In 2017, Allianz chose StringData as its strategic partner for the creation of a new insurance portal. The aim was to modernise technology and at the same time increase the availability and security of the system.
In the context of the newly created platform, we implemented five applications for arranging insurance products (including life insurance and property insurance) and several supporting applications in parallel, such as re-implementing the system for the management of the insurance agent network. This highly successful project was near completion at the end of 2020. Feedback from Allianz and end users, who were hitherto employees of the internal sales network and cooperating agents, has been very positive. At the end of 2020, there were more than 13,000 active users and approximately 1,000 contracts concluded per day.
In early 2021, the company’s regional management presented another challenge in the form of a request for the implementation of newly designed, centrally integrated negotiation flows for arranging insurance. Eight countries in the region participated in this centrally managed project. The first product to be addressed in the context of this project was a web-based application for arranging property insurance for end clients.
The modernisation project was very successful and the client is very happy with the result. The online application for arranging insurance is available on Allianz website.
When choosing a supplier, Allianz turned to StringData for several reasons. Based on our previous cooperation, Allianz had positive experience with StringData and, at the same time, it needed to align newly developed applications for arranging insurance with currently completed ones so they could run in parallel on the same backend layer.
The new modernisation project was a major challenge for StringData. We were given the opportunity to create a B2C product - an online application for arranging property insurance for end clients, which is crucial to the client’s core business activities.
Thanks to previous implementations and nearly four years of cooperation, it was clear how we would proceed in terms of technology, processes and communication. However, new challenges arose that needed to be confronted and resolved. The first was deadlines - after receiving project specifications, we had approximately two months to deliver a complete solution for UAT.
Another task was to meet the requirements for the new process, its visual design and method of operation. This was managed, monitored and validated on a regional level. The last, but no less important feature of the new solution was to maintain parallel operation. Both for the original and new solution with the option to process existing contracts in both these solutions. Another task was to enable the end client to complete an unfinished contract. The original solution offered a wider range of product configuration in this respect.
A very important step was the planned shutdown of the original application for arranging insurance. We planned to do this when we had developed a version of the application for arranging property insurance for the internal team and cooperating agents.
Thanks to our previous experience, knowledge of the product as such, functional communication with the client and a proven iterative solution method, we managed to meet set deadlines. Where necessary, we worked with representatives of business owners to operatively address the scope of the solution and possible simplifications to maintain business objectives.
Perhaps the biggest challenge was to meet centrally delivered process and visual requirements. These were often changed and supplemented over the course of development. Consultation with the internal team helped us here. They had previous experience with this cooperation and were able to arrange exceptions to regional requirements, where necessary, in cases which would have meant significant delays.
We were wholly responsible for ensuring compatibility, so we were least worried about this task. We decided to retain the original model. We extended this slightly and defined a set of transformation rules that would reflect the centrally designed process flow, thereby ensuring backward and forward compatibility.
The whole project was a great success. Regional comments on the process and its visual design were successfully incorporated and data transformation was verified not only on the basis of automated tests, but also in the UAT phase. After 2.5 months of intensive development, we received permission to deploy from the client, although permission from the region was also required at this stage. Apart from StringData, only one other country in the region managed to complete the whole project in the timeframe planned by regional management.
We are pleased that the project was successful and that the client was happy with the result. StringData passed muster, or rather passed with distinction in international comparison. You can take a look at the result of our work on the Allianz website.
The modernisation of the agents’ version according to regional requirements is currently nearing completion and the original version of the application for arranging property insurance is planned to be switched off by the end of 2021.
Based on previous positive experience, the same StringData internal team behind the successful implementation of the Allfa platform worked on the project. And this with the same offshore team on the part of Allianz.
