The Recipe for Group Insurance Ecosystem Integration
Introduction
My friends and family would all agree that I’m a man of simple tastes. Fine dining for me includes basic, but satisfying dishes, especially ones whose recipes are foolproof enough for a culinary novice like myself. Like simple recipes, group insurers’ ecosystem integration requires some basic steps to yield the desired result: a robust framework to increase efficiency and provide value for customers, distributors, and other constituents. Insurers need the right mix of modern technology, planning, and prioritization before they can develop an integration approach for implementing and managing a sizable network of APIs. This blog will boil down the steps necessary for successful ecosystem integration.
Ecosystem Integration
The prep work
Ideal ecosystem integration begins with defining the right approach, driven by the essential KPIs geared toward greater business goals. These KPIs enable carriers to set the right API strategy, with associated objectives that can help justify the necessary technology and organizational investments for success. For example, APIs with commonly used payroll, HRIS, and enrollment vendors may be necessary to reduce onboarding times for new cases and increase onboarding efficiency.
Next, get organized with your software development lifecycle for APIs, just as you would manage the lifecycle of other applications. The right API testing environment can ensure reliability, security, and performance, but lots of testing and retesting may be required, especially when working with legacy systems. The resulting ecosystem is likely to be as important as the core system over the long term, providing the right offerings, data, and new portals for a seamless operating environment and keeping you competitive in the marketplace.
Test until complete
Repeated testing is necessary to confirm that the APIs can foster complete insurance ecosystem integration by enabling the seamless, secure transfer of data between diverse systems. The digitally integrated ecosystem – inside and outside the organization – will support the real-time, personalized services that customers increasingly demand. Reliable, secure, and high-performing system integration can benefit top and bottom lines while propelling group insurers ahead of their competitors.
Garnish with change management
While ecosystem testing is underway, change management efforts are critical to support the new and evolving system environment. A change in one system will require potential API modifications for other systems, so formal version control processes should be implemented for all APIs. System administrators may want to consider emerging AI/ML approaches to find errors and send notifications before going live with the integrated system.
Final Thoughts
To deliver value and efficiency to brokers, employers, and employees, group insurers need integrated ecosystems that align technology and smart resource prioritization. With such choice ingredients as modern technology, planning, and prioritization, blended with fresh APIs, a structured integration approach, and a dash of change management, group insurers can serve up an integrated ecosystem for new data streams to cater to their constituents’ ongoing and evolving needs.
For more information on how Vitech’s solutions provide the integrated ecosystems and system agility for robust group insurance administration, click here.
