New Skywire Product Manages Product Development Process

Skywire Software, a provider of software and services for the insurance industry, announced the release of Launcher, an application designed to improve, coordinate and measure the process of getting new insurance products to market.Launcher is a new approach to managing the process of developing insurance products. Traditional processes have relied heavily on informal methods such as e-mail, spreadsheets, forms, meetings, and telephone calls. Launcher takes that information and puts it in one place, creating a centralized repository where insurers can track all the information related to the process of crafting or refreshing an insurance product. “With Launcher, insurers can accelerate the whole process of getting new and enhanced products to market, and measure the results,” says Debbi Marquette, product manager for Skywire. “It’s easy to deploy, provides management and operational reports, tracks time to market, and supplies a level of accountability to the process that has traditionally been lacking.” Launcher provides a browser-based interface where users can collaborate on the forms, documents, and language used in developing new insurance products. Actuaries, underwriters, marketers, lawyers, and other insurance professionals can post questions to each other, read the responses, upload documents and forms, and route them to the appropriate parties for approval via Launcher’s workflow capabilities. Everyone involved in the process can view all the information related to a product development initiative and track its status. This accelerates time to market and reduces the risk that critical information, reviews or approvals may be overlooked.In addition to managing and accelerating the process, Launcher lets insurers quantify the time it takes to develop a product, from inception to approval by regulatory bodies, as well as other metrics. These insights into their current processes equip insurers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their product development activities.