ALIP Decoupling front and back endsAddressing the challenge of multi-channel distribution while industrializing production

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To help achieve profitable growth, High Performance life and annuity carriers need to manage the shifting but specific needs of distribution channels and customers, as well as improve the efficiency of their back-office operations. The Accenture Life Insurance & Annuity Platform (ALIP) can help with the right functional and technology stacks to decouple distribution and production.

Accenture constantly collaborates with life and annuity carriers, helping them to meet their ongoing challenges. We listen actively to the needs of those who drive industry practices, using that understanding to guide our direction, focus our efforts, and shape our software.

ALIP offers a Web-based, configurable, and easily deployable interface coupled with an efficient integration layer to address the ever-changing needs of customers. By decoupling distribution and production, and allowing the fronting of multiple legacy administration systems when required, ALIP offers a smooth path towards systems consolidation. The solution provides immediate usability benefits whilst spreading out the costs over time.

Latest benefitsAdvanced fronting capabilities: ALIP’s user interface provides all the flexibility required to address the needs of multiple distribution channels and the tools to empower business users. Workflow, business rules, tasks management and style sheets work together to deliver an optimized user experience without the need for programming. The solution can provide process flows specifically designed for consumers, agents, distribution partners and home-office users. The Web

services integration layer is designed to ease deployment across multiple legacy platforms whilst reducing the associated cost. It is designed to be used with the newest user experiences in the marketplace, including smart phones, tablets and Rich Internet Applications.

Smooth path towards systems consolidation: Sometimes the costs of legacy conversion outweigh the benefits—but a new platform is still needed to support product innovation. In these cases, the user interface can be used to encapsulate legacy systems, offering a single, configurable user experience across the entire enterprise.

Service definitions formally separate front and back end layersALIP has been designed to expose its business functions as Web services.

These services are used to decouple front and back end layers. The framework is designed to make new back-end capabilities invisible during day-to-day operations.

Discover how to accelerate speed to market with our solution if you are interested in:• Reducing the cost of new product rollouts.

• Maximizing the effectiveness of your product designers.

• Improving your competitive position when introducing new products.

Figure 1. Decoupling front and back ends

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With a consistent front-end, business operations are processed more efficiently and more consistently, and training requirements are reduced. Business configuration efforts are performed only once, but are shared across multiple back-end systems.

A sustainable architectureWith its decoupling approach, ALIP provides a mediation layer to build upon. Faithful to its platform-neutral approach, the style and transport mechanism is flexible and includes Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web Services and Java. This architecture allows the solution’s administrative functions to be called from nearly anywhere, in any fashion-via services or batch operations.

How does ALIP help life and annuity carriers?• Enables the roll-out of innovative products faster and more frequently.

• Reduces development expense.

• Reduces costs through operational efficiency.

• Improves consistency.

• Enhances customer service.

• Enables better use of IT resources.

• Provides robust system functionality.

• Supports a global delivery model.

Achieving high performanceALIP eases the critical path of new product development, helping life and annuity carriers to compete more effectively and, ultimately, achieve high performance. In this way, organizations can be more nimble and responsive to the needs of an everchanging insurance marketplace. For instance, after switching from a legacy environment to ALIP, one insurer cut new product roll-out time by approximately 65 percent, while tripling the number of new product introductions.

Accenture is positioned in the "leaders" quadrant in Gartner's 2014 "Magic Quadrant for North American Life Insurance Policy Administration Systems" report. Accenture has been positioned in the 'Leaders' quadrant in this report for the last two years.

Figure 2. Data capture pages: New application and transfer

Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for North American Life Insurance Policy Administration Systems" by Kimberly Harris-Ferrante 3 September 2014.

The MarketScope is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Copyright © 2015 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

Contact usFind out how ALIP can help your organization achieve high performance:

Nancy BassSales and Client Management LeadAccenture Software for Life and Annuity nancy.bass@accenture.com

Or, visit www.accenture.com/lifeandannuitysoftware

About the MarketScopeGartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About AccentureAccenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company, with approximately 323,000 people serving clients in morethan 120 countries. Combining unparalleledexperience, comprehensive capabilitiesacross all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’smost successful companies, Accenturecollaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home pageis www.accenture.com. Accenture Software combines deeptechnology acumen with industryknowledge to develop differentiatedsoftware products. It offers innovativesoftware-based solutions to enableorganizations to meet their business goalsand achieve high performance. Its homepage is www.accenture.com/software. For Life Insurance and Annuity software, its home page is www.accenture.com/lifeandannuitysoftware.

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