Key Questions Insurers Need to Ask About Vendor Capabilities in Cloud Compatibility and Upgradability 

The past few years have seen a remarkably quick change in insurers’ attitudes towards cloud-based solutions. Prior to that, the idea of the cloud was often discussed, but just as often dismissed as unnecessary, risky, or not mature enough to support enterprise-scale operations. 

Today, many insurers are looking for SaaS-based, cloud solutions. They seek to reduce costs associated with licensing software, hardware, DR cost, as well as reaping the benefits of increased scalability, accelerated development of new products and lower IT involvement. 

However, not all cloud solutions are created equal. Some are upgraded regularly with minimal insurer involvement. But not all. Additionally, solutions may not be consistently applied across a vendor’s client base. It could be that a vendor has multiple versions of its solution in market, juggling upgrades and maintaining a variety of more or less advanced releases. 

The ideal scenario is to work with a vendor who makes regular upgrades and implements them across all clients at the same time, ensuring that you’ll always be at the forefront of development. 

To avoid being caught with an aging version, the critical question to ask before or during an RFP is: 

“Do all clients share the same source code?” 

Follow-up questions which will reveal a vendor’s ability to innovate and ensure that new developments are available to all clients include: 

• How does your software delineate between client rules and source code? 

• How many clients have upgraded in the last two years? 

• How many clients have never upgraded? 

• What is the total number of clients in production? 

• What is the total number of clients on the latest version of the software? 

• If all clients aren’t on the same version, how many versions are there? 

• How frequently does your SaaS platform get upgraded? 

• At what cost to clients—and long does it take? 

Each one of those questions will reveal nuggets of information that will ensure you select the vendor that is right for you. Together they give you a clear picture of how up to date the vendors solution will be and how frequently it will be upgraded—so that you can avoid purchasing a modern PAS that becomes a legacy system almost as soon as it’s implemented.