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ERP in insurance: features, tools, value & services
June 20, 2023
Insurance ERP is an ERP solution for insurance companies to run and integrate core business processes, including claims and policy management, HR and contract management, subscription and document management, finance and accounting, human capital and transaction management.
Operating in the software engineering industry since 1998, Itransition has delivered effective enterprise resource planning solutions for the insurance sector. The company prides itself in helping companies personalize customer service and accelerate the speed of service delivery, automate business processes and reduce labor costs, as well as achieve data consistency and ensure regulatory compliance.
About Itransition
10+ years in ERP services
50+ completed projects of different scales across various industries
Hands-on expertise in delivering custom, platform-based, and hybrid ERP solutions
An Odoo Silver Partner
A NetSuite Solution Provider
Looking for a trustworthy partner for an ERP project?
Client spotlight
Claim management software for a UK startup
Itransition developed a highly configurable, microservice-based, and pay-per-use SaaS solution with an open API for insurance companies to manage claims and policies lifecycles, quickly introduce new insurance offerings and enhance customer experience.
Insurance workflow management system
Itransition enhanced a custom insurance workflows management system by implementing advanced automation features, including calculations, reporting, and customization to help users optimize existing workflows and business processes.
Insurance ERP key capabilities
An insurance ERP system is an integrated solution. Itransition’s team defines the number and types of functional modules depending on the company’s business specifics and goals.
Claims management
Supporting the end-to-end claims management workflow to increase employee productivity, reduce fraudulent claims and the cost of claim resolution, and improve customer experience.
- Electronic claims submission
- First notification of loss (FNOL) management
- Automated claims verification, assessment and assignment
- Claims status tracking
- Claims reporting
- Analytics capabilities to identify fraudulent claims
- Alerting and notifications
Underwriting
Streamlining the underwriting process while strictly following regulatory compliance and eliminating costly mistakes to personalize customer experience and reduce costs.
- Customers’ applications processing
- Executing pre-written rules and policies
- Automated risk assessment
- Standard and premium quote calculation
- Compliance management
- Pricing and rate analysis
Policy management
Keeping all related information (policyholders’ information, quotes, renewals) in the centralized database to manage the entire insurance policy lifecycle for various customers and insurance lines.
- Quote management
- Insurance policy workflow management (policy generation, editing, tracking, approval, and ending)
- Policy storage, sharing and distribution
- Policy tracking
- Policy reporting and audit
- Access control management
- Version control
- Alerting and notifications
Task management
Automating task management activities to streamline workflows, improve collaborations, and employee productivity to achieve set goals.
- Task and subtask planning and scheduling
- Task review and update
- Task assignment
- Alerts and notifications
- Time tracking
- Task visualization (completed tasks, overdue tasks, to-do-lists)
User management
Automating user account management to enable fast and secure access to relevant information for authorized parties, avoid information leakage, and comply with regulatory requirements.
- User account creation, modification, deletion
- User onboarding
- User role assignment
- Permissions level configuration and assignment
- User permissions monitoring
- Complete audit trail of account activity
- Drill-down on user account activity and access
- Detailed reporting on user authorization, authentication, and permission levels
- Communication panel
Supplier management
Automating supplier management activities to distribute workforce efficiently, reduce operating costs and increase customer satisfaction.
- Supplier registration
- Work orders creation, assignment, and scheduling
- Work order progress monitoring
- Invoicing and payment management
- Job costing
- Supplier performance tracking and evaluation
Subscription management
Helping companies manage subscription fees and personalize relationships with customers to ensure they have a seamless experience.
- Payment processing
- Billing management (bill collection, accounts receivable reconciliation)
- Invoicing
- Client payment history storage
- Customer service management
- Analytics (customer lifetime value, churn analysis)
- Reporting
Document management
Providing capabilities for storing, organizing and accessing documents (policy applications, customer proofs, policyholder agreements, etc.) to help users access the required data anytime and anywhere and collaborate, secure documents from unauthorized access, and minimize the risk of documents loss and damage.
- Document imaging and indexing
- Electronic signatures
- Global search
- Access control management
- Document editing
- Automated data backup
- Document sharing and collaboration
- Mobile support
- Version control
Key integrations of insurance ERP systems
Itransition can connect ERP software with other corporate applications to increase the value of your ERP system. Integrations will help to facilitate seamless data flow across business departments, achieve data consistency, and automate business processes.
CRM
We combine all customer-related data collected and stored within the CRM software with the operational data from ERP:
- Optimize marketing and sales efforts
- Increase brand awareness and retention
Business communication solutions
We enable secure two-way communication and smooth collaboration between departments, employees, and policyholders:
- Set notifications and alerting in case of disruptions
- Streamline activity planning and scheduling
Financial and accounting software
We unify all financial transactions into a central hub and gain end-to-end visibility into all financial processes:
- Forecast costs and potential revenue
- Design budgets accordingly
Customer portal
We ensure your customers get quick access to their accounts to learn relevant information on current products and services:
- Check claims resolution status
- Manage invoices and statements
BI software
We help employees get a consolidated view of the overall performance of the organization:
- Perform an advanced risk assessment and detect fraudulent claims
- Predict customer behavior and devise efficient strategies
Need help with choosing the optimal ERP software for your needs?
ERP platforms to consider
Key features
- CRM
- Contracts management
- Claims management/helpdesk
- Accounting
- Sales
- Invoicing
- Human resource management
- Marketing automation
- Document management
- Recurring sales and subscriptions management
- Reporting capabilities
Best for
- Small insurance organizations
- Mid-sized insurance organizations
Limitations
- Challenging to scale and maintain without expert help
As a cloud-native ERP platform, Oracle Netsuite is a scalable and flexible ERP platform that helps companies in the insurance sector automate and streamline core business processes and workflows.
Key features
- Finance management and accounting
- Service and marketing automation
- Human resource management
- Billing
- Asset management
- CRM
- Opportunity management
- Planning and budgeting
- Revenue recognition
- Financial analytics
- Reporting
Best for
- Companies of all sizes
Limitations
- Price hikes in the long run
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a comprehensive business management solution built for the cloud.
Key features
- Financial management
- Customer relationship management
- Contract management
- Opportunity management
- Human resources management
- Service contract management
Best for
- Small companies
- Mid-sized companies
Limitations
- A wide ecosystem of implementation providers/resellers, which complicates ERP vendor selection
SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA is an ERP platform that allows insurance firms to manage claims, book account statements, treaties, and more within one central system.
Key features
- Financial management and accounting
- Customer relationship management
- Employees monitoring and management
- Sales management
Best for
- Growing companies and enterprises
Limitations
- Lack of flexibility
Our ERP software implementation roadmap for the insurance industry
1-2
Analysis
Business needs analysis
System analysis
3
Requirements
Requirements elaboration
4
ERP conceptualization
ERP solution conceptualization and tech stack selection
5
Planning
Project planning, including project scope, budget, timeframes, and deliverables
6
Development
ERP solution development, customization, configuration and quality assurance
7
Integration
ERP platform integration into the existing tech environment
8
Data migration
Data transfer to the new system
9
User training
User training to streamline ERP adoption
10
Deployment
Deployment of the final product
11
Support
After-launch support and optimization
Business value of ERP for insurance companies
Improved workflow efficiency
Simplified information exchange and streamlined collaboration between business departments helps employees get quick access to the information they need on demand, increases process efficiency and saves time and effort associated with manual data management.
Customer service personalization
Instant access to actual and trustworthy customer data, vast analytics and reporting capabilities, customers being free to perform service requests on their own at their convenience, helps build and maintain a customer-centric experience, automate marketing activities, and optimize the sales funnel.
Streamlined data access
Consolidated data from across siloed departments stored in a central database helps ensure quick and secure access to consistent and trustworthy data anytime from anywhere with no manual effort required.
Human errors reduction
Elimination of error-prone repetitive manual data entries and manipulations helps maintain perfect data accuracy, aids in regulatory compliance and reduces operating costs.
Business growth enablement
360-degree company view, improved synergy between departments, and automated manual and time-consuming activities help insurance organizations make informed decisions and lay the groundwork for advanced analytics initiatives boosting business growth and profitability.
Insurance ERP services we offer
This is the scope of our advisory services for insurance companies that want to implement or optimize the existing ERP solution:
- Analysis of business needs and technology environment
- ERP strategy creation and roadmapping
- ERP solution architecture design
- ERP implementation support
- ERP software selection
We help insurance providers launch a highly-scalable and flexible ERP solution by taking on:
- Custom ERP development
- Quality assurance
- ERP customization
- Post-implementation support
- ERP software integration
Insurance ERP FAQs
How to select the best-fitting ERP option for insurance?
There is no one-size-fits-all ERP solution. Thus, while choosing an optimal enterprise resource planning platform in the insurance industry, you should consider the following criteria:
- ERP scalability and flexibility to define how quickly the solution may adapt to business requirements and grow standardization across the company
- Solution simplicity in terms of adoption and usage
- Integration capabilities and how open its architecture is
- Deployment model (on-premises, cloud, or hybrid)
- Prioritized functional requirements and industry focus
What are insurance ERP implementation risks?
One of the biggest risks connected with the ERP implementation projects is operational disruption – situations when insurance companies cannot close books, pay employees, or access customer data. To mitigate the risks connected with operational disruptions, companies should:
- Clearly define business processes before starting the ERP implementation workflow
- Invest and put considerable effort into change management
- Achieve alignment between the company’s executive, project team, and the rest of the stakeholders
- Test the ERP solution both from the technology perspective and user acceptance side.
What is the cost of ERP implementation?
The cost of insurance ERP varies exponentially due to a number of cost factors, such as:
- Implementation strategy (custom ERP development or platform-based ERP implementation)
- Software configuration and customization needs
- Integration requirements (number of systems to integrate with, integration approaches)
- License fees (varies due to deployment mode, number of functional modules/adds-on, number of users)
- Hardware-related costs (in the case of deployment on local servers)
- Data management activities (data integration, quality management, migration, real-time data processing)
- Quality assurance procedures
- ERP software maintenance and upgrades
- Security requirements
- User training and customer support
The abundance of cost factors could make any estimates misleading and affect your project planning. For some ballpark estimates, you may reach out to our ERP consultants.
Case study
Tenancy management software
Find out how Itransition developed a tenancy deposit replacement application for Hamilton Fraser, a UK insurance provider.
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