability, flexibility, and accessibility from any location across the world. On-premise systems provide better control over information and tech infrastructure but may require larger investments and more intense monitoring.
- High-quality UX design. Seamless integration with other systems and applications enables streamlined data exchange and workflow. The software should possess well-defined APIs and the capability to effectively collaborate with electronic health records (EHR) systems, claims processing platforms, and various other IT frameworks. Moreover, the UX design emphasizes intuitive navigation and simplified task execution.
- Maximization of security. Enhancing security to the fullest extent is paramount. Insurance software handles sensitive personal health information (PHI), which requires stringent security measures. One should employ strong data encryption, access restrictions, and routine security assessments to safeguard PHI against unauthorized access or breaches. Compliance with the industry’s official standards is imperative. It guarantees the utmost privacy and confidentiality of information.
How to Leverage a New Insurance Software Product?
Our team specializes in every aspect of insurance product management. We can help you optimize business operations and user experiences through top-of-the-shelf software, making sure your new product meets industry norms and sets new benchmarks.
Our team keeps at the forefront of tech progress to help our customers recognize emerging trends, explore market trends, and acquire product development services that bring real value to everyone. We also help you embrace innovation, accelerate your product life cycle, and improve deployment.
We give you a wealth of experience in .NET and JavaScript (Angular, React, Vue) technologies, delivering products that are secure and user-friendly as well as scalable and adaptable to future industry trends. EXB Soft delivers unique software development services that add value to your insurance business. Let us transform your ideas into real tech solutions - just contact us.
