Flexible product-administration capabilities. Insurance companies must rethink the way they develop and manage products. With far less time to react to competition, it s imperative that new products be brought to market much faster. The ultimate goal is to use plug and play component-based systems, which provide faster development than traditional legacy systems and more flexibility than packages. In many cases, this requires a fundamental redesign of operations.
Business process capabilities .
To maintain a competitive edge, companies in all industries, including insurance, must reinvent themselves. This is more than re-engineering current processes. A key business process capability is to integrate and assimilate new operations to cope with a changing landscape created by mergers and acquisitions. The driving force behind many mergers is the need for economies of scale in operations and asset management, coupled with a need for rapid entrance into new markets. Revamping for global competitiveness is a key issue for insurance companies in a rapidly consolidating market environment where lines of demarcation between insurance and finance continue to blur as deregulation opens new markets.