Akhil Tripathi Takes on CEO Role at Policy Admin Vendor Unirisx

While CIO of Harleysville Insurance, Akhil Tripathi oversaw the implementation of policy administration platforms and pioneered sophisticated analytics technology for underwriting and pricing risk, among other accomplishments that resulted in his being named one of Insurance & Technology's Elite 8 Award winners for 2008. Having been named CEO of policy administration system vendor Unirisx, LLC (Radnor, Pa.), Tripathi now drives the development of these capabilities for insurance carriers. Former Unirisx CEO David Hollander will continue in the chairman role.

“Having spent over 20 years on the carrier side of the business, I have witnessed the lack of a configurable and flexible policy administration and product management solution, with strong business rules capability,” comments Tripathi, who was recognized as one of Insurance & Technology’s Elite 8 in 2008. “When I first saw the Unirisx platform, I was thoroughly impressed with the product configuration, underwriting management, and overall policy administration capabilities.”

Developed about seven years ago in Europe, the P&C-specific Unirisx platform has been implemented 25 times across 20 countries and nine languages, according to Tripathi, who says the vendor has mastered the requirements and configuration process. “After the requirements, the system is delivered in alpha state within four weeks of the requirements,” Tripathi asserts.

After the first release of the Unirisx platform, an iterative process follows through which changes — such as the addition of new business rules, distribution channel-related conditions and form attachments — can easily be made toward issuing the first product, which can go live in 60 to 90 days, Tripathi claims.

“Typically the biz users don’t know all the iterations they’ll want at the beginning, Tripathi comments. “This allows them to change continually until they’re happy with the outcome.

"We deploy via software-as-a-service, without the need for a lot of infrastructure," Tripathi adds.

In the course of executing his new duties for sales, delivery and technical development of the Unirisx platform, Tripathi looks forward to continuing his work on aspects of policy administration and underwriting analytics that he addressed at Harleysville and expresses confidence in a system that he believes is distinguished for its product design, configuration and speed-to-market capabilities.

Tripathi anticipates strong interest in the Unirisx platform in the U.S., where four customers are currently implementing the solution, and reports high demand in other geographies.

“Our focus will be small to medium sized carriers, from $50 million to $1 billion in net written premium, large brokers and MGAs,” Tripathi notes. “However, our focus will be on fewer but happier clients with a greater stress on successful implementations than new contracts.”

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio