"I see a wide range of skills. There are a number of vendors in the [core solutions] market that have education programs and bring system integrator (SI) partners to [the programs]. Some solution providers take the stance of using a system integrator to take on the implementation. Other [vendors] feel it is core to what they do.
Overall, whether you are looking at an SI, the software company or you the insurer implementing the product, the most valuable assets you can have on your team are strong project managers that have a disciplined approach to going about the implementation, excellent business analysts, and an architect. Typically, if you see challenges with implementation it's because one of those three have been compromised.
There are excellent questions to bring up through the evaluation process. Do an honest assessment of what your skills are as an insurer to know who you are going to be leaning on—the vendor or an SI partner. It's always going to be a combination of those three groups that yields the best project team.
Everyone has X capacity so you want the vendor to be very honest with you. Ask [the vendor] if they have a good team if you want to start now or do you need to wait? You want to make sure you get the right resources and the resources aren't always being moved off the project to another project.
You have to nail down that solid project manager and business analyst. Whether it is from the SI partner—and they deliver a great service—remember they will only have so much capacity. Just understand what the constraints are of all those involved and what your contribution can be.
There's always so much going on with insurers today that it's easy to get pulled off a project so you need to make sure you have the right team in place and get dedicated resources to the projects."
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