The Digital Transformation Dilemma in Insurance

The insurance industry stands at a critical crossroads. While customer expectations have evolved dramatically in the digital age, many insurers find themselves constrained by the very systems that once propelled them forward. Core insurance platforms—originally implemented as innovative solutions—have gradually transformed into complex labyrinths of code, becoming the primary impediment to digital transformation rather than its enabler.

This phenomenon isn't unique to any single company or region. Across the global insurance landscape, organizations grapple with legacy systems that demand extensive development cycles for even minor product changes, require specialized knowledge that becomes increasingly scarce, and struggle to integrate with modern digital ecosystems. The cost of maintaining these systems continues to escalate while their ability to support business agility diminishes.

The Winchester Mystery House: A Cautionary Tale for Legacy Systems

You might be familiar with the story of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. When Sarah Winchester, widow of the rifle magnate William Wirt Winchester, decided to build a mansion in his memory, she eschewed traditional architectural planning. Instead, she hired random construction workers to add pieces to the structure day by day, without a master blueprint or cohesive vision.

The construction continued for 38 years, resulting in an architectural curiosity filled with peculiar anomalies: doors that open to brick walls, staircases that lead nowhere, windows overlooking other rooms instead of the outdoors, and stairs with odd-sized risers that make navigation treacherous. What could have been a magnificent estate became a confusing maze—a monument to the importance of proper planning and design.

This analogy perfectly encapsulates the evolution of many core insurance systems. Over years and decades, we've been adding features, patching problems, and implementing workarounds without sufficient attention to the "big picture." Every organization claims to follow software development best practices and the software development lifecycle, yet somewhere between planning and execution, disciplined architecture gives way to expedient solutions. We apply cosmetic updates—what we generously call "following technological trends"—while the underlying structure becomes increasingly byzantine.

The inevitable conclusion? If we aspire to compete effectively in today's market, we must confront this challenge head-on. We can no longer postpone the transformation of our core systems. The question isn't whether to modernize, but rather: How and where should we begin?

My Journey to INSIS: A CTO's Perspective

I first encountered INSIS when I served as Chief Technology & Information Officer at one of Europe's largest insurance companies, Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik. When our executive leadership and board of directors decided to embark on a core insurance transformation initiative, we knew this decision would fundamentally reshape our technology landscape and business capabilities for years to come.

The Selection Process: Defining Success Criteria

Our evaluation process was rigorous and comprehensive. After consulting with Gartner analysts and conducting extensive market research, we developed a shortlist of candidate vendors. However, one criterion emerged as non-negotiable: the ability to configure the system parametrically with minimal dependence on custom coding.

This wasn't merely a technical preference—it was a strategic imperative. We understood that true agility and sustainable total cost of ownership would only be achievable if our business teams could configure products, rules, and processes without constantly requiring development resources.

In our competitive tender process, Fadata with its INSIS platform performed exceptionally, demonstrating capabilities that significantly exceeded our expectations and surpassed competing solutions.

Implementation at Scale: Big-Bang Migration

The project commenced in early 2015, and we adopted an ambitious big-bang implementation approach. Within less than two years, we completed one of the most comprehensive insurance platform transformations in the region:

• Legacy Infrastructure: Complete replacement of our AS/400-based legacy system
• Product Migration: All insurance products across life, pension, and health domains
• Policy Conversion: More than 5 million active and inactive policies migrated in a single day-close operation
• Business Continuity: The old day closed on the legacy system; the new day opened on INSIS with complete operational continuity

The Power of Configuration Over Coding

Perhaps the most compelling statistic from our implementation illustrates INSIS's configurability advantage. Given the highly regulated nature of Turkish insurance products and our specific business requirements, we compiled more than 6,000 detailed functional requirements.

The remarkable outcome? Nearly 5,000 of these requirements—approximately 83%—were implemented through parametric configuration without any custom software development. This wasn't about accepting limitations or compromising on functionality; it was about leveraging a platform designed from the ground up for flexibility.

About Fadata and INSIS: Industry Leadership

Company Background

Fadata was founded in 1990 in Sofia, Bulgaria, by a visionary team of former academics who understood both the mathematical complexities of insurance and the potential of information technology. Over three decades, they've completed implementations in more than 30 countries spanning all continents, with INSIS now deployed by over 60 insurance companies globally.

This success attracted significant investment attention. In 2016, British insurance giant Charles Taylor, together with leading private equity fund Riverside, acquired a majority stake in Fadata. The company's headquarters is located in Munich, Germany, with operations continuing from five offices across various countries, supported by an extensive global partner network.

Global Client Portfolio

Fadata's client roster includes some of the insurance industry's most recognized names, representing a diverse range of geographies and insurance domains:

• Europe: Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik (Turkey), Generali, Groupama, Zurich, Allianz, AXA
• Asia-Pacific: QBE, NN Group
• Middle East & Africa: Multiple implementations (some confidential until project completion)
• Americas: Canada Life, Standard Life

Recent years have seen Fadata secure contracts with very large insurers from the United Kingdom and continental Europe, whose names remain confidential until implementations are completed—a testament to the platform's enterprise-grade capabilities.

Industry Recognition

INSIS has earned recognition from the industry's most respected analyst firms:

• Gartner: Recognized as a leader in policy administration systems
• Celent: Leader status in multiple research reports and market assessments

Our team's reference implementation at Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik received the prestigious "Model Insurer Award" for Best Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation of 2018 from Celent—validation of both the platform's capabilities and the strategic approach to transformation.

Beakwise Partnership

Beakwise Inc. serves as Fadata's exclusive partner for the Africa and Middle East region, supporting insurers across these rapidly growing markets in their digital transformation journeys.

INSIS Architecture: Built for Flexibility and Scale

Comprehensive Insurance Domain Coverage

INSIS provides complete support for all major insurance domains within a single, integrated platform:

• Non-Life / Property & Casualty Insurance: Comprehensive support for all P&C products
• Life Insurance: Individual and group life products with full actuarial capabilities
• Pension & Annuities: Accumulation and payout phase management
• Health Insurance: Medical, dental, and supplemental health products
• Takaful / Islamic Insurance: Full compliance with Shariah principles

This unified approach offers significant advantages for insurers operating across multiple domains or considering expansion. Multi-country, multi-currency operations are natively supported, enabling multinational insurance groups to deploy a single instance serving multiple jurisdictions—dramatically reducing total cost of ownership while maintaining compliance with local regulations.

Configuration Tools: The Heart of INSIS

The platform's most powerful differentiator lies in the comprehensive suite of configuration tools accessible through the Product Configurator. These tools enable business users—product managers, actuaries, and business analysts—to design and deploy insurance products without writing code.

Core Configuration Repositories include:

• Products: Complete product definitions combining all insurance elements
• Covers: Individual coverage definitions for modular product construction
• Packages: Bundled coverage combinations for streamlined product offerings
• Financial Rules: Premium calculations, commission structures, discount rules, and tax treatments
• Annuity: Pension payout calculation rules and parameters
• Modalities: Premium payment frequency options and rules
• Policy Administration Rules: Cancellation policies, endorsement workflows, numbering schemes
• Claims: Claim type definitions, assessment workflows, and settlement rules
• People Roles: Customer, agent, beneficiary, and other party role definitions
• System Rules and Parameters: Global business rules and configuration parameters
• Layers: Multi-tier product structures for group and affinity programs
• Discounts: Promotional and loyalty discount configurations
• Taxes/Fees: Jurisdiction-specific tax and regulatory fee calculations
• Endorsements: Policy modification type definitions and approval workflows
• Product Parameters: Flexible product attributes beyond standard fields
• Policy Operations: Workflow definitions for all policy lifecycle operations
• Funds: Investment fund definitions for unit-linked products
• Questionnaires: Data collection forms for underwriting and claims
• Documents: Document template management and generation rules
• Short Rates: Pro-rata and short-rate cancellation coefficient tables

When a product manager needs company-specific rules or definitions, the Business Process Configurator enables them to add these elements easily, provided they have minimal technical background.

Product Cloning: Accelerating Time-to-Market

Once a product has been configured, INSIS's cloning capability becomes a game-changer. A product manager can:

1. Select an existing product as a template
2. Clone it with a single action
3. Modify only the differentiating parameters
4. Deploy the new product—often in minutes rather than weeks or months

This capability transforms an insurer's ability to respond to market opportunities, test product variations, and serve niche segments with specialized offerings.

Business Process Management (BPM): Guided Workflows

INSIS includes an integral Business Process Management engine that revolutionizes how operational and customer service staff interact with the system. Rather than requiring users to navigate complex screen hierarchies, remember intricate procedures, or rely on extensive training, INSIS BPM provides guided, step-by-step workflows.

How BPM Transforms User Experience:

1. Guided Navigation: Users start a predefined process and are automatically presented with the appropriate screens in sequence
2. Progressive Disclosure: Only relevant fields and options appear at each step, reducing cognitive load
3. Built-in Authorization: Workflow stages can automatically route to appropriate roles (e.g., data entry → manager approval)
4. Reduced Training Requirements: New staff become productive faster with guided processes
5. Consistency and Compliance: Standardized workflows ensure regulatory requirements and quality standards are consistently met

Example Workflow: Claims Processing
- Claims handler selects "New Claim" process
- System guides through: customer identification → claim details → loss assessment → documentation upload → approval routing → settlement configuration
- Each step presents only required fields with built-in validation
- Upon completion, claim automatically routes to claims manager for approval based on authority limits
- Approved claims proceed automatically to payment processing

This approach dramatically reduces errors, accelerates processing time, and creates a comprehensive audit trail—all while making the system more accessible to users.

Service-Oriented Architecture: 4,200+ APIs

INSIS is architected as a true Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) with exceptional openness and integration capabilities. The platform exposes more than 4,200 services as web services, available in both REST and SOAP protocols.

This extensive API library means that integration with third-party systems, external platforms, and modern digital channels is dramatically accelerated. Common integration scenarios—connecting to payment gateways, document management systems, CRM platforms, data warehouses, or customer portals—often require no custom development because appropriate services already exist.

Three-Tiered Service Architecture:

1. Core Services: Fundamental platform capabilities shared across all INSIS deployments, continuously enhanced with new versions
2. Country Layer: Jurisdiction-specific services addressing local regulatory requirements, common across all insurers in that market
3. Customization Layer: Company-specific services tailored to unique business requirements

This layered approach provides several critical benefits:

• Upgrade Safety: Customizations are isolated, enabling smooth platform upgrades without conflicts
• Modular Extension: New features can be added without affecting existing functionality
• Architectural Governance: Strict separation ensures system integrity and maintainability
• Reusability: Country layer services benefit all insurers in that jurisdiction

Organizations can train their internal development teams to build new services using INSIS's patterns and frameworks, gaining independence and flexibility without risking system stability.

Batch Processing and Job Scheduling

INSIS provides sophisticated tools for configuring and monitoring batch operations:

• Day/Month/Year Close Processes: Automated end-of-period operations
• Premium Billing Runs: Scheduled policy billing across the portfolio
• Commission Calculations: Agent and distribution partner compensation processing
• Regulatory Reporting: Scheduled generation of supervisory reports
• Policy Anniversaries: Automated processing of annual policy events
• Custom Schedules: Flexible scheduling for any batch operation

The batch monitoring tool provides real-time visibility into job execution, enabling operations teams to identify and address issues proactively.

Data Security, Privacy, and Authorization

GDPR Compliance: INSIS is fully compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and includes integrated tools for managing data subject requests, consent tracking, and data retention policies.

Granular Authorization: The platform's security model enables administrators to configure access permissions at extremely fine granularity—down to individual screen fields. This capability supports:

• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Segregation of duties
• Regional data restrictions
• Product-specific access limitations
• Field-level read/write permissions

Technology Foundation and Future Direction

Current Technology Stack:
- Database: Oracle (19c or higher recommended for optimal performance)
- Deployment: On-premises, private cloud, or public cloud infrastructure
- Architecture: Java-based, platform-independent application layer

Investment in Future-Proofing:
Fadata continues to invest significantly in R&D with a strategic priority to make INSIS database-agnostic, providing clients with greater flexibility in infrastructure choices and potentially reducing database licensing costs.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The latest evolution of INSIS includes an integrated AI module with pre-built machine learning models designed specifically for insurance operations:

• Automated Claims Triage: ML models assess claim complexity and route to appropriate handlers
• Fraud Detection: Pattern recognition identifying suspicious claims for investigation
• Underwriting Assistance: Risk assessment support for underwriters
• Customer Lifetime Value Prediction: Targeting high-value customer segments
• Lapse Prediction: Identifying policies at risk of cancellation for retention efforts

Several INSIS clients have already deployed these AI capabilities in production environments, achieving measurable improvements in operational efficiency and loss ratios. We recommend examining the published case studies for specific results.

Why INSIS? Summary of Key Advantages

1. True Multi-Domain and Multi-National Capability

Support all insurance lines—life, non-life, health, pension, Takaful—on a single platform. Serve multiple countries from one deployment with full localization and regulatory compliance for each jurisdiction.

2. Configuration Dramatically Reduces Time-to-Market

With 83% of typical requirements achievable through configuration rather than coding, product launches that previously required months can now occur in days or weeks. Business users gain autonomy to respond to market opportunities without IT bottlenecks.

3. Business Process Management Simplifies Operations

Guided workflows reduce training requirements, minimize errors, enforce compliance, and enable sophisticated authorization schemes—all while improving employee satisfaction through intuitive user experience.

4. Rich API Library Accelerates Integration

4,200+ pre-built REST and SOAP services mean most integration scenarios require minimal or no custom development. Connect to digital channels, third-party systems, and modern technology ecosystems rapidly and reliably.

5. Authorization and Security Meet Enterprise Requirements

Granular, field-level access control combined with GDPR compliance tools and comprehensive audit logging satisfy the most demanding governance, risk, and compliance requirements.

6. Sophisticated Batch Processing Infrastructure

Beyond simple job scheduling, INSIS provides a complete batch management and monitoring solution ensuring reliable execution of critical periodic processes.

7. Parametric Design Provides Long-Term TCO Advantages

By minimizing custom code, INSIS reduces the ongoing cost and risk associated with maintaining bespoke development. System upgrades are more predictable, staff dependencies are reduced, and technical debt is minimized.

8. Proven at Enterprise Scale

With 60+ global implementations including some of the world's largest insurers, INSIS has demonstrated its capability to handle complex, high-volume, mission-critical insurance operations across diverse regulatory environments.

Taking the Next Step in Your Transformation Journey

The insurance industry's transformation imperative is clear. Customer expectations, competitive dynamics, and regulatory pressures all demand modern, agile core systems capable of supporting digital business models. Legacy platforms—regardless of how well they served in the past—increasingly constrain rather than enable business strategy.

INSIS represents a proven path forward: a mature, feature-rich platform that has successfully replaced legacy systems at dozens of insurers globally while delivering the flexibility, performance, and modern architecture needed for the digital age.

Whether you're an insurer beginning to contemplate core system transformation, actively evaluating platform options, or planning a migration strategy, we invite you to explore how INSIS might serve your organization's specific needs.

Contact Beakwise to learn more about INSIS, discuss your transformation challenges, or arrange a demonstration:

📧 Email: info@beakwise.com
📞 Phone: +90 216 755 15 12
🌐 Website: www.beakwise.com

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This article represents the personal experience and professional opinion of Haldun Aydoğdu, who served as CTO during the INSIS implementation at Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik and currently serves as CEO of Beakwise, Fadata's exclusive partner for the Africa and Middle East region.