Rethinking Insurance Product Development With Insurance Product Configurator

IRDAI's newly proposed overhaul of the insurance distribution framework as per their report titled "Recalibrating Economics of Insurance Distribution," focuses on lower expense limits, revamped commission structures, the use of digital infrastructure and stronger safeguards against mis-selling to name a few.  

If implemented, this proposal could influence insurers' distribution strategies, particularly in the agent- and broker-driven models. This will now place greater emphasis on technology as an enabler of insurance distribution, making it important for insurers to equip customers, agents and brokers with self-service platforms that support them across the entire policy lifecycle, from issuance to servicing. 

This makes it increasingly important for insurers to adopt low-code insurance product configurators that help them enable distribution partners through portals and APIs, while supporting partner-specific journeys.

What Does the Current Landscape of Digital Portals and Self Service Look Like for Insurers? 

Many insurers have launched portals powered by APIs exposed by their core systems, taking the first step towards becoming digital-first insurers. However, the effort involved in managing and updating these core system-driven portals can increase over time, particularly as product and underwriting teams make changes to existing products. 

Traditional Approach to Web Enablement for Insurance Products   

Most in-house portals built using core system APIs require custom development. When product or underwriting teams change the underlying logic, the corresponding updates may need to be made to the APIs through middle-office development and then reflected in the front end. This can involve development and testing across multiple systems for a single change. 

Customizing core systems to support different distribution requirements may not always be a repeatable approach for insurers, particularly when building an omnichannel distribution technology stack across multiple products and channels.

Insurers may be serving distribution channels such as agents, brokers, and customers, who primarily use portals, while B2B2C partners, aggregators, and other distribution partners may rely more heavily on APIs. Supporting these different channels through custom development can require additional effort as insurers expand their distribution networks and introduce more product variations. 

How Insillion's Insurance Product Configurator Helps Insurers

Rather than relying on APIs exposed by the core system, carriers can use Insillion as a digital middle office layer that works alongside their core systems. This externalized system allows them to build digital partner and customer buy journeys without requiring extensive custom development for every change.

With the traditional approach, custom development is often required to accommodate more granular requirements. For instance, creating a four-step workflow for agents and a three-step workflow for an OEM partner, each with its own tailored buy journey and preferred rates, may require additional development time and ongoing maintenance. 

Insillion's low-code insurance product configurator gives carriers greater control over product setup, distribution partner journeys, and underwriting rules, while helping reduce dependence on lengthy development cycles. 

Why Use a Low-code Insurance Product Configurator alongside Core Systems?

Core systems are built to prioritize stability and reliability. But front-end systems often need greater flexibility to accommodate evolving distribution partner requirements and changing customer journeys. A low-code approach can help bridge this gap, allowing carriers to adapt their digital experiences without making every change dependent on core system development. 

Insillion's low-code insurance platform replaces much of the custom coding involved in portal development with configuration-based product setup, allowing business users to configure products without generating code for every change. 

For insurers - instead of spending time on custom development, their teams can configure product elements such as plans, coverages, validations, premium calculation logic, and product variants. 

Using pre-built templates for faster implementation

For standard commercial lines such as fire and group medical, we've found that coverages and certain add-ons are uniformly used across the industry, so we've created product templates with those commonly required elements. During implementation, carriers can focus on the aspects that distinguish their products, such as rating and premium methodologies, underwriting approaches, and front-end portal themes.  

Starting with these templates can reduce development effort and help bring products to market sooner. 

Reusing workflows and product components

We've also found that many insurance products share similar underlying workflows. Insillion allows carriers to reuse existing workflows and configurations across products and distribution channels, rather than building the same components repeatedly.

For example, if a broker workflow has been configured for Marine STOP, it can be reused for Marine SMP where the requirements align. Instead of developing the workflow separately for each product, the carrier can clone and adapt the existing configuration for the relevant channel. The same approach applies to other product components, including coverages and underwriting rules. 

The aim of utilizing the low code insurance product configurator is to reduce custom development, encourage business-user-led configuration, and standardize product setup through reusable components; making future product changes easier to manage. 

Combining the Insurance Product Configurator with the Low-Code Platform

With the traditional approach, the middle office, which manages the insurance product configuration, premium computation, and rating logic, is often separate from the front office, which includes customer, agent, and broker portals.

As a result, changes made in the middle office may need to be replicated in the systems managing the front end. In some cases, insurers may also maintain multiple codebases for different distribution channels, such as B2B and B2C, increasing the effort required to maintain and update products. 

One reason for this separation is that core systems may not support the flexibility or responsive UI required for digital portals. Insurers may therefore need a separate system to manage the front office, adding to development costs and requiring additional rounds of regression testing whenever changes are made. 

At Insillion, the insurance product configurator and low-code platform bring the middle and front offices together. Changes to pricing, insurance rating, and product configuration are reflected in the front-office portals without requiring duplicate development. Additionally, in Insillion all the distribution channels are managed through a shared codebase, including B2B and B2C, making product updates easier to manage. 

By bringing these functions together, this reduces duplication and ongoing development effort. Once implemented, it also gives business and IT teams greater flexibility to make changes independently, without relying on an external partner for every update. 

AI-assisted UI/UX Portal Generation

Generating front-end portals for different distribution channels often involves repeatable, standardized tasks, making it a practical area to introduce AI into our low-code/no-code insurance platform. Insillion brings together the responsive, modern front-end experiences that insurers expect with a low-code insurance product configurator. Managing the front office and middle office within a single codebase also makes it easier to configure and maintain insurance products.

How Insillion automates insurance portal generation

Insurers can create UI/UX designs for different journeys with conditional logic and tailored workflows, whether for agents, sales teams, or customer-facing channels. Using AI, these designs can be translated into front-end components and forms, then integrated with Insillion's middle-office configuration and workflows using Insillion AI Skills. 

This approach allows insurers to extend beyond predefined portal configurations through AI-assisted customization, subject to permissions and release governance.  

Insillion's AI Skills can also support quality checks by executing functional scenarios defined by business analysts, helping teams review and test changes more efficiently. 

Balancing AI-enabled portal development with governance

AI-assisted development is paired with human review, testing, permissions, and release controls to ensure that generated components and workflows are validated before deployment. 

By introducing AI into specific stages of product development, insurers can reduce manual effort and accelerate portal customization while retaining control over how changes are reviewed and released. This offers a way to simplify front-end development, bring together front and middle office and reduce the effort involved in building and adapting digital journeys. 

Reimagining Insurance Product Development 

IRDAI's proposed overhaul of the insurance distribution framework could create opportunities for insurers to diversify how they reach small commercial businesses, which may receive less attention from brokers managing competing priorities. Technology could help insurers better serve this segment by supporting more flexible and efficient distribution models. 

Investing in distribution technology requires balancing long-term industry goals with the ability to adapt to regulatory changes and evolving market needs. A configurable, low-code insurance platform can give business and IT teams greater control over product configuration, allowing them to make changes independently without relying on vendors for every update. This reduces the effort spent on routine maintenance and development, freeing teams to focus on innovation while continuing to deliver a good experience for distribution partners.