Breaking Free from Bottlenecks: How Modern Technology Enables Faster Product Updates in Insurance
Legacy Systems Are Slowing You Down—Here’s How to Change That
Time to market isn’t just about launching new insurance products. It’s also about the ability to update existing products seamlessly—without long delays, technical bottlenecks, or IT-heavy processes.
In today’s fast-changing insurance landscape, insurers need the flexibility to modify coverage terms, adjust pricing, and enhance product features without disrupting core operations or waiting months for IT support. Yet, for many insurers, legacy systems make even minor updates slow, complex, and expensive, putting a strain on resources and patience.
Modern platforms, like Axon, enable insurers to make updates effortlessly—reducing product update cycles from months to days.
To explore this challenge, we spoke with Rob van Esch – VP Strategy & Innovation at Keylane, who regularly advises/guides insurers on how to break free from legacy constraints.
Q&A: The Reality of Product Updates in Legacy vs. Modern Systems
What challenges do insurers face when trying to update existing products in legacy systems?
Rob: “One of the biggest frustrations we hear from insurers is how difficult it is to make even the simplest product changes. An insurer wants to offer a new coverage option? That could mean months of IT involvement. Regulators mandate a wording update? You’re looking at a tedious, manual process across multiple systems. These delays are costly—not just in time and resources, but in missed market opportunities.”
How does modern technology change this?
Rob: “With a component-based system like Axon, insurers can update individual elements—pricing rules, underwriting logic, terms and conditions—without affecting the entire product or system. That means faster updates, minimal disruption, and a much lower dependency on IT.”
Why are insurers choosing to modernize their core systems now?
Rob: “Many insurers have built up years of technical debt, and it’s reaching a tipping point. Older systems weren’t designed for today’s fast-changing market, and every workaround, patch, and manual process adds more complexity and cost. The longer they wait, the harder—and more expensive—it becomes to update. Insurers are realizing that sticking with legacy software only increases risk, slows product innovation, and makes future upgrades even more costly and time-consuming. They’re acting now because the alternative—delaying modernization—only magnifies the problem.”
Updating Products Without Disrupting the System
One of the biggest fears insurers have when making changes is breaking something else in the process.
Traditional monolithic legacy systems treat policies, claims, and pricing as deeply intertwined, making any update a high-risk operation. A small change in one area can lead to unexpected issues elsewhere, requiring extensive regression testing and IT oversight.
Example: Adjusting a Pricing Rule in a Legacy System
Consider an insurer aiming to introduce a new risk-based discount. In a legacy system, this process typically involves:
- Modifying Hard-Coded Logic: Pricing algorithms are often deeply embedded within the system’s code, requiring specialized IT personnel to locate and alter the specific logic.
- Ensuring Compatibility: Each change necessitates a thorough review to confirm it doesn’t conflict with existing pricing structures or business rules, adding layers of complexity.
- Extensive Testing Across Platforms: The insurer must test the update across multiple legacy platforms and sales channels to ensure consistency and functionality, a process that can be both time-consuming and resource-intensive.
- Manual Deployment: Implementing the changes often requires manual updates in various system components, leading to a deployment phase that can extend over several months.
How Axon’s Modular Approach Eliminates This Risk:
✓ Independent Updates – Pricing rules, underwriting logic, and policy definitions are managed separately, allowing updates without impacting the entire system. Insurers can introduce new discounts or adjust rates without disrupting other business processes.
✓ Instant Propagation – Once a pricing change is made, it is automatically applied across all sales channels and distribution points, ensuring consistency and eliminating discrepancies between platforms.
✓ Built-in Compliance Controls – Axon enforces regulatory requirements at the core level, ensuring pricing updates adhere to local and industry-specific compliance standards without requiring manual oversight.
The High Cost of Manual, IT-Heavy Product Updates
While pricing adjustments illustrate the rigidity of legacy systems, the challenges extend far beyond just updating rates. Even minor product modifications—whether adjusting policy wording, adding new coverage options, or implementing regulatory changes—can require specialist IT intervention, placing additional strain on already overburdened teams. As IT teams juggle maintenance demands with critical system updates, delays become inevitable, prolonging update cycles and limiting insurers’ ability to respond to market demands.
Because legacy systems are deeply interconnected, even minor modifications demand extensive testing. These setbacks prolong update cycles, delaying insurers’ ability to react to market trends, policyholder needs, or evolving regulations. Delayed implementation of mandated updates can even expose insurers to compliance risks, financial penalties, and reputational damage, particularly as regulators demand greater transparency and faster adaptation to policy changes.
How Axon Solves These Challenges
Keylane’s Axon platform transforms the way insurers manage product updates by eliminating complexity, resulting in less dependency on IT teams.
- Single Source of Truth – Updates are made once in a centralized system and automatically applied across all products, brands, and sales channels.
- No-Code Configuration – Business users can modify policy wording, adjust pricing rules, and launch new product variations without IT involvement.
- Automated Compliance Controls – Regulatory updates are embedded directly into the system, ensuring immediate alignment with compliance standards.
- Instant, Consistent Rollout – Changes seamlessly propagate across customer communication points, broker platforms, and digital sales channels.
The Future of Insurance is Agile
In today’s insurance industry, agility is no longer just about launching new products—it’s about being able to update existing products quickly, efficiently, and without disruption.
Legacy systems create barriers that slow insurers down, making product updates costly, complex, and resource-intensive.
The Solution? Moving to a modern, component-based platform like Axon.
✓ Faster Updates – Implement product changes in days, not months, with a centralized, component-based system.
✓ Empowered Business Users – No-code configuration reduces IT reliance, allowing teams to update products independently.
✓ Built-In Compliance – Regulatory changes are seamlessly applied across all policies, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
✓ Scalable & Agile – Updates instantly propagate across all sales channels, keeping insurers ahead of market demands.
It’s time to break free from legacy constraints. The future of insurance is fast, flexible, and IT-independent.