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Five Questions to Ask Cloud Policy Admin Vendors

Written by: Ron Scheese

An increasing number of life insurance and annuity carriers are leveraging modern software as a service technology for their core systems.

This shift toward cloud-based policy administration systems has created significant benefits – increased efficiency, better organizational agility and reduced costs. But cloud-based policy administration vendors vary greatly – and choosing the right one is crucial to carrier performance and information security.

Before taking your policy administration system to the cloud, make sure you ask potential vendors the following five questions.

1. Do you offer a true private cloud?

Some vendors offer a true “private cloud,” which is fully controlled by the outsource policy administration vendor, rather than the cloud provider itself. True private clouds, like Andesa’s, offer greater protection against security breaches and data loss, in addition to significant performance advantages.

2. What is your disaster recovery plan?

A cloud policy vendor should have the necessary technologies and strategy in place to mitigate disruption if a catastrophic event were to occur. For example, at Andesa, we have fully redundant monitored data centers in multiple locations – different time zones, power grids and internet backbones. This way, if a disaster occurred, the integrity of our systems would not be compromised and functions would be cut over to a new location – essentially invisible to the user.

3. What is your experience level?

Some vendors offering cloud-based policy admin solutions are either IT firms that are relatively new to the life insurance space, or traditional outsource life insurance service providers that are new to SaaS. Finding a vendor that offers both advanced SaaS technology and extensive experience in the life industry is essential to a smooth transition into the cloud.

4. How do you handle data conversion?

Converting data from old legacy systems into a cloud setting can cause substantial risk and headache for most cloud policy admin solutions. Andesa, equipped with established technology and methodology, can create custom data maps and perform accurate, validated conversions both efficiently and securely.

5. Can you handle complex or unusual situations?

Andesa has a fully integrated SaaS solution set, which is capable of handling products as simple as whole or term life, or as complex as multi-life corporate- and bank-owned policies. We have a highly configurable system that can scale to meet the needs of any size insurer.

Conclusion

Regardless of the potential benefits of moving life insurance policy administration to the cloud, not committing the necessary time and focus to choosing the right vendor can have negative consequences. Ask your vendor these five questions when making your choice, and there’s a very good chance that the decision you make will be the best one for you.

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