The ultimate insurance software buyer's guide
A practical six-step process to help MGAs and insurance providers choose the right insurance software — and the right long-term technology partner.
In this article
- Introduction: why choosing the right software matters
- Your six-step buying journey at a glance
- Step 1 — Consider working with a specialist IT consultant
- Step 2 — Lay the groundwork
- Step 3 — Build a shortlist
- Step 4 — Send a request for proposal (RFP)
- Step 5 — Test potential solutions
- Step 6 — Don't rush into a decision
- Quick answers for busy buyers
Why choosing the right insurance software matters
Insurance has been slower than some other sectors to adopt new technologies, but in recent years, digitisation has picked up the pace. Now there are a whole host of insurance software companies promising to help MGAs and insurance providers to digitise their operations, automate processes, and offer a more connected and streamlined customer experience.
The insurance software market in Europe is now worth billions, and the race is on between providers to offer the most innovative and useful tools. On one hand, this is great for insurance companies looking to digitise how they work, with plenty of options to choose from. However, it can make it difficult to differentiate between providers, which all look similar on the surface. How do you know which insurance software company will best meet your needs, and deliver the greatest ROI in terms of efficiency savings, customer satisfaction, and increased sales and revenues?
The insurance software market in Europe is now worth billions — and growing fast.
Underwriters can waste approximately three hours a day on manual admin tasks that software could remove.
Only around 4% of insurance brands offer a fully automated, self-service claims experience.
Making the right decision means thinking through your objectives, doing your research, and testing out various systems to ensure you land on the right one. It's worth putting the time in now, so that you don't have to switch providers down the line, which will end up costing you more time and money. But, of course, that needs to balance with ensuring you don't drain too much time from the business — so having an efficient and focused search process is also important.
Our insurance software buyer's guide is here to help you start your search and focus on what is most important.
Your six-step buying journey at a glance
Follow these six stages in order and you'll move from a crowded, confusing market to a confident, well-evidenced decision.
Consider working with a specialist IT consultant
The first thing to say is that if you're not sure where to start, and you have limited time, consider working with an IT consultant that specialises in the insurance market. They can help you to understand what you need and recommend a shortlist based on their real-world experience, without you having to research numerous providers. They can also help you with ongoing management of the service if that is something you need.
Of course, finding the right consultant in the first place is key. And before you brief anyone, it helps to know what a modern setup looks like — see our guide to the MGA technology stack in 2026.
A few consultancies to consider, all of which specialise in insurance businesses:
Lay the groundwork
What are your objectives?
There is no point starting your search until you have a clear idea of what you're looking for, so the first step is to outline your objectives for investing in insurance software. What are the key business challenges that you would like software to help you solve?
You might have your own ideas, but to answer this question effectively, canvass as many stakeholders in the business as possible to understand the different pain points that exist in different areas of the business. A few areas to think about include:
Improving the customer experience
Perhaps purchasing your products isn't as straightforward as it could be, or you've received negative customer feedback or complaints regarding your claims process? Insurance customers today have high demands — responsiveness is key — and digitising your front end could boost sales and customer recommendations, so this is a key area to consider.
Enabling innovation and scale
Old-fashioned legacy systems make it difficult to create new products, enter new markets, or expand the business. If you've got grand plans for growing the business in the coming years, then make sure you find a system that has the flexibility to grow with you — increasingly, that includes AI capabilities like Nora, Insly's AI platform.
Gaining greater data visibility
Are you struggling to gain a real-time view of what is going on with the business and your customers? This is a common issue when operating with a range of disparate and unconnected systems. Searching for a system with the right APIs will ensure everything is connected.
Improving the partner interface
If you work with insurance and broker partners, consider whether these relationships also need a digital overhaul. Can your partners easily access what they need? Could partner communication be made more efficient?
Reducing manual processes
Many insurance firms are still operating with numerous manual processes, including data entry, verifying customer information, and reconciling different systems. We discovered that underwriters can waste approximately three hours on manual admin tasks, which they could spend on higher-value tasks.
Cutting operational costs
You may be looking to cut operational costs through improving efficiency — for example, through straight-through processing. Think about the key areas where you want to see savings through technology, and over what timescale you envisage these coming to fruition.
Map out your existing processes
Once you have a good idea of your overall objectives, it's time to focus in on the specifics that you will need in your system. This should involve an audit of your entire workflow, and the areas that should be a priority in your insurance software system. There are likely to be three main areas to focus on: front office, back office, and claims.
Front office
Front office incorporates your entire sales interface with the customer, from distribution, to quote and bind, right through to renewal — including underwriting workflow management, distribution and policy administration functionalities, rating, document production, signing, storing, and sales business intelligence (BI).
Think about what your needs are — both now and into the future. Some insurance software companies are better suited to certain types of business, whether B2C, broker distribution, or a combination of both.
- Who are your customers, and how do they find you and purchase from you? What is the process now, and what are the pain points?
- Do you sell through brokers, direct, or a combination of the two?
- What documents do you need to produce?
- What currently happens at renewal, and how can that process be improved?
Back office
Back office covers premium accounting, general ledgers, and carrier bordereaux. Think about what level of accounting capability you need.
- Do you just need risk bordereaux, or do you want your software to do everything — from sending customer invoices to reconciling payments and producing reports?
- Do you already have a specialist accounting system in place? Consider whether you want to replace it, or whether you want a system that can easily integrate with what you already have.
Claims
Research shows that only around 4% of insurance brands offer a fully automated, self-service claims service — yet this is one of the biggest areas of complaint amongst customers, as well as one of the biggest costs for insurance providers.
- If you already outsource your claims function, you may only want basic FNOL capabilities from your insurance software.
- If you handle the entire claims function, it could be time to automate the whole process — from FNOL to policy and event validation, payment handling and reporting, as well as tackling fraudulent claims through fraud alarms.
New: see how the Insly Claims Portal lets policyholders track claims in real time — a faster, smarter claims experience.
Map out your internal subject matter experts
At this stage you should also identify subject matter experts for different aspects of the system, to ensure that all requirements are covered from the outset and so that they can later test the software before it goes live. Who knows and understands the underwriting, accounting, or claims requirements best? Who is the best expert on each product who can check and verify that the rater and underwriting rules are running as they are supposed to?
If there is only one person on the team who knows how the rater works, that person needs to be part of the brief and vendor demo stage, as well as the implementation process, to make sure all requirements are well covered.
Create a specification and checklist of requirements
Once you feel that you have collected sufficient detail from within the business and mapped out your processes, formalise your findings by writing them up into a formal specification. This is effectively like a shopping list of what you would like your system to do — ideally prioritising your requirements in order of importance, as well as what you would like the software to achieve in terms of business benefits.
A few final requirements to think about include:
- Timescale: What timescale are you working to? Insurance systems can vary quite considerably in onboarding time, so this could impact which solution you go for.
- Training and support: How much training will they provide your team on using the system? And what about ongoing support in the event of any issues?
- Integrations: What other systems do you want your software to integrate with?
- Implementation and maintenance: How much implementation and maintenance are you prepared to take on, or would you like everything to be taken care of for you? This will likely depend on the level of IT expertise you have within the business.
Share this back with key stakeholders to ensure that you haven't missed anything, or to see whether there are any additions. Once approved, you're ready to start shortlisting potential partners.
Set a budget: three types of insurance software
A final part of the specification should be working with your management and finance teams to set a rough budget. Costs can vary enormously, depending on the type of software you go for and how customised you want your system to be. There are roughly three broad categories of system available:
Custom-built software
Some companies choose to create an entire system from scratch, to exactly meet their needs. This will require a lot of development time, which means it could be time-consuming and expensive — however, you will end up with a platform that is perfectly designed for your business processes.
- Perfectly tailored to your processes
- Long development time
- Typically the most expensive route
Off-the-shelf software
For those with relatively simple needs, and perhaps a tighter budget, an off-the-shelf solution could be the best option. While these are designed for insurance companies, they don't have a large scope for customisation — so if you want a system that exactly matches your current processes, this might not be for you.
- Little time to onboard and get up and running
- Friendly to tighter budgets
- Limited scope for customisation
No-code / low-code software
A lot of insurance software companies nowadays have created the best of both worlds, offering a range of modules covering the entire insurance lifecycle that can be slotted together in different configurations depending on your needs. You avoid the costly development process of custom-built software, but still get a highly tailored platform.
- Highly tailored, without custom development costs
- Modules cover the entire insurance lifecycle
- Configurable as your needs change
Think beyond the sticker price
When considering your budget, think about whether you would rather pay an upfront fixed cost (potentially for a discount), a user-based subscription, or volume- or premium-based pricing, which would increase as your business grows. Also think about how you can have an open and honest conversation with potential partners to ensure you find a payment structure and timescale that works for you. You may find a provider willing to give you a good deal upfront, on the promise that your business will grow in the years to come.
When comparing the cost of different solutions, it also helps to think about total cost of ownership — what it will cost in terms of management time, onboarding and training, ongoing maintenance, and so on.
Insurance software is an investment, so you should end up better off in the long run. It is therefore helpful to put a value on the ROI that you would like to see for your money — and be prepared to ask vendors about it.
Want to see what a modern, no-code insurance platform looks like?
Explore Insly's platformBuild a shortlist
Now you know what you are looking for, the process of searching for and assessing providers becomes significantly easier.
Research and create an initial long list of potential providers
You may already have an idea of potential suppliers, whether that's from previous conversations, marketing, advertising, or from recommendations. But it's important to do your own research as well — using search engines, software comparison sites, and reading third-party reviews and market overviews in industry media. From an initial look at the market, you should be able to create a long list of between five and ten insurance software companies that roughly match your needs.
Then it's time to work your way through each one, to assess them against your list of requirements. Try to do this as objectively and methodically as possible, scoring each company based on how closely it meets your objectives. As part of this, you may also want to speak to the companies to get an idea of how easy it is to get hold of customer support, and how helpful and well-organised they are. This gives you an idea of how easy they are likely to be to work with once you're a paying customer.
Other considerations to bear in mind at this stage:
- Do they have other customers like you, in terms of size and industry?
- Make sure you read their testimonials and case studies — see Insly's case studies for an example of what to look for.
- Look at reviews on Trustpilot and other review sites.
From this process, you should be able to whittle your long list down to a shortlist of three or four to have a closer look at.
Send a request for proposal (RFP)
At this stage, you can formalise your interest in each of your shortlisted providers by submitting a request for proposal. Based on this, each company will map out the solution you require as well as costs, spending time asking questions and understanding your business and requirements.
Be as open and honest as possible at this stage about your current and likely future needs. This ensures you get the solution you require — and helps you avoid 'scope creep' in the future, where the requirements gradually change without proper planning or control.
Test potential solutions
A company might look good on paper, but it's vital to see their technology in action. So, once you have a shortlist of three or four, request a demo of the product, making sure that key stakeholders and subject matter experts from across the business are involved. Prepare questions to ask based on your prior analysis, and be sure to de-brief thoroughly following each demo, noting down what you did and didn't like about each solution.
After this process you may be able to discount some solutions automatically. However, it is worth also testing the systems out for a period if possible, so that you can get a better idea of what you like and dislike before you make a final decision.
You may also be able to speak to some other users of the software, so that you hear 'from the horse's mouth' what it is like to use — including any challenges they have faced, how they overcame them, and how the software has helped them to achieve their objectives. Existing customers can also give you a good idea of what to expect, and what to keep in mind during the implementation and onboarding process.
At every stage, be sure to refer to your list of requirements and questions, so you can be sure that everything you need is covered off.
Your demo-day checklist
- Involve key stakeholders and subject matter experts in every demo.
- Prepare questions in advance, based on your specification.
- De-brief thoroughly after each demo and record likes and dislikes.
- Trial the systems for a period where possible.
- Speak to existing customers about real-world use and onboarding.
- Check every requirement on your list is covered off.
Don't rush into a decision
If you follow these steps, you should reach a point where one solution stands out as being the best fit for your needs. However, if not, and you are still unsure, then don't rush into a decision. If none of the shortlist fits the bill, it may be best to go back to the research stage and see if you can find some other providers that you haven't initially considered — or even revisit your objectives and specifications to ensure they are correct.
Choosing insurance software is a big decision, and you need a provider that you can stay with for the long term — rather than switching and changing every couple of years. Once you find the right partner, they should do everything they can to make the process run as smoothly as possible, minimising the stress for you and your team, so that you can start enjoying all the benefits of digitisation. If you feel that the fit isn't right, keep searching until it is.
Quick answers for busy buyers
The essentials from this guide, condensed into expandable answers.
How many providers should be on my long list and shortlist?
From an initial look at the market, create a long list of between five and ten insurance software companies that roughly match your needs. Score each objectively against your requirements, then whittle it down to a shortlist of three or four to examine closely, demo, and test.
Should I use an IT consultant to help me choose?
If you're not sure where to start and have limited time, a consultant that specialises in the insurance market can help you understand what you need and recommend a shortlist based on real-world experience — and support ongoing management of the service if required. Consultancies specialising in insurance businesses include Green Kite, Oxbow Partners, Finsure and DA Strategy.
What's the difference between custom-built, off-the-shelf, and no-code software?
Custom-built systems are designed from scratch to perfectly match your processes, but are time-consuming and expensive. Off-the-shelf solutions are quick to onboard and budget-friendly, but offer limited customisation. No-code/low-code platforms offer the best of both worlds: modules covering the entire insurance lifecycle that slot together in different configurations, giving you a highly tailored platform without the costly development process.
How should I think about pricing and budget?
Decide whether you'd prefer an upfront fixed cost (potentially for a discount), a user-based subscription, or volume-/premium-based pricing that grows with your business. Compare solutions on total cost of ownership — management time, onboarding, training, and maintenance — and put a value on the ROI you want to see, then ask vendors about it.
What should I do during vendor demos?
Involve key stakeholders and subject matter experts, prepare questions based on your prior analysis, and de-brief thoroughly after each demo. Where possible, test the systems for a period and speak to existing customers about what the software is really like to use and what to expect during implementation and onboarding.
What if none of my shortlist feels right?
Don't rush. Go back to the research stage to find providers you hadn't initially considered, or revisit your objectives and specification to make sure they're correct. You need a partner you can stay with for the long term — if the fit isn't right, keep searching until it is.
Ready to start your search? Start with Insly.
Insly's no-code insurance software covers the entire insurance lifecycle — from quote and bind to claims and accounting — helping MGAs and insurers digitise operations, automate manual processes, and scale with confidence. See for yourself why it belongs on your shortlist.
Or see pricing, browse case studies, or learn more about Insly.
