What should Australian underwriters upgrading their policy systems know when partnering with an Insurtech?
Upgrading your policy management system is a big step. Today, more agencies are choosing to partner with an Insurtech to accelerate speed to market, access modular functionality that scales with growth, and benefit from proven solutions and industry expertise built over many implementations. At Entsia, we’ve worked with agencies across Asia Pacific to help them overcome the fears associated with large technology implementations. This guide shares practical insights to help you build a successful, collaborative partnership with your Insurtech, and support long-term success.
Insight One: Complexity is inevitable – Be ready for it
Even the simplest insurance products come with hidden complexities. From edge cases to operational quirks, real-world underwriting rarely fits in a box. That’s where experienced insurtechs shine. If they haven’t seen it before, they’ve seen something like it, and know the rabbit holes before you go down them. Working with the right Insurtech means benefiting from others’ who have walked the path before, so you can avoid costly missteps.
For example interpreting taxes and charges across states when property details change. Or managing mid-term alteration changes on existing multi-sectional and multi-situational products. If your partner has worked with organisations like yours before, chances are they already have a solution to handle these nuances.
Insight Two: Speed matters – But so does discovery!
In a world of low and no-code implementations, it’s easy to rush to the finish line. But great outcomes come from understanding. You can’t design for what you don’t know.
The best results happen when technology teams and underwriting leads align early on a long term vision through exploration, learning, and iteration. Discovery is an investment, not a delay.
Long-term success (and a future proof answer to the problem) relies on understanding where you want to end up, not on what you want to solve today.
Insight Three: Simplify complexity – especially in risk rules
As part of that discovery process, one thing that’s vitally important is getting the rules right. Underwriters know their risk appetite, but translating it into a functioning rules engine can be deceptively complex. It’s not just about listing conditions, it’s about how those conditions are interpreted in the platform and ensuring they reflect real-world customer scenarios.
Work with your Insurtech to make sure the rules are clear and will deliver the result you are looking for. Testing is also key when you’re turning complex logic into clear, manageable frameworks, so make sure to use real data, edge cases and exception scenarios to stress-test the rules.
Insight Four: Grow smart – Not just fast
You don’t need a huge budget to build enterprise grade capability. Insurtech’s that provide modular platforms will enable you to take advantage of the functionality you need today, while ensuring you don’t need to find another partner for what comes next.
That’s particularly helpful when you’re scaling fast and don’t want to wait to add new channels, products and partnerships. One of Entsia’s customers expanded from two to over 30 people within 2 years of launching, and went from one to many products across multiple channels. A modular approach meant they could start with one product and add new, often out of the box, capability as they expanded, helping them get new offerings to market faster.
Insight Five: Stay ahead of the tech and compliance curve – together
Projects end. Relationships evolve. Partnering is about shared goals and enduring collaboration, where long-term success is built on trust, creativity, and mutual commitment – not just technical delivery.
Sharing your strategic priorities upfront can help achieve more than just go-live. For example, you are no doubt thinking about AI-powered workflows, data enrichment and how to use technology to accelerate your business. So are Insurtechs, which means you can support your digital transformation goals together. Regular communication about what’s possible, what’s new, and what’s effective is key to staying competitive.
A word on security:
No article on partnering with Insurtechs would be complete without reference to security and making sure your partner understands your, and their, obligations when it comes to data protection, cyber security and regulation. CPS 230 and CPS 234 mean it is very clear that Insurtechs need to be ready to meet the same strict requirements as their customers. Having rigorous policies and procedures, or better yet having a certification like ISO 27001, is a must.
If you’re planning a technology change, the first step is simple: start the conversation early. And find a partner that has done it before so you can leverage their understanding.
In our next blog, we’ll provide a list of common traps to avoid when planning a policy system upgrade.