Key Questions Insurers Should Ask to Check the Reality of PAS Vendor Experience

Client proof is critical??

In the previous issues of this Insights Newsletter we’ve shared important questions that help you understand how well a vendor/solution fits with your needs. One of the most important tools we use for determining vendor quality is talking to their clients. This month we’d like to suggest a few ways to take that idea even further…?

First, don’t just settle for the usual three client references. Anybody engaged in an RFP process will be able to deliver three happy clients who would be eager to say kind things about the vendor.?

So, to understand the true validity of vendor claims, you should ask for more references than they may be comfortable providing:?

Question: Can you provide 5+ references we can talk to??

The vendor’s ability and willingness to provide that many references will tell you a lot about their relationships with their clients and how much anxiety they have about what you might hear from them.??

Go beyond client references to uncover vendor realities?

Don’t just rely on the hand-picked references that a vendor gives you. They’ll always be the best version of the vendor’s story. In addition, you should try to uncover and check with the vendor’s entire client list. Use LinkedIn, your network, industry analysts, and whatever other methods you can to speak to as many of the vendor’s clients as possible. The more companies you speak with, especially those not ‘sanctioned’ by the vendor, the more accurate your assessment of their true capabilities.?

Asking these questions gives the ability to make a higher quality evaluation of a vendor’s capabilities. It pushes them beyond their comfort zone and gives you an unbiased view of how they conducted prior projects. This is information that can help you contingency plan against problems that have occurred on prior projects.?

Implementation considerations?

Every policy administration system modernization is different. Every insurer has a unique IT landscape, product mix and business complexity. These differentiators form the basis for a company’s unique requirements in a replacement project.???

That makes it important for you to seek out client references who most closely match your own situation. Look for insurers of similar size, with similar legacy environments and product shelves. What those companies tell you will be most instructive about the vendor’s actual abilities.??

So, when speaking with a vendor’s clients, take time to understand what led them to make the decision to modernize and how they selected the vendor—as well as their experiences during and after the project.???

And, push to speak to clients who have been living with the solution for a while. Clients who are more than a year post launch will have gained enough experience with the solution and the vendor’s responsiveness to service requests to reveal what you can expect from the system and the vendor after implementation.?

One of the biggest issues to probe on is the number of integrations and the overall scope of the modernization project. Try to get a clear picture of what the vendor did for the client and how the process worked.??

Question: What is the implementation timeframe for each of the clients you’ve given us as references??

You’ll want to know things like:??

• What was the size of the vendor team working on the implementation???
• What where the roles???
• How much were senior staff involved? (Don’t be impressed by the size of the company, but by the number of experts on the specific platform who will be working on your project.)?
• How was the project managed???
• Were decisions made by committee versus individual leads???
• How does that relate to the way your company works? (A mismatch can be indicative of future frustrations if decisions can’t be made as carefully or as quickly as you need.)?

These questions enable you to understand how actual project work will be handled, what level of support will be provided and if the vendor is a good fit wit your workplace culture.?And they should provide a heads up about what to expect when delays or challenges arise.???