CASE STUDY
My non-financial services background
also meant that I already had a strong
relationship with Amazon and was confident
that it could deliver.
How has the solution allowed you
to manage bulk risk transfers?
Previously, every month, many tens of
thousands of policies had to be processed
by people, determining monies paid in,
monies paid out and who was transferring
what to who. Each had different parameters
and terms. Then, at the end of the month,
the process would start again. If an error
was made, this caused mistrust because
inevitably, the error is made in favour of
the provider. It was also extremely labour-
intensive at both the client end and at the
end of the reinsurer.
Using Blockchain technology, DataArt built
a system whereby all the initial calculations
and terms could be set at the beginning
and subsequently, all calculations made
would be carried out automatically while
retaining transparency in the Blockchain.
This is transformative to the L&G reinsurance
business. The cost saving of labour at the
client end means that L&G became an
extremely attractive option, and instead of
being a cost drain like the old system was, it
became a revenue-generating technology.
they’ve used a component from others, or
they did something wrong. Despite whether
you keep things 100% in-house, this will
happen. The question is how you solve this
reality and the answer is by completing the
right testing.
Automatic testing must be carried out not
in the mindset that maybe there’s a bug,
but rather that there is a bug which must
be found. We test continuously and take a
Dev(Sec)Ops approach.
Why has this approach reduced
complexity compared to what you
were doing before?
The previous process for bulk pension risk
transfer involved many thousands of policies.
Both sides had their own spreadsheets,
each with their own complex calculations
with people checking the transactions.
The problem wasn’t just concerning the
person-hours involved, but the inevitability of
human error. By moving all the contracts into
a Blockchain solution, according to mutually
agreed calculations, the process was shifted
from months to minutes. Any change in
policies can be viewed by all, so the whole
thing becomes entirely transparent and
secure over the lifetime of policies, which can
be over many years. This is the ‘estua-re’
Blockchain solution which DataArt developed
for us and it’s a global first. n
What challenges have you faced
in terms of managing regulation,
reliability and cost?
What was the reason behind
selecting Amazon Web Services?
In technology you can make two types of
decisions – ones that could get you fired
and ones that could get you promoted.
Smart people, and in our case a smart
team, outsource the decisions that have
the potential to get you fired and carry out
the work that can get you promoted. We
don’t waste time on the non-core tasks such
as cloud hosting that can be carried out
more efficiently elsewhere. Amazon has the
economies of scale.
Selecting Amazon was an obvious decision
as the company is a market leader and can
handle the bulk. Outsourcing to Amazon
allows us to continue solving problems and
doing things that are core to the team.
www.intelligentcio.com
The solution is compliant with all regulation
and vastly improves transparency. Costs
have been hugely reduced for both L&G and
its clients.
How has the solution enabled the
company to scale its operations?
The speed of transaction that the solution
has enabled and its non-reliance on routine
tasks carried out by people means that L&G
Reinsurance can scale up at speed.
Why do you trust that the solution
is secure?
I take the approach that all software has
bugs. You are aware that bugs will be
brought in when you work with outside
suppliers. Either this will come from them,
OUR CORE
OBJECTIVE IS TO
TURN REVENUE-
DRAINING
TECHNOLOGY
AND PROCESSES
INTO REVENUE-
GENERATING
TECHNOLOGY
SOLUTIONS.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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