Competition is Fierce. Carriers must shorten time to market while reducing the cost of developing and supporting products. Competitive advantage goes to those with greater flexibility to meet new product demands for their markets and expand their distribution channels.

The Product Machine serves as a centralized product repository. Based on manufacturing and engineering principles, the Product Machine is designed to structure products into reusable components, very similar to an inventory management system. A powerful and unifying tool for the enterprise, the Product Machine manages all product information, including pricing, marketing, business rules, underwriting, and reports. All product details are maintained with searchable history. Product information is made available as services used by all down-stream systems, including claims. This approach eliminates redundant tasks, improves system quality and fosters accuracy and consistency across all systems, while reducing both time and cost.

A centralized product repository is the most efficient and cost effective process for managing complex insurance product information. Immediate benefits include:

• Manual, labor intensive processes with multiple non-value added steps are removed.
• Paper based processes, resulting in missing or inaccurate information are replaced by accurate, time stamped automated information.
• Lead times and the volume of processes involved to install/implement product changes, updates or new product launches are measurable reduced.
• Time to market is accelerated.

Independent from platform, database and application server, the Product Machine integrates into any system environment, as a centralized resource. Measurable benefit include:

• Centralizes product knowledge
• Decreased cost of product development
• Creates greater product flexibility
• Accuracy and consistency across systems
• Facilitates faster development and implementation through component reuse
• Achieves process and distribution efficiencies
• Facilitates and supports a uniform product structure
• Audit capability
• Detailed reporting capabilities

The Product Machine and its underlying methodology, streamlines the product development and implementation process, giving carriers a competitive advantage, accelerating time-to-market and reducing operating expenses.

A centralized product repository is the most efficient and cost effective process for managing complex insurance product information.