Standard Life has built two applications in-house to
administer new business in its self-invest pensions product line.
The move will change an outsourcing arrangement that has been
running for seven years with Abbey subsidiary James
Hay.
Hay will handle existing Standard Life self-invest clients but new
business will be managed in-house by Standard Life.
Jan Regnart, managing director at James Hay, said, "They are just
at the beginning of their investment. Their view is that they are
not bringing their existing books in-house."
The insurance company has spent two years developing the new
applications which are extensions to its existing pension
platforms. The latest Java-based applications run on Standard
Life's IBM Websphere application servers.
As well as integrating with Standard Life's in-house
transaction-processing platform, applications can receive
valuations through third-party stockbrokers. Data feeds and
transactions are based on XML messaging.
Standard Life used agile development techniques to reduce the time
it took to build the two new applications.
Software development has traditionally involved a written
specification, design programming and testing before users get
fully involved. With agile programming an application is split into
small blocks, which can be developed and tested quickly. A user is
involved in the project from the outset to ensure the code meets
requirements.
Ian Muir, Standard Life's senior manager for core technology, said,
"It will become best practice for us. Upfront, you are using agile
techniques to drive improvements and you are looking to continually
build and test the software."