Life insurance software proudly Filipino-made

MANILA, Philippines - It takes a great leap for a Filipino company to have faith in homegrown IT talent. 

As simple as it sounds, that’s how eLife, the country’s first commercial software for the life insurance business, has gotten off the ground.

A partnership between two fully Filipino-owned companies — Pioneer Life, the life arm of the Pioneer Group of Insurance Companies, and Computer Professionals Inc. (CPI), a software services company — eLife is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system developed specifically for the life insurance business.

Built from the ground up over a period of five to six years, the proudly Filipino software is debuting in the tech stage at a time when local enterprises across all industries are predominantly run by foreign software customized for local use.

Daring to be different may be the operative phrase for the venture but like most inventions, it was — even at the inception stage — driven by a simple need and spiced up by a little patriotism.

Lorenzo Chan, president and CEO of Pioneer Life, said at the launch of eLife that like most businesses at the start of the 21st century, Pioneer Life Inc. found itself at a crossroads: business was growing, and the company needed a new system that could cater to its present needs, and preferably one that could scale up to handle its future requirements as well.

“We didn’t want to go the usual route of spending a fortune buying existing foreign software and continue spending some more foreign reserves to customize it for our requirements,” Chan said. “After all, when it comes to IT, who can argue with the fact that the Pinoy is second to none,” he added.

The premise was quite simple, maybe more idealistic than your usual type of advocacy, but as Chan described the next steps, “it was a journey fraught with small victories, frustrating setbacks, delayed timelines, escalating cost, sweat and tears, no blood.” And all because the company and its partner took the courage to pioneer something new.

Ma. Rosario Gruet, vice president for business development of CPI, said eLife today is a comprehensive, integrated, full-featured Web-based application software that can support all operations of life insurance businesses.

Developed by more than a hundred developers since the idea took flight in 2004, eLife is more than an enterprise tool but also an end-to-end solution tailor-fit for managing a life insurance business.

As a policyholder, the life cycle of an insurance product starts when an agent is selling an idea to a prospective client, explained Gruet. Using a module in eLife, an agent can generate proposals tailor-fit for the client. Every step of the way — from filling out application forms to screening the application, preparing the billing system, issuing the policy, making policy changes, issuing commissions for the agents or dividends for the policy holders to processing claims, or purchasing new products — is done electronically through the system.

“It’s really more for the operations people, rather than the general public,” said Gruet, adding that by streamlining the process with the use of technology, the public receives fast and more efficient service.

eLife also has an accounting and reporting function and can interface with third-party systems.

Elizabeth Ventura, president of CPI, disclosed that the system was developed using best-of-breed technologies Java and Open Source, while its database is Oracle and provides a robust platform for mission-critical application.

Sharing the app

Successfully implemented at Pioneer Life for more than two years now, eLife has undergone the rigorous testing it needs under an actual robust working environment.

The product is now fully developed and ready to go to market, said Chan. But why share it with industry competitors when it is a homegrown product?

“The reason is both practical and obvious,” said Chan. “Having spent much time, effort, resources developing the system, sharing it with other life insurance businesses that might need it, is logical. If eLife could save other companies from reinventing the wheel and if we will earn some fair remuneration which will help defray our cost of development, why not?”

Ventura said that as eLife incorporates a wide range of functionalities that both companies believe will be appreciated by other life insurance companies, the partners were confident that it can compete with any foreign software customized for local players.

“For one, it speaks the language of the local industry,” said Chan. “You go abroad, the tax structure there is different. In eLife, it is already built into the system.”

Another advantage is that it will be around 20 to 50 percent cheaper in license fees than foreign applications and since the technical support will consist entirely of Filipino IT professionals, service will be fast and efficient.

Gruet explained that the application can be purchased as a complete integrated solution or only certain modules or components depending on the need of the organization.

“There are actually many factors involved in costing out the application. How many components will be included in the package and the degree of customization needed will determine the price,” said Gruet, explaining further that even as early as now, there are already many parties interested in the application.

More than a hundred developers have been involved in the project since its inception in 2004. Around 20 to 30 have been working on it at any given time. Following the route of traditional software lifecycle, it will never stop there but will continue to evolve and constantly be updated to conform to future needs.

Understandably, when dealing with a Filipino invention, the greater issue is trust. Can the company or brand deliver?

Establish in 1954, Pioneer has been in the insurance business for over half a century. In 2009, Euromoney, a leading journal for global financial markets, named Pioneer Insurance Best Insurer for the Philippines in its Annual Global Insurance Survey. The company was also cited as Best in Claims Resolution and Best in Innovation.

Its partner, CPI, is a 23-year-old company with a long and successful history providing software development services and solutions to the insurance industry. It is currently an Oracle-certified Gold partner and the developer of GENIISYS, a comprehensive general insurance application that has 16 installations locally plus one in Saipan and another in Papua New Guinea.

“Software is a heap of trouble,” wrote Scott Rosenberg in his book “Dreaming in Code.” “The software that frustrates and hogties us also captivates us with new capabilities and enthralls us with promise of faster, better ways to work and live. There’s no going back.”

For a pioneering Filipino venture in software applications, one just have to give it a try.