A leading insurance broker decided to expand. They wanted to move from selling policies to underwriting them. Years of customer knowledge gave them confidence. Motor insurance would be their starting point.
They selected software for policy creation and management. Now they needed integration with their core SAP system. But this wasn’t straightforward integration.
Motor insurance is complex. Payment terms are flexible. Policies change during their lifetime. Cancellations happen. The integration had to handle all these scenarios.
Pivot had delivered the interfaces early. But the third-party software wasn’t ready. There were no test files available. Testing couldn’t begin.
Most consultants would wait. Or walk away. Not Pivot.
The lead Pivot consultant took initiative. He developed a testing tool using Excel spreadsheets to test the interfaces he had built. No test files from the vendor? Pivot could test their own integration work.
Then he went further. He developed an error handling transaction for the interfaces. This allowed easy editing of invalid data for revalidation and reprocessing. It wasn’t part of the original scope. But he built it anyway.
By the time the third-party software was ready, everything was proven and working. The client had interfaces that worked perfectly. They also had testing tools they never expected. And error handling that exceeded their original plans.
All delivered within the original time budget.
Pivot’s consultants developed four interfaces using PI with web services and nightly batch files. An inbound policy interface captured policy data in SAP. This converted into sales orders for revenue recognition. It initiated recurring payments for monthly plans. Policy amendments and cancellations processed automatically.
An inbound payment request interface allowed payments processing in SAP. An outbound payment status interface fed information back to the calling system. An inbound GL movements interface mirrored the claims system ledger structure.
The work finished well ahead of budget. It was completed before the policy creation software was ready.
The project came in under budget and ahead of schedule. The extra time was deployed on other system improvements the client needed.
For an insurance broker entering the underwriting business, having robust systems with excellent error handling was crucial.
The best consultants deliver what’s asked for. The great ones also deliver what’s needed.
