Reusable product system

Abstract

A system is configured to allow a business user to define insurance products based upon reusable product/offering definitions. The reusable product/offerings definitions may include reusable insurance based components and templates, which permit a business user of the software to develop and configure insurance products based upon a hierarchical set of insurance product components and insurance product templates. In addition, the system combines componentization, flexible granularity and reusable product structures to permit a user to more rapidly and predictably generate insurance product configurations and flexibly tailor the insurance products or offerings to meet a specific client or market need.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for generating an insurance product comprising:
 storing in a memory with a server computer a plurality of insurance components configurable to form an insurance product that is reuseable to create user specific insurance, the plurality of insurance components stored in a library and selectable and configurable by the server computer for deployment as the insurance product;   storing with the server computer at least one relationship between at least two of the insurance components, wherein the at least one relationship is created by the server computer to describe a hierarchical relationship structure of the insurance product;   storing with the server computer in the memory a rule type in association with each of the at least two insurance components, the rule type assigned to a respective one of the at least two insurance components to specify the types of rules that may be associated with the respective two insurance components;   storing with the server computer in the memory at least one rule type attribute in association with a respective one of the at least two insurance components, each rule type attribute being associated with a corresponding rule designated with the rule type, and describing an aspect specific to configuration of the insurance product;   the server computer identifying, from among a plurality of configurable engines included on at least one engine server computer in communication with the server computer, a configurable engine that is associated with the at least two insurance components, the configurable engine identified by the server computer based on the rule type;   storing with the server computer in the memory an association between the at least two insurance components and configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine; and   linking, with the server computer, the configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine to the at least two insurance components based on the at least one relationship, the rule type, and the at least one rule type attribute.   
     
     
         2 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 1 , wherein storing with the server computer in the memory the association between the at least two components and configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine comprises designating a network designator of the at least one engine server computer that corresponds to a network location of the configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine. 
     
     
         3 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 2 , wherein the network designator includes at least one of a network address, an internet address, or a universal resource locator. 
     
     
         4 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 1 , wherein storing with the server computer at least one relationship comprises the server computer storing relationship information, the plurality of insurance components include a product component type having stored relationship information describing a hierarchical relationship with a plurality of line of business component types, and at least one of the line of business components having stored relationship information describing a hierarchical relationship with a plurality of coverage component types. 
     
     
         5 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the insurance components of the insurance product includes at least one attribute entry configured to receive one of a deductible amount, a co-insurance amount, and a limit amount, the attribute entry defined by the rule type, and the rule type associated with the configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine. 
     
     
         6 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 1 , wherein the rule type includes a sub-rule; and wherein the sub-rule is associated with configurable content resident on one of the plurality of configurable engines. 
     
     
         7 . The method for generating an insurance product of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 modifying an entry of a component type rule type associated with one of the insurance components of the insurance product with the server computer;   verify the modified entry of the component type rule type with the computer server as a function of a test with the one of the plurality of configurable engines;   receiving with the server computer a response from the at least one engine server upon which the one of the plurality of configurable engines is included; and   determining with the server computer whether the response from the at least one engine server upon which the one of the plurality of configurable engines is included indicates that the modified entry to the component type rule types passed the test.   
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory computer readable media for creating an insurance product offering comprising:
 a memory;   computer program code executable on a processor, the computer program code stored on the computer readable media, the computer executable program code comprising:   computer instructions to store a plurality of insurance components configurable to form an insurance product that is reusable to create user specific insurance, wherein each of the insurance components includes a component type, a component type relationships, a component type attribute, and a component type rule type;   computer instructions to store, in association with the component type relationships of each of the insurance components, at least one relationship to another of the insurance components, wherein respective relationships stored in association with each component type relationship describe a hierarchical relationship structure of the insurance product;   computer instructions to store at least one attribute entry in association with each component type attribute of each of the components of the insurance product, wherein each attribute describes an aspect of the insurance product; and   computer instructions to store, in association with the component type rule types of each of the components of the insurance product, an association to a configurable content resident on one of a plurality of configurable engines.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , wherein the association to the configurable content resident on one of the plurality of configurable engines includes a network designator. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 9 , wherein the network designator includes at least one of a network address, an internet address, or a universal resource locator. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , wherein the component type of at least one of the components of the insurance product describes one of a product component type, a line of business component type, or a coverage component type. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , wherein the component type attribute of at least one of the components of the insurance product includes at least one attribute entry for one of a deductible amount, a co-insurance amount, or a limit amount. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , wherein at least one of the insurance components of the insurance product includes a component type rule type relationship. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , wherein
 at least one of the component type rule types includes a sub-rule; and   wherein the sub-rule is associated with configurable content resident on one of the plurality of configurable engines.   
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 computer instructions to modify an entry of the component type rule types of one of the components of the insurance product;   computer instructions to verify the modified entry to the component type rule types as a function of a test with one of the plurality of configurable engines;   computer instructions to receive a response from the one of the plurality of configurable engines; and   computer instructions to determine whether the response from the one of the plurality of configurable engines indicates that the modified entry to the component type rule types passed the test.   
     
     
         16 . A system for defining an insurance product based upon reusable components comprising:
 a server computer configured to communicate via a network, the server computer further configured to interface with an insurance component library database and an insurance product database, wherein the insurance component library database is configured to store a plurality of insurance components that are configurable to form an insurance product which is reusable to create user specific insurance, and the insurance product database is configured to store the insurance product created with the insurance product components;   an engine server computer comprising a plurality of configurable engines, wherein the server computer is further configured to communicate with one or more of the configurable engines over the network via the engine server computer;   a user portal configured to communicate with the server computer via the network, the user portal further configured to generate an insurance product development interface to display at least a portion of the insurance component library;   the user portal further configured to receive an assignment of a component relationship between a first insurance component and a second insurance component that are selected via the user portal, the component relationship indicative of a hierarchal relationship structure;   the user portal further configured to receive a selection of a rule type for each of the first insurance component and the second insurance component, wherein each of the rule types is associated with a configurable content resident on one of the plurality of configurable engines;   the user portal further configured to receive an instruction to store an insurance product in the insurance product database as a function of the first insurance component, the second insurance component, the assignment of the component relationship between the first insurance component and the second insurance component, and the rule type for each of the first insurance component and the second insurance component; and   the server computer configured to identify on the engine server, from among the configurable engines, a configurable engine that is associated with the first and second insurance components, the configurable engine identified by the server computer based on the rule type, and the server computer further configured to link the configurable content resident on the identified configurable engine to the first and second insurance components based on the component relationship, and the rule type.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 the user portal further configured, in response to receipt of a selection of the first insurance component, to display the component relationship between the first insurance component and the second insurance component;   the user portal further configured, in response to receipt of a modification request to change the component relationship between the first insurance component and the second insurance component, to determine whether the modification request is allowable; and   in response to the server computer determination that the modification request is allowable, the user portal further configured to receive an indication that the component relationship between the first insurance component and the second insurance component is changed.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the selection of the rule type is a first selection of a first rule type for the first insurance component, and the user portal is further configured to receive a second selection of a second rule type for the second insurance component, wherein the second rule type is associated with a second configurable content resident on another one of the plurality of configurable engines; and
 the user portal is further configured to store the insurance product in the insurance product database as a new version of the insurance product as a function of the first insurance component, the second insurance component, the assignment of the component relationship between the first insurance component, and the second rule type for the second insurance component.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the insurance component library database includes a plurality of insurance product templates, wherein each of the insurance product templates include a plurality of hierarchically associated insurance components that are selectable to include in the insurance product. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the server computer is configured, in response to receipt of a request from the user portal to store the insurance product, to perform a coherency check of the first insurance component and the second insurance component to verify support of the rule type by the configurable engine; and the server computer is further configured to store the insurance product in the insurance product database based upon validation of the coherency of the first insurance component and the second insurance component.