Medscheme Life Assurance Company has contracted Software Futures to develop a bespoke Oracle-based administration system for its long-term insurance products.
Medscheme Group's integrated approach to the management of medical schemes has positioned it to extend its existing business model and diversify into risk underwriting. Medscheme Life aims to align the group's clinical and financial risk management services which impact on disability risk and life expectancy.
Software Futures has designed, developed and implemented the administration system in a shortened development time, enabling the assurance company to enter the market sooner than expected. The system has gone live and all modules are expected to be functional by early 2003.
"The contract was awarded to Software Futures on the basis of the results from a thorough tender process," says Conrad Backeberg, Medscheme Life MD. "This has led to major cost savings as a large portion of the functionality required for the system was in place."
Software Futures has built a strategic relationship with Sovereign Health, part of the Medscheme Group, and provides the company with full IT support. The Sovereign Health administration system has been used as a platform for the development of Medscheme Life's system.
"Sovereign's system is a state-of-the-art medical fund administration system," says Gavin Nauschutz, business development manager at Software Futures. "Based on that, we have developed an insurance system for Medscheme Life that is entirely client-centric rather than the traditional policy-centric approach. Another important feature is that it is totally workflow-based."
Medscheme Life will use the system to interact with policy-holders across the full client services spectrum.
"We felt there was scope to integrate medical scheme and long-term insurance product benefits and manage these more effectively," says Backeberg. "With Software Futures, Medscheme Life has created a system that prevents duplication of cover and simultaneously achieves cost synergies to the benefit of our clients."
The fully integrated, Web-enabled system provides real-time interfacing, and leverages the existing system's well established infrastructure, with significant overlap in the functionality and components required.
"The system has major benefits for our clients," says Backeberg. "Because it is customer-oriented, clients need only give their names to access all information pertaining to them across all policies, whether for life, death, investment, or health insurance. This integrated approach to risk management and benefit design should result in operational efficiencies in benefits delivery, and improved risk benefit pricing. Further spin-offs will include increased productivity and greater customer satisfaction."
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