Services for insurers come in many shapes and sizes. In the first of two blog posts, you can learn about these different service options and how to choose the best one.

It’s easy to buy shoes online. You can just search for shoes and pages full of results pop up. Insurance consumers see no difference in buying an insurance policy online and ordering a pair of shoes.  Online purchasing, whether shoes or insurance, must be seamless. Customers expect the same user experience, ease of use and personalization that today’s leading online retailers provide. The fact that insurance products and claims are far more complicated than shoes doesn’t deter consumers from desiring to purchase policies online.

Microservices might be the new kid on the block, but don’t think that policy administration monolith systems are going away anytime soon.

To learn more, download our latest white paper 

As part of their efforts to provide service online, insurers have started adopting microservices – small, dedicated and individually-deployable building blocks that enable providers to implement specialized services and features. These services don’t require major changes to core systems, because they can work in harmony with them.

This new wave of architecture breaks down large monolithic systems into single, discrete functionalities and forms a suite of services that communicate with each other via simple APIs. It enables the addition and tweaking of individual components and capabilities, rather than updating an entire system.

For insurers, microservices can be a quick and economical way to create new functionalities and services, and to connect with partners who can sell these services. This concept is in-sync with impatient consumers who want their insurance services quickly and easily.

Insurance companies are creating more and better digital user experiences, and they must be able to deliver them quickly and efficiently, while still reducing costs and remaining flexible.

While microservices offer great flexibility for single services or functions, they are isolated and work in their own closed loop. Insurance processes run deep through many levels of each system and microservices are often unable to cover these needs.

While, monoliths run the entire gamut of all insurance processes, they are often complex, and can prevent insurers from being able to quickly and innovatively add services and experiences.

Finding Middle Ground

Every organization has its own needs and structure. While some will gain great benefit from microservices, others may gravitate towards macroservices or miniservices (separate set of domain-level services with its own database, handling multiple functions). Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70 percent of organizations will consider microservices too disruptive and will switch to other methods, such as miniservices.

Systems like accounting and claims, which are at the core of insurers’ operations, cannot be broken down into microservices. The digital areas of the business are more conducive to microservices, which enable quick delivery of smaller products. By adopting microservices for services that need to be changed more frequently, insurers will up their game and add value for their customers. But there is a way to bring all these different services together.

  • customer
  • iinsurance
  • insurer
  • insurers
  • managed services
Gil Maletski

Gil Maletski Gil Maletski is the chief technology officer for the general insurance division at Sapiens. He possesses strong software architecture and design capabilities, with deep managerial, business and technical understanding.