The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 2: A Library of Data Models for Specific Industries

CHAPTER 5

Insurance

An insurance enterprise is a specialized form of financial services company that provides services to protect assets from loss. This chapter focuses on the needs of an enterprise providing insurance services, including insurance providers (those who underwrite the policy and take the risk), insurance agencies, insurance brokers, third party administrators, and any other organization that provides insurance-based services.

Insurance companies are concerned with such issues as the following:

• How can we support the insurance coverage needs of our customers?
• How can we best sell products and services to meet those needs while maintaining proper risk levels?
• How can we improve customer service and maintain our customer relationships?
• How can we maximize revenues, minimize costs, and still maintain excellent service levels?
• How can we ensure that our systems are flexible enough to allow us to change our business models quickly and easily?

To answer these types of questions, insurance enterprises need to track information about the following:

• The people and organizations they are concerned with—namely, insured parties, insurance providers, insurance agents, prospects, affiliates, suppliers, employees, and internal organizations
• The product and service offerings that provide insurance coverage at various levels with different features and rules
• Servicing of and assistance for the customers, with the ability to support their ever-changing needs by tracking the specific ...