Modernize Your Applications for Insurance
Continuously modernize – today’s modern application is tomorrow’s shelfware.
- Application modernization is essential to stay competitive and productive in today’s digital environment. This is done while taking into account security, data privacy, and compliance.
- Your application portfolio cannot sufficiently support the flexibility and efficiency the business needs because of legacy challenges. Speed to market is critical to preserving or improving market share.
- Application rationalization is also critical because most insurers' ecosystems are a mixture of systems that have come in through acquisitions.
- For the insurance industry application modernization programs are multi-year that are plagued with significant risks of cost and time overruns.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Build your digital applications around continuous modernization. End-user needs, technology, business direction, and regulations change rapidly in today’s competitive and fast-paced industry. Insurance companies need to focus on innovation for improving customer experience and product design, making products and services accessible across digital channels. Build continuous modernization into the center of your digital application vision to keep up with evolving business, end-user, and IT needs.
- Application modernization is organizational change management. If you build and modernize it, they may not come. The crux of successful application modernization is the strategic, well-informed, and onboarded adoption of changes in key business areas, capabilities, and processes. Organizational change management must be front and center so that applications are fit for purpose and are something that end users want and need to use.
- Business-IT collaboration is not optional. Application modernization will not be successful if your lines of business (LOBs) and IT are not working together. IT must empathize with how LOBs operate and proactively support the underlying operational systems. LOBs must be accountable for all products leveraging modern technologies and be able to rationalize the technical feasibility of their digital application vision.
- Understand where and when to modernize. Factors to be considered includes the size and complexity of IT’s infrastructure, budget and timeline for modernization, and company’s willingness to take risks.
Impact and Result
- Establish the digital application vision. Gain a grounded understanding of the digital application construct and prioritize these attributes against your digital business goals.
- Define your modernization approach. Obtain a thorough view of your business and technical complexities, risks, and impacts. Employ the right modernization techniques based on your organization’s change tolerance.
- Build your roadmap. Clarify the organizational changes needed to support modernization and adoption of your digital applications. Continuously evaluate the impact of your modernization project to help ensure that you’re staying on track.
Workshop: Modernize Your Applications for Insurance
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Build Your Vision
The Purpose
- Align on the vision and principles for your application modernization initiative.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Clear application modernization objectives and high-priority value items
- Your digital application vision and attributes
- Key principles that will guide your application modernization initiatives
Activities
Outputs
State your objectives
- Application modernization objectives
Understand your application stakeholders
- High-priority business value items
Define your digital application
- Digital application vision
List your modernization principles
- Modernization principles
Module 2: Identify Your Business Opportunities
The Purpose
- Identify candidate areas where application modernization would have the most value.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understanding of the value delivery improvements modernization can bring
- Map the high-level business capabilities to each stage of your value stream
Activities
Outputs
Understand your value streams
- High-priority value streams
Evaluate supporting capabilities
- Application capability maps and application functions and business capabilities that are candidates for modernization
Module 3: Discuss Your Modernization Options
The Purpose
- Evaluate the different modernization scenarios.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Clear understanding of what must be changed to the organization and application considering your change tolerance
- An achievable modernization plan
- Prepare for the risks ahead
Activities
Outputs
State your change tolerance
- Change tolerance assessment
Build your strategic roadmap
- Modernization strategic roadmap
Shortlist your techniques
- Proposed modernization techniques and scope
Conduct a risk assessment
- Risk assessment
Module 4: Create Your Tactical Roadmap
The Purpose
- Build your tactical roadmap.
- Craft your presentation strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Build an actionable modernization plan
- Pitch to the company’s executives
Activities
Outputs
Build your tactical roadmap.
- Modernization tactical roadmap
Craft your presentation strategy.
- Discussion on modernization presentation strategy
Modernize Your Applications for Insurance
Continuously modernize – today’s modern applications are tomorrow’s shelfware.
Executive Brief
Analyst Perspective
Focus modernization on organizational value delivery.
Today’s modern applications are tomorrow’s shelfware. They will gradually lose their value, and the supporting technologies will become obsolete. Therefore, modernization is a continuous need. Many decision makers struggle, however, to determine when and how to modernize continuously, given the perceived risk and high investment required. But this does not have to be the case.
Focus modernization on the capabilities and functions that matter to your business so you can strengthen the case for further modernization efforts and build trust with all stakeholders. Your goal is to deliver changes that will benefit your entire organization, not just a single business or IT unit.
The insurance industry is undergoing rapid change, requiring adaptability and the use of agile methodologies for success. Insurance innovation is focused on enhancing customer experience and personalizing products, driven by convenience and accessibility.
To remain competitive and meet evolving customer needs, insurance companies are under pressure to adopt new technologies. The industry's complex and ever-changing regulatory landscape adds further challenges, as insurers must navigate varying requirements across jurisdictions, continuously evolving regulations on data privacy and security. Traditional insurers are facing difficult decisions and choices in this evolving environment.
Ricardo de Oliveira
Research Director, Application Delivery and Application Management
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
Your Challenge
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Common Obstacles
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Info-Tech’s Approach
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Insight Summary
- Build your digital applications around continuous modernization. End-user needs, technology, business direction, and regulations change rapidly in today’s competitive and fast-paced industry. Insurance companies need to focus on innovation for improving customer experience and product design, making products and services accessible across digital channels. Build continuous modernization into the center of your digital application vision to keep up with evolving business, end-user, and IT needs.
- Application modernization is organizational change management. If you build and modernize it, they may not come. For successful application modernization, there must be strategic, well-informed, and onboarded adoption of changes in key business areas, capabilities, and processes. Organizational change management must be front and center so that applications are fit for purpose and are something that end users want and need to use.
- Business-IT collaboration is not optional. Application modernization will not be successful if your lines of business (LOBs) and IT are not working together. IT must empathize with how LOBs operate and proactively support the underlying operational systems. LOBs must be accountable for all products leveraging modern technologies and be able to rationalize the technical feasibility of their digital application vision.
- Understand where and when to modernize. Factors to be considered include the size and complexity of IT’s infrastructure, budget and timeline for modernization, and your company’s willingness to take risks.
Understand the digital umbrella.
“Going digital” is about much more than strategy and a few new apps.
It requires a complete reinvention of how business and IT operate: integrated teams that deliver their products and services to their customers preferentially through technology.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
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A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
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