Hi-performing and adaptive online rate calculators thanks to application modernization
DEVK is a German insurance group headquartered in Cologne. It offers comprehensive insurance services for private and business customers, including liability, motor vehicle, life, health, and property insurance. Originally founded for railway workers, it is now one of Germany's largest insurers. DEVK values customer focus, service quality, and fair claims settlement. Around 75,000 employees serve over four million customers with more than 15 million contracts.
The project at a glance
- New online rate calculators enable flexible price adjustments and rapid response to the market
- Significantly accelerated implementation of additional online rate calculators helps tap into new customer segments
- High degree of automation in development and operation
- Consistent look and feel and adaptation to corporate design strengthen the brand
Background
DEVK offers its customers a variety of online rate calculators to help them decide on a specific insurance product. To ensure that these tools also meet the requirements of modern architecture “under the hood”, they needed to be redesigned.
codecentric had already been working for DEVK for almost two and a half years when the project started and had collaborated on the residential building insurance and car insurance calculators during this time. The aim of the new joint project was to optimize the conversion rate of the various insurance products and to lift the online presence up to date. The online rate calculators also had to be integrated into the existing technical infrastructure (including peripheral systems, pipeline, and website).
Solution
As part of the project, a new backend system was first provided for the car calculators. codecentric worked in an eight-person team that had the task of connecting the online rate calculators to this system within a tight timeframe of seven months.
A particular challenge was to reconcile the functionality of the interface between the underlying backend system and the existing calculator, as it was not designed for the online rate calculator. In addition, constant rate changes meant that the calculators had to be updated several times to meet the new requirements.
The online rate calculators have now been developed by the agile team as a web application with an independent backend and frontend. Both are implemented in TypeScript. The frontend consists of web components and is provided via a Node web server in the AWS cloud. The backend is a NodeJS service based on Koa. Access is secured via an Anypoint Flex Gateway to enable scalability, flexibility, and monitoring and analysis of data traffic.
To ensure the highest possible quality, various automated tests, including unit tests and end-to-end tests, were performed before each deployment. In addition, various metrics were automatically checked to ensure consistent code quality.
Collaboration between codecentric and Faktor Zehn enables faster delivery of new online rate calculators
To achieve the ambitious goals of the project, codecentric and Faktor Zehn, a leading provider of core insurance systems, worked together with DEVK in an integrated team. Faktor Zehn was responsible for designing and implementing the new, high-performance backend system for the motor vehicle calculators.
As a specialist in customized, sustainable value-adding software, codecentric built the front end on top of the backend provided by Faktor Zehn.
Thanks to the efficient collaboration and expertise of both partners, the system was delivered to DEVK within a very short time, laying the foundation for the successful integration of the online rate calculators.
Result
The online rate calculators were gradually redesigned and rolled out step by step. As a result, the number of closed contracts can now be tracked very accurately and further increased. Thanks to the new backend interface developed by Faktor Zehn, rate changes can be implemented flexibly, which in the past was only possible with a great deal of effort. New vehicle types could be integrated in just one or two development sprints, which also represents a noticeable acceleration of the process.
Since the new backend systems are all very similar in structure, a largely common code base can be used for the frontend, which significantly reduces the development time for online rate calculators for new lines of business.
The new solution has helped to significantly reduce the number of events that need manual attention. As a result, significantly more incoming insurance applications can be processed automatically and without manual post-processing – a noticeable advantage for the office staff.
The application is characterized by high stability and reliability – errors occur only rarely. Internal feedback from the various divisions of the company has been consistently positive. The developers at DEVK are very satisfied with the system and can now independently take over the maintenance and quality assurance of calculators for several lines of business.
Ultimately, a uniform look and feel was implemented in the front end with adjustments to the corporate design, which contributes to the visual strengthening of the brand.
Daniel Räder
Cluster Product Owner Digital Insurance Experience, DEVK
With the new generation of our online rate calculators, we can implement rate changes flexibly and quickly—this gives us a real competitive advantage and enables us to respond even more specifically to the needs of our customers. We are very grateful to codecentric for this.
Daniel Räder
Cluster Product Owner Digital Insurance Experience, DEVK
Any questions about the project?
Do your systems need a digital boost, too? If you wouold like to modernize your applications, feel free to contact us! We can help you scale your business beyond mere technical support.
Further reference projects
Find out about other successful projects that we have completed with our customers. Perhaps you will find inspiration for a use case in your company here.
Peter Westergerling