March 29, 2023 | Blog Featured Insights

Why is sustainability on the agenda of an IT Company?

Not long ago, I was having dinner with some friends, one working in the energy industry, other in banking. At some point the discussion turned to sustainability and environmental issues and one of my friends commented “Well, working for an IT-company, you don’t need to deal with these topics at work”. What? No – so wrong!

The whole perception of not all industries and companies needing to get involved in sustainability is wrong. Sure enough, when working in energy production or with sustainable financing, the scope of how much difference you can make, might be different. But then promoting sustainability isn’t a question of how much or little you can contribute with. Every action counts.

Development to ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet

It’s a common misconception that sustainability is only about environment and global warming. This is righteously the largest challenge, and as the latest climate change report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights, there is much to do and not that much time. But, as the abbreviation ESG, environmental, social and governance, implies, sustainability does involve more and incorporates a profound human aspect.

Living in one of the most equal societies, with a strong labour legislation, we easily neglect topics like diversity and equity. Therefore, having documented policies like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Sustainable Procurement are important, as they clearly state the company’s standpoint to the subject, what employees can expect from the employer and on the other hand, what is expected of employees.

Coming back to environment, also in software and consultancy industry we do have numerous possibilities to promote environmental aspects. There are big ticket items, like Green Coding, by which we can directly impact on how much energy the code we develop uses. And there are small ticket items, like paying attention to energy consumption in our office and business travelling, exploring possibilities to extend the lifetime of the equipment we use and making sure we have recycling procedures in place.

Work in progress

Something I think we all can agree upon, sustainability is far from ready, we still have plenty of work ahead of us. Promoting sustainability is complex and manifolded. For the environmental aspect, the Paris Agreement sets a tough goal. And when sustainability is also surrounded by controversy, like greenwashing and questionable CO2 calculations, it will require long-term commitment from companies to scrupulously strive for genuine and credible sustainability.

During the past 1 ½ years I’ve had the pleasure of working part-time in our Sustainability team. This has been rewarding both as the topic is of personal interest for me, but also as it has been even more educating than I expected. It’s remarkable how a topic starts to evolve and grow when it’s a regular discussion point. The more my colleagues talk about the topic, the more new and interesting views and facts are brought to the table.

Looking back at our work so far, it was with great pride I could tell my friends that sustainability indeed is on the agenda of our company and something we daily work on.

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Written by

Annika Karppinen

Evitec Life Product Manager

March 24, 2023 | Blog Featured Insights Software Products

Yksilöllinen sijoitusvakuutus tarjoaa markkinan kaipaamaa joustoa

Suomalaisten mielenkiinto säästämistä ja sijoittamista kohtaan on kasvanut tasaisesti koko 2000-luvun ajan. Mielenkiinnon kasvaessa on myös tarjolla olevien vaihtoehtojen määrä kasvanut. Osakesäästötilin suosio kertoo, että olemme valmiita harkitsemaan muitakin sijoituskohteita kuin perinteisiä rahastoja ja säästötilejä. FA:n Vakuutusvuosi 2021 -raportti kertoo varsinkin kapitalisaatiosopimusten suosion huomattavasta kasvusta. Nykyisessä markkinatilanteessa osake- ja korkomarkkina tarjoaa liian rajoittuneita työkaluja ja vaihtoehtoisille sijoituskohteille on selkeää kysyntää.

Esteenä kasvulle sopimuskannan hankala hallinta

Monet henkivakuutusyhtiöt ovat tarjonneet yksilöllisiä sijoitusvakuutuksia suursijoittajille. Näissä sijoitusinstrumentteja ei juurikaan ole rajattu, vaan voi periaatteessa olla mikä tahansa minkä vakuutusyhtiö hyväksyy. Lisäksi asiakas voi valita itselleen sopivan hallinnointimallin sen perusteella, kuinka tiiviisti haluaa osallistua sijoitusten hallintaan.
Koska suursijoittajat ovat melko rajallinen kohderyhmä ja yksilöllisten sijoitusvakuutusten sijoitusportfoliot monimuotoisia, on näiden sopimusten hallinnointi perinteisesti ollut erittäin työlästä. Ajan saatossa sopimusten määrä on kuitenkin saattanut kasvaa niin, ettei nykyinen hallinnointimalli ole enää kestävällä pohjalla. Lisäksi, mikäli hallinnointi olisi yksinkertaisempaa ja kustannustehokkaampaa, voisiko sijoituksen minimimäärää alentaa ja laajentaa kohderyhmää, jolle tarjota yksilöllistä sijoitusvakuutusta?

Tehokasta sopimus- ja sijoitusportfolion hallintaa

Evitec Life Savings -järjestelmässä (ELS) on jo ennestään ollut tuki korko- ja rahastosidonnaisten säästösopimusten, näiden yhdistelmien sekä kapitalisaatiosopimusten hoitoon. Nyt laajennamme toiminnallisuutta yksilöllisten sijoitusportfolioiden tehokkaaseen hallintaan, minkä myötä vakuutusyhtiö voi tarjota hyvinkin laajan valikoiman sijoitusinstrumentteja säästösopimuksille.

Yksilöllisen sijoitusvakuuttamisen sopimuksia hallinnoidaan Evitec Life Savings -ratkaisussa, jonka ytimessä on päivittäisten toimintojen automatisointi ja tehostaminen. Sopimushallinta huolehtii yksittäisen sopimuksen eri elinkaaren vaiheista sekä koko sopimuskannan liiketoiminnan tarpeista kattaen myynnin, hoitovaiheen ja korvauskäsittelyn. Evitec Life -ratkaisun kattavat digitaaliset palvelurajapinnat mahdollistavat päivittäisten toimintojen korkean automaatioasteen sekä sujuvan asiakaspalvelun.  

Yksilöllisen sijoitusvakuutuksen sijoitusportfolioita hallinnoidaan FA Solutionsin ratkaisulla. Ratkaisu sisältää pilvipohjaisen portfolionhallintajärjestelmän, joka automatisoi ja keskittää suuren määrän operatiivisia sijoitusten hallinnan prosesseja yhteen FA Platform -järjestelmään. FA Platform -järjestelmä mahdollistaa sijoitusten hallinnan ja kaupankäynnin eri valuutoissa ja sekä julkisessa että yksityisessä markkinassa kattaen myös tarvittavan analytiikan ja raportoinnin. Toiminnallisten prosessien automatisoinnin ja tehostamisen lisäksi FA Solutions tarjoaa myös avoimeen arkkitehtuuriin perustuen API-rajapinnat, joiden avulla järjestelmä on vaivatonta integroida olemassa oleviin verkkopalveluihin.

Aiemmin täysin manuaalisten työvaiheiden automatisointi mahdollistaa muun muassa palvelun hinnoittelumallin uudelleen arvioinnin, antaen merkittävän kilpailuedun ja mahdollisuuden laajentaa palvelun tarjonta entistä useammille. Tulemme mielellään kertomaan tarkemmin ratkaisustamme ja keskustelemaan sen yhteensopivuudesta juuri teidän toimintaympäristöönne!

Evitec on Pohjoismainen finanssialan sovelluskehityksen ja konsulttipalveluiden asiantuntija. Evitec Life on yli 30 vuoden kokemuksella kehittämämme sopimushallintajärjestelmä, joka kattaa henkivakuutusyhtiön säästö-, eläke- sekä henkilöriskivakuuttamisen.

FA Solutions on suomalaislähtöinen ohjelmistotoimittaja, joka toimittaa sijoitusten hallinta -ohjelmistoa finanssialan yrityksille auttaen niitä hallinnoimaan sijoituksiaan ja tuottamaan sijoituspalveluja maailmanlaajuisesti. FA Solutions uskoo, että huippuluokan teknologia mahdollistaa laadukkaat varainhoitopalvelut kaikille.

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Written by

Annika Karppinen

Evitec Life Product Manager

February 15, 2023 | Blog Featured Insights

Profit Life & Pension is now Evitec Life

At the end of January, the name of our company Profit Software changed, and we are now Evitec

At the same time, the name of the Profit Life & Pension (PLP) system changed and is now called Evitec Life (EL). At the time of change, it’s good to take a look in the rear-view mirror and reflect upon how we with deep dedication and professionalism have for more than 30 years been developing a policy management system for life and pension insurers. 

To begin with, the focus was on developing a system for managing savings and pension insurances, an entity that we call Evitec Life Savings (ELS) from now on. Evitec Life Savings includes all key business processes such as product management, sales, policy life cycle management and claims outpayments. The system supports different types of investment forms typically used in insurance savings, such as unit-linked, interest rate, combinations of these and capitalization agreements. In addition to individual pension savings agreements, the system has versatile support for managing large and diverse group policies. 

Evitec Life Risk (ELR) was the next major development area and forms another significant entity that manages all types of personal risk insurances. The individual needs for various personal risk covers are comprehensively considered, for example the requirements of managing underwriting decisions and different deductible options. Calculation of the insurance premium and invoicing are also features of Evitec Life Risk.  

Evitec Life Claims (ELC) has been our latest development area and forms the third entity where claims for personal risk covers are managed. Especially when it comes to claims processing, there are distinct differences between personal risk covers, for example what information and documentation about the event is needed and whether it is a lump-sum or recurring compensation. In Evitec Life Claims, you can manage the end-to-end claims process, covering all stages. Registration of the claims event and making the claims decision, managing all aspects of the payment, like beneficiaries, compensation shares, bank accounts, taxation and finally, out-payment of compensation. 

For a moment, let’s go back to Evitec Life as a whole and some of the system’s general features. 

  • Parametric product structure and business rules which are easily modified are Evitec Life’s evident strengths. Flexibility to modify products, is a significant benefit when new products are introduced to the market or when run-off portfolios migrated to the new system. 
  • API interfaces are widely used throughout the system and their number is constantly increasing. Standard interfaces enable e.g. development of digital services, process automation and system integration with other applications. Relevant policy information is easily displayed where needed. The insured can see up-to-date contract information in the customer portal and can make changes that are transmitted back to the policy management system. The claims handler has relevant policy information at hand during the various steps of the process, which in return speeds up processing and streamlines decision-making. 
  • Regulative and authority requirements are also supported in Evitec Life. The system has integrations for example with tax authority, in addition to which Evitec Life supports AML, GDPR and IDD regulations. 

Over time, Evitec Life has developed into a comprehensive solution capable of handling the day-to-day operation of a life insurers long-term saving, pension, and life risk products. Carefully thought-out functionalities, modern technology and system adaptability elevates the efficiency of daily operations to a whole new level.  

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Written by

Annika Karppinen

Evitec Life Product Manager

If you want to hear more about Evitec Life and get a taste of the functionalities, get in touch with us!  

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Perttu Heinonen, SVP Consulting Financial Services

When I was watching the excellent Adam McKay film The Big Short originally released back in 2015, the first thought to pop into my head was: “Finally a movie that will explain to my parents why we make these systems for banks!” In the film, the actress Margot Robbie, soaking in a bubble bath, explains how the derivatives that launched the financial crisis in the U.S. in 2007 were based on covered bonds. The scene was an ironic take on the fact that few people would normally have the patience to listen to long winded explanations riddled with financial terminology. The product structure was so complex that it concealed as well as concentrated the underlying risks of the housing market.

In Finland, the situation has been better, but the fundamental mechanism is still the same. Our mortgages are mainly financed by foreign investors, not deposits. These investors receive mortgages as collateral for the money they lend. The interest rate on the money provided by the investors depends on the quality of the collateral. The better the collateral, the lower the interest rate. The quality of Finnish housing collateral has been good, but recently a noticeable risk has arisen especially in regions experiencing net outflows. This calls for transparency also in Finland in order to ensure that the collateral meets the investors’ and credit rating institutions’ criteria. At best, the nearly one hundred reports targeted at different agencies are generated automatically, at worst by dozens of people manually typing them into Excel spreadsheets.

The required transparency and quality of reporting is one of the reasons why the process needs a separate system. Another one concerns daily optimisation: Collateral is mobile by nature, as homes are sold and purchased and loans are paid back every day. Insolvency and credit losses are part of the lenders’ daily life. The handling of hundreds of thousands of collateral assets requires that the bank have a safety margin to ensure the availability of collateral. The smaller this safety margin can be made, the more the bank is able to obtain external funding.

Our Evitec Covered Bonds is an Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP system for a bank issuing covered bonds. According to our estimate, our system processes over 40 per cent of Finnish mortgages as it optimises collateral for covered bonds. Our users include OP, the recently listed OmaSp, S-Bank and Hypo (The Mortgage Society of Finland), the only credit institution in Finland specialising in housing. The reliability of the system and service thus has a great social importance, as is the case with Profit Software’s products more broadly. We have comprehensive expertise in mortgage bank IT systems that meet legal requirements. We are happy to help you launch or automatise your business or modernise your existing system.

Perttu Heinonen, SVP Consulting Financial Services, Evitec

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Annika Karppinen, Evitec Life Product Manager

Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and Open Banking opened a few years ago a whole new world for handling payments. Now at the cash register you can just flash your smartwatch and pay online shopping with just a few clicks. Open Banking brought new players alongside with the banks, focusing on handling payment transactions. The eagerness to jump specifically into this opportunity is easily understandable when considering that for example in 2021 Finnish pay cards were used 1,9 billion times. Already a small slice of these transactions offers a decent revenue.

For the financial market, PSD2 was the prelude for sharing information more openly than before. Now same topic is discussed also in insurance industry as “Open Insurance” seeks its’ form. But what does Open Insurance mean and what is it aiming at? There isn’t yet a uniform definition. European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA) published in 2021 a Discussion Paper ”Open Insurance: Accessing and sharing insurance related data”, which is based on a very broad definition: “Covering accessing and sharing insurance-related personal and non-personal data usually via APIs”. EIOPA states increased innovation, competition, and efficiency as main goals.

What would sharing of insurance information enable?

When considering how information dense insurances are and how information generally today can be utilized for various use cases, it’s clear that open sharing of insurance information would enable many kinds of product and service innovation. Still, it should be noted that insurers cannot freely share information. In PSD2 the customer manages their information and decides what and with whom to share. This should push innovation to be highly customer centric and is a starting point for new competitive factors.

When the customer holds insurances in several companies, sharing would enable collecting the scattered information in one place. The customer would get an overall view of their coverage making it easier to get insurance guidance based on correct information and make it easier to ask for offers. Especially In Finland, collecting information of occupational pension and other pension saving in one place could be a very useful use case, Swedish minPension service being an excellent example of this idea.

Claims management is a critical point in client relationship and there are certainly many use cases for making that smoother. For example, what if my flight is delayed more than 4 hours, which is the threshold entitling me to a compensation from my travel insurance? Could the information about the delay go directly from the airline to my insurer and the compensation be automatically paid to my bank account?

Interfaces in key position

Interfaces are a prerequisite for sharing and receiving information, but they might also turn out to be road blockers. This was experienced with PDS2, different standards for interfaces and APIs complicate the development of fluent ecosystem. Let’s hope this experience is taken into consideration when the Open Insurance directive is taking its form.

Additionally, the aging IT infrastructure of the insurers will set its own obstacles. When interfaces and APIs play a central role in digitalization, influencing many processes already today, many insurers are pondering about the best solution in the long run. Continue building upon an aging technology, or has the time come to renew core systems and start capitalizing on the benefits of digitalization?

The future of information sharing

Will Open Insurance cause a same kind of revolution as PSD2 did for mobile payment? Probably not, as within insurance there is not one, even closely, similarly frequented transaction. Also, the Open Insurance directive seems to proceed rather slowly with EU.

There are still many question marks attached to Open Insurance. Even so, the directive will come to force at some point. Therefore, it’s good to start evaluating how and with what kind of solutions to prepare oneself for the possibilities Open Insurance offers.