Whitepaper. Benefits of using Metadata Driven Engines to Reduce risk of Insurance Data Migration

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1 Whitepaper Benefits of using Metadata Driven Engines to Reduce risk of Insurance Data Migration Presented on Author : May 2015 : Madhur Virmani madhurv@hexaware.com : Sanjay Rao sanjayr@hexaware.com Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved.

2 Table of Contents 1 Insurance Data Migration is Complex and Challenging 1.1 All Insurers are Modernizing, But they are wary of Data Migration Risks 1.2 But Migration Has to Succeed for Modernization to be Successful 1.3 Automated Migration Reduces Risk and gets Results Faster 1.4 Next Generation of Automation - Insurance Matadata based Engines 2 iconvert+ - Automated Insurance Migration at its best 2.1 iconvert+ gives Migrated Polices and Claims output Fast 2.2 iconvert+ Metadata - Better usage of Business Stakeholder s Time 2.3 iconvert+ Delivered by Insurance Migration Experts as a Service 2.4 iconvert+ - Easily Aligned to Organization Goals 2.5 iconvert+ - Brings Transparency to the Process 3 Hexaware has mastered the science of Insurance Data migration 4 iconvert+ Delivers Measureable Business Values and Outcomes Author s Bio Madhur Virmani is a Sr. Business Consultant in Insurance Solution Group at Hexaware. Madhur has around 13 years of experience in the Insurance & IT industry across P&C, Life and Health insurance and reinsurance domain with large Insurance and IT organizations. He is an engineering graduate, a Fellow of the Insurance Institute of India, and an Associate Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute London. He carries a rich International experience in Consulting, Business Analysis, and designing IT solutions for leading global insurers. He has been a visiting faculty at National Insurance Academy and an examiner at Insurance Institute of India. Madhur can be reached at madhurv@hexaware.com Sanjay Rao is a delivery manager in charge of Insurance data migrations at Hexaware. Sanjay has around 14 years of experience in modernizations and particularly migration of data from multiple legacy systems to new systems. Sanjay has rich international experience in consulting and delivery of complex conversion projects with virtual teams situated across multiple geographies. Sanjay can be reached at sanjayr@hexaware.com Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 2

3 1. Insurance Data Migration is Complex and Challenging 1.1 All insurers are modernizing, but they are wary of data migration risks Modernization of Policy and Claims Administrations systems is a top priority for insurers today. The main drivers for these transformation programs are the need to improve operational efficiency, to lower maintenance costs, and to fulfil growing customer expectations. Research conducted by a leading analyst in 2014 showed that 75% of insurers had modernization as one of their main goals in the coming years. Of these 50% had already begun the process and had defined a definite time frame for setting up new administration systems. However, in almost all these projects, the biggest worry for carriers is the risk of a failed Insurance data migration. Figure 1 : Typical Issues Underlying failed migrations Unacceptably long execution time window Lengthy migration execution process Long blackout window during which policyholders and partners cannot get service Failure to resolve inconsistencies in legacy Insurance data Multiple addresses and missing contact data Undocumented usage: Car license stored in address fields Creative usage: Dummy converges to increase premiums No dictionary or documentation on rules Failure to satisfy requirements of new systems Policy endorsements not succeeding Inability to add riders and clauses to policies in new system Premium calculations giving wrong results on endorsements Claims not having correct status Failure to satisfy regulatory requirements and auditor expectations Traceability between each source policy element to new system not maintained Policy level reconciliation of figures not available Poor governance and measures to protect PHI and PII 1.2 But migration has to succeed for modernization to be successful Insurance businesses have a critical need to access their history data for their day to day operations. Without access to their historical data, operations will not be able to effectively service existing policyholders on the new system. They will not be able to examine policy servicing and claims history or take effective underwriting or claims adjudication decisions. Actuaries will find it difficult to design new product offerings if they do not have access to reliable history data that reflects the company s claims and underwriting experience. Data migration also poses market and regulatory risks. If there are migration errors, policyholders, agents or other business partners impacted by the migration could go to other carriers or sue for lost benefits. 1.3 Automated Migration Reduces Risk and Gets results faster So, it is extremely important to get the meaning of data correctly translated from old to new systems. However the efforts put in to get the migration done right must not compromise the efficiency of the overall migration process. Insurers want a speedy integration of products and data after a post-merger deal in order to focus on marketing and growth opportunities, says CEO of Hexaware, R Srikrishna. While IT executives focus on executing an error-free data conversion with other methods, it might be too time consuming and it may delay business activity for agents and producers when they are closing deals, which is why a better solution must be implemented to expedite this process. Hexaware s iconvert+ is a good example of a tool which speeds up the migration process by use of automating manual activities which would ordinarily require a long coding and testing period. It eliminates errors that are typically produced by manual coding, produces reports and results in a consistent fashion. It cuts the overall time required to execute data migration and reduces the downtime during the cutover to the new system. Automation simplifies capture of reconciliation metrics and statistics that are output by the migration process. A migration health dashboard helps pinpoint the root causes of leakages and losses in the migration processes early in the development process. Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 3

4 1.4 Next generation of automation - Insurance Metadata based engines While simple automation does largely eliminate the risk of migration errors introduced by manual coding and improve efficiency, it does not address the biggest challenge facing insurance migration project managers i.e. how to deal with mappings and requirements discovered late in the delivery cycle. This unfortunately is a common occurrence when migrating data from very old systems because the legacy data tends to throw up surprises. Users tend to use these systems in a way that they were never intended to work like using an umbrella policy screen to create package policies, creating dummy coverages to simulate a discount, manually raising invoices to increase the premium and so on. Hence there are usually a number of mappings that can only be identified by testing data and these requirements tend to surface late in the delivery cycle. When such new requirements are discovered late in the migration development cycle, it can lead to large scale rework of code which could jeopardize the overall delivery timeline. This is where migration engines that rely on metadata based rules turn out to be stronger than vanilla automation engines Metadata based automation engines are very flexible and are capable of absorbing changing requirements easily. To put it simplify a metadata based automation engine automates the generation of automated migration code by interposing an insurance metadata layer between the data and migration tools. The insurance metadata layer reduces disconnect between business and IT leading to better quality of mapping requirements because it describes technical fields in plain language (For example POLEFF is described as Effective Date of Policy). The engine is very well suited for projects that require fast and correct data translation as it can regenerate and re-execute code when needed resulting in output that is correct and delivered on time. 2. iconvert+ - Automated Insurance Migration at its best iconvert+ is a fine example of a tool that leverages metadata and automation to deliver error free insurance migration. We examine some benefits of implementing a metadata driven automation below: 2.1 iconvert+ gives migrated polices and claims output fast As we have discussed in the earlier sections, the problems of data migration in the insurance industry are fairly common across the board. Yet, there are few automated solutions to Insurance data migration. Many insurance data migration projects build migration scripts afresh as these projects are often viewed as one off projects. So there is no gain from past experience and problems keep getting repeated. As a result, data migration being on the critical path of migration, extends the overall time required to complete the modernization program. Recognizing the need for quicker migration, Hexaware started developing a metadata based automation solution which could prevent such delays without increasing the project cost. And it has come up with iconvert+ - an insurance data conversion service. The metadata approach which iconvert+ uses has been implemented with success at a number of sites. The results have been very satisfactory to customers. Policies and claims started appearing online in the target system in surprisingly shorter time windows as compared to vendors which were earlier engaged for the same project. By producing output quickly, iconvert+ gives the users more time to explore the new system and get ready for the cutover than they would in a more traditional migration approach which makes the complete data set only at the end of the implementation cycle. This iconvert+ approach has been used with equal success in migration of data from custom packages and bespoke policy and claims applications for Property & Casualty (P&C) and Life Insurance. It has given correct translation of legacy data including address cleansing, automated reconciliation of premiums and reserves, and policyholder deduplication and it has been shown to reduce loss of time due to inefficiencies in manual migration solution. With iconvert+, we help our customers accelerate the migration process by implementing an advanced conversion solution to easily automate a data migration no matter how large in size to provide businesses access to data when they need it, says CEO of Hexaware, R Srikrishna 2.2 iconvert+ metadata Better usage of Business Stakeholder s time Traditionally, data migration has always been considered as a technical project and hence treated as an excercise to be executed by technical staff. However experience shows that getting business involved early in the migration process is more beneficial to the project. The metadata approach has shown to be very effective in the efficient engagement of business and the efficient usage of their time. The heart of the success of the metadata layer is the insurance Common Source Template. It is a Business Entity layer that describes data in insurance business terms and facilitates mapping of insurance business features rather than in terms of fields and columns. This simple expedient closes the gap between technical and business team members. It leads to better capture of requirements, easier configuration of migration scripts, better communication between teams. All these have led to quicker results and higher percentage of successes in insurance migration Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 4

5 Purely Technical Approach VS. iconvert+ Metadata Approach Data Migration Record Counts Record Sums Lookup Values Contacts Financial Totals Valid foreign keys Technical Project VS Insurance Portfolio Conversion Count of Policies, Claims Total Gross Premium, Total Net Premium, Reserves Rating & Underwriting Factors Policyholders, Brokers, Claimants Payables, Receivables and Cash Matching Endorseable policies and adjustable claims Clear view of solution for both IT and Business 2.3 iconvert+ - delivered by insurance migration experts as a service Even when a best of breed automated migration solution is available, the probability of success is low if is setup by developers with no previous experience and understanding of insurance migration. Hexaware iconvert+ eliminates this risk by offering the insurance migration as a service. With experience of more than 50 conversions and having converted more than 50 million policies, claims and accounts across multiple geographies, Hexaware conversion experts have a deep understanding of insurance data and business processes and the activities within these business processes. These experts ensure that insurers rollout strategy is clearly understood and that migration task is split into components that reflect the split of deliverables by business area and that the implementation is aligned with the modernization program priorities 2.4 iconvert+ - easily aligned to organization goals Since iconvert+ is metadata and parameter driven, it can easily be configured to deliver data in the order the rollout is planned. Hexaware conversion experts have a deep understanding of insurance data and business processes and the activities within these business processes. These experts ensure that insurers rollout strategy is clearly understood and that migration task is split into components that reflect the split of deliverables by business area and that the implementation is aligned with the modernization program priorities. Big bang By line of Business By Product Line By distribution channel By Age of policy Fire Motor Large Corporate New Business ALL DATA IN ONE GO Civil Liability Cars Bikes Trucks Life Individuals Live Products Motor Term Life Universal Life Affinities Old Products Life Pensions Annuities Migration Strategies based on Organizational Priorities Partner Management Submission Underwriting Policy Certification Financials Claims Processing Insured Risk Information Rating Information Covers Premiums Accident details - Individuals Material Facts Claims history Limits Instalments Injury details - Organizations Coverage Details Markets Servicing History Commissions Salvage - Associations Endorsements Reserves Subrogation Agents Renewals Indemnities Brokers Vendors A process based organization of deliverables Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 5

6 2.5 iconvert+ - brings transparency to the process Hexaware has understood that their clients need to see tangible results at regular intervals to be certain that the modernization or consolidation program is on track. With the iconvert+ service being delivered as white box service on the clients network, the client gets complete visibility of the process as the engine is installed and executed inside the client network on the clients own machines. This white-box approach to migration has a couple of advantages. Data remains protected as it never leaves the client network. The metadata layer enables clients to see the migration process and check outputs in their own network in common insurance terms. This is without having to learn the tool which will not be required by them once the migration is over. 3 Hexaware has mastered the science of Insurance Data migration Hexaware is a leading provider of Insurance data migration services. Its success in data migration has been largely due to it s iconvert+ insurance migration service and the Hexmig Data migration engine Hexaware has developed a unique, agile-iterative approach of insurance data conversion, a set of automation tools and services backed by more than 15 years experience of successfully delivering complex data conversion projects in the insurance industry. It provides an end-to-end Insurance Data Transformation Solution, iconvert+, with a set of automation accelerators for each stage of conversion. The agile, iterative approach ensures that a set of business components are transformed and converted in regular intervals to make the validation process much easier Hexaware brings methodical approach and technology that increases the probability of success Discover Invest time in assessing the scope and complexity of conversion Define a most efficient strategy to walk through the conversion journey Choose a proven methodology and a solution to minimize risk and secure cost Align your data conversion journey with the application development/package configuration Form a team of conversion experts and involve business users throughout the journey Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 6

7 Hexaware s iconvert+ has an Insurance Data Conversion Discovery Framework that enables insurers to discover and assess the undiscovered pain areas and complexities; define a transition strategy, conversion timelines, a testing and rollback strategy; as well as determine the cost. Stage, Clean, Transform, and Execute Be agnostic to the source and target platforms Profile the data to get a complete understanding of variations and volume Understand differences between Current and To-Be product design and business rules Resolve data quality issues duplicate customers, bad addresses, missing fields etc. *Map the business features, source and target data elements Customize transformation and migration scripts. Figure 5: HEXMIG Migration Engine To execute a successful data transformation, iterate-iterate-reiterate The core of iconvert+ is a Data Transformation Engine, HEXMIG, which has a complete insurance metadata layer built on top of it and which automates the entire process of data transformation. This requires configuration of the source and target systems and transformation rules. Once this is done, the transformation and conversion is carried out in an automated way. Validate: Validate the conversion for data points such as number of policies / claims, transformation rules, business rules, premiums, reserves besides other financials. This is to ensure quality of data migrated Test the migration on full volume of source data to measure the performance Hexaware recommends the below aspects of converted data to be validated a) Reconciliation Testing: iconvert+ provides a completely automated reconciliation utility which compares source and target data while taking into consideration the transformation applied and provides a set of exception and reconciliation reports highlighting the discrepancies. This significantly reduce the effort involved in building and deploying a testing and reconciliation framework b) Functional Testing: With its expertise in end-to-end Insurance application testing and its ready-to-use suite of test scenarios, Hexaware provides complete automation testing support for data verification like a. Comparison of premiums for renewals and renewal endorsements of equivalent policies in source and target systems b. Validation of claims adjustments in converted claimsc. Validation of equivalent reports and so on c) End-to-End Functional and Integration Testing: This is required to validate the end-to-end process on converted data. It is essential to test the sanctity of converted data not only in the target system but also in the internal and external interfaces iconvert s rich feature set includes: Platform Agnostic Can handle data from any source Effective Data Profiling Discovers data issues at early stage Insurance Metadata Layer Exposes legacy data in business terms for easy mapping Rule-driven Cutoff Engine Separates out old data not required in new system Cleaning Rules Engine Automates resolution of data issues Transform Code Generator Less hand coding, easy handling of changes in mapping rules Flexible Architecture Accommodates existing ETL assets & web services Conversion Dashboard End-to-end tracking, insight into progress or errors, full audit trail Automated Compare Testing Quick validation based on mappings Automated Regression Automated validation of business scenarios Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 7

8 iconvert+ Delivers Measureable Business Values and Outcomes iconvert+ manages complex insurance data conversions, delivers guaranteed on-time, error-free conversion through end-to-end automation at a fixed price or an outcome-based pricing with a guaranteed predetermined involvement of client s business architects time. Faster Conversion: End-to-end automation of transformation and testing enabling 30% reduction in conversion effort. Improved Quality: Guaranteed on-time, error-free conversion of all the contacts, policies, claims and financials Measureable Business Values Lower TCO: Outcome-based or fix pricing model with no license cost of iconvert+ and a predetermined time commitment from your SMEs. About Hexaware Hexaware is a leading global provider of IT & BPO services and consulting. The Company focuses on key domains such as Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Travel, Transportation, Logistics, Life Sciences and Healthcare. Our business philosophy, "Your Success is Our Focus," is demonstrated through the success we ensure for our clients. Hexaware focuses on delivering business results and leveraging technology solutions by specializing in Business Intelligence & Analytics, Enterprise Applications, Quality Assurance and Testing, Remote Infrastructure Management Services and Legacy Modernization. Founded in 1990, Hexaware has a well-established global delivery model armed with proven proprietary tools and methodologies, skilled human capital and SEI CMMI-Level 5 certification. For additional information please visit. Insurance Services Hexaware offers a complete range of IT-BPO-Infrastructure services to Life, P&C and Health Insurance, Reinsurance organizations and Brokers worldwide. With techno-functional industry certified consultants, Hexaware offers end-to-end solutions and services across the insurance value chain. Our endeavor is to proactively invest in researching and developing advanced solutions to address the emerging business problems. This translates into shortened implementation cycles and creates a toolset that is enhanced continuously to meet new and emerging challenges. For additional information please visit. For more information To learn more about Hexaware Insurance fraud management solution, please contact corporatemarketing@hexaware.com or visit NA Headquarters 1095 Cranbury South River Road Suite 10, Jamesburg, NJ Tel: Fax: India Headquarters 152, Sector 3 Millennium Business Park A Block, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai Tel: Fax: EU Headquarters Level 19, 40 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London - E14 5NR Tel: Fax: APAC Headquarters Level 19, 40 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London - E14 5NR Tel: Fax: For all Hexaware office locations, visit: corporatemarketing@hexaware.com Safe Harbor Certain statements on this whitepaper concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Hexaware has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 8