Legacy constraints are one of the reasons of delays in the implementation a Digital Insurance strategy. Generally the vision is that mobile and web portal solutions need to be integrated with the Back-End legacy systems to prevent inconsistency of data. Are there alternatives implementation methods available to speed up the need to become a Digital Insurer? inconsistency of data.

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Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement
Digital Insurance?
Legacy constraints are one of the reasons of delay to implement a
Digital Insurance strategy. Generally the vision is that mobile and
web portal solutions need to be integrated with the Back-End
legacy systems to prevent inconsistency of data. If we accept this
constraint, we will delay the implementation of Digital Insurance
with many years as legacy problems and constraints are not easy
to solve. Connecting modern mobile apps and portals to legacy
systems will need most of the time a full redesign of the legacy
system environment.
There is a way out of this problem. The implementation of an Enterprise Service Bus and a transactional
database outside the legacy environment, for example in a cloud are the basis of integrating the mobile
and web functionality with the back-end legacy systems. This view needs adaptation as it changes the
dominant position of the legacy systems as the single source of truth which could be a bridge to far for
many people in the organization. However it is the way to decouple the IT components and a start to
implement a more agile IT system environment.
How does it work?
The implementation of Insurance services on mobile devices connected to a transactional database in
the cloud which is connected to the legacy back end, needs a state of the art IT design developed by
experienced (in Digital Insurance) IT architects and designers. These architects and designers are by
default not available in the organization as IT is legacy back-end focused. The available IT architects and
designers in the IT organization are lacking experience and knowledge in this field. They have to be
involved, educated and knowledge and experience from outside will help to define an agile, scalable and
sustainable Digital Insurance solution architecture.
In between the mobile application and the legacy systems a transactional database will be implemented
containing all data, necessary to deliver products and services through the mobile applications. Data
components included are leads, customers, distributors, quotations, policies, claims, cases, documents,

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Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement
Digital Insurance?
payments, messages, calendars, etc.. The transactional database contains real time data and is available
24x7. The mobile and web applications are using and feeding the transactional data.
The legacy systems will be integrated through an ESB which will transport and convert data to and from
the legacy systems. The connection to the legacy systems does not have to be a real time connection as
the transactional database will be highly accurate depending on the usage of the mobile and web
applications. The more the mobile and web applications are used by all customers and partners the
more accurate the transactional database will be with less concerns about a small percentage of data
fed by the legacy systems. The legacy systems will still be the single source of truth as 100% of the data
is finally stored in these systems for regulatory and compliance purposes.
The preference is to store the transactional database in a cloud outside the company’s datacenter to
prevent that this will be another obstacle. Cloud computing is safe when implemented by experienced
and reliable vendors who will help to convince regulators on the security and compliance topics. In a
later phase cloud computing should be a part of the data center strategy and the (maybe temporary)
cloud hosting by a provider of the transactional database could be integrated in a new data center
strategy.
It is of course easy to write this approach down in a few sentences, the architectural design and
implementation is more complex. The experience is this can be implemented in 3-6 months with the
right mindset and skilled people involved.
Are legacy constraints a barrier to implement Digital Insurance?
Paul de Bruijn
Singapore, September 29, 2015
Version 3
© Paul de Bruijn
www.pauldebruijn.com