EXPANDING INSURANCE SERVICES TO NEW MARKETS

One of the three largest insurance and financial services companies was expanding their service footprint into mainland China.

China is one of the fastest growing insurance markets in the world, however there are a number of unique challenges, such as developing government regulation, a growing middle class with little knowledge of insurance products and actuarial challenges in accurately calculating risk.

With a substantial existing business software portfolio, the client wished to migrate the applications and localize them for the requirements of the Chinese market. A major issue was that the migration and localization needed to be done in a period of less than twelve months in order to meet the client’s business targets.

The systems to be migrated included backend actuarial systems and risk management applications as well as agent support and retail frontend systems. Everything from customer sales, to service, claims management, investigation and actuarial support were included.

Without the local staff to accomplish this project internally, the client had concerns about using an outside vendor for a missioncritical initiative of this nature. The insurance industry relies on high quality standards. Errors in risk calculation, or untimely responses to customer enquiries can expose the business to unacceptable levels of risk and result in a loss of customer satisfaction. So quality was a prime consideration.

Bamboo was chosen and established a dedicated team to perform the migration. The mandate was to complete the project within the required time frame, reduce costs and to improve quality levels.

For Bamboo, this was business as usual.

INSURANCE COMPANY EXPANDS TO NEW MARKETS

A major global insurance company wanted to quickly expand their insurance offerings into the Chinese mainland to benefit from the growing economy and to serve the rapidly developing middle class. The localized systems needed to be deployed in a short time frame, with reduced development costs while improving the current level of quality.

Risk Minimization Wanted

The client approached Bamboo to establish a captive project team who would be able to work directly with the business users under minimal supervision. Available client resources were scarce so formal analysis and development skills were essential in maintaining strict control of the project. Most importantly, all the systems needed to be ready for deployment before the start of the new fiscal year, less than twelve months away, to coincide with the launch of new products to the market.

Bamboo Delivered

Bamboo provided a dedicated project team to work directly with the various business owners. Full requirements regarding the differences between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese business practices, regulations and business strategies were documented to form the basis of the required system changes.

The technical expertise of Bamboo was brought to bear on a complex series of applications based on an Oracle suite of products with many inhouse extensions. The products included Oracle Application Server, Oracle Database, Oracle 9i Forms, Oracle 9i Reports, TOAD and Oracle APEX.

Services were performed on applications relating to insurance products covering property, liability, marine, engineering and domestic credit insurance, as well as shortterm health insurance and accident insurance for domestic and foreign clients.

The application migration project was completed two months ahead of schedule, including testing and enduser training. Bamboo’s CMMI Level 5 quality control systems ensured that the finished product exceeded the client’s internal quality guidelines. In addition, the work was completed at less than 60% of the cost of doing the work inhouse.

Mission Accomplished

Bamboo delivered early and under budget and enabled the successful expansion of the insurance business into mainland China. The highest accolade that a client can give after the successful completion of a project is the request to keep working on future projects. Bamboo continues to provide longterm maintenance services to the client from our Managed Application Maintenance Service platform.

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