To meet the needs of health and provident insurers and their third-party administrators, Apidata has developed an innovative industrial tool for managing the Middle Office. It features a technological “layer” on which various business functions are built. Today, the insurtech company aims to broaden its scope. Michel Ramos, co-founder and CEO, explains why.

As the central point for all data flows, the Middle Office controls the entire value chain of an insurer. It requires a robust IT infrastructure that is, as Michel Ramos explains, “capable of managing and aggregating massive data flows from very different sources.” Every function within the insurance sector interacts with the Middle Office at some point: actuarial services, accounting and management control, underwriting, claims management…

A Paradigm Shift

To address the needs of each of these functions while securing data flows, Apidata designed an original architecture. “We separated business functions from the technical infrastructure,” explains Michel Ramos. “The lower layers form the technical foundation, completely independent from the upper layers, which cater to business needs: premium collection, claims settlement, accounting inventory, and so on.”

In between, all data passes through an urbanized ecosystem that manages data access. “This represents a true paradigm shift,” Michel Ramos adds. “It doesn’t provide access to a single piece of data but instead opens up a service. This service accesses the database within the regulatory and security framework of the function.”

Data remains under control at all times. However, it stays accessible to the insurer, who can retrieve it anytime and in any way they need. “We don’t use any hidden algorithms that capture or transform the data,” Michel Ramos emphasizes. “We simply provide insurers with the ability to leverage their data to address their business challenges.” Each of these challenges is addressed by a specific module: Api Hub manages data access, Api Fin handles financial and accounting operations, and Api Analytics oversees reporting and data analysis.

A Customizable and Scalable Ecosystem

These modules are interconnected, scalable, and customizable to meet the insurer’s needs and adapt to market changes. “It’s a customizable ecosystem,” says Michel Ramos. “If the insurer wants to keep certain business modules, we can integrate them. They can communicate and exchange data with all other modules under the security and compliance rules we’ve defined.”

The ecosystem can also incorporate external functions or modules: “In welfare, for instance, we can add a calculation tool to the claims management module to provision real-time disability leaves,” Michel Ramos explains. “Or we can integrate a document module to handle health questionnaires linked to policies without exposing them to the claims manager.”

Breaking New Ground

This urbanization simplifies and streamlines complex systems. Initially designed to optimize health benefit management outsourcing, it can now extend to other activities. “The infrastructure is robust, and its organization has proven successful with major health insurers,” Michel Ramos comments. “We can now offer a technology solution for related activities, such as asset management, consolidating various insurer operations, reinsurance…”

The system remains the same: a SaaS-based offering with an ecosystem where the insurer remains in control. “The infrastructure may not be hosted by the insurer, but they remain the owner,” Michel Ramos clarifies. “If they decide to stop using our services or discontinue certain functions, they can easily do so while recovering all their data. The value of our ecosystem is clear: we process data and enable insurers to automate certain functions. By doing so, we help different departments communicate and collaborate more effectively.”