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Technical Clarification
Clarifications
Please clarify whether the bidder will have cover all expenses of SUD team for client visit during the
technical bid evaluation?
Vendor will have to arrange local conveyance for the meeting and facilitate the meeting other
expenses will be borne by SUD
Is it manadatory that the bidder and the OEM should have registered profit in at least one of the
last three years? Yes
Can the OEM submit the P/L and balance sheet statement for their office in the US? Yes
Will star Union team get into a NDA for enabling the Bidder/OEM share confidential information
about the projects which is mandatory as per section 3.3 of the RFP document. Yes. At this stage
you can share the contact details( Fax,e-mail-ids,phone nos.) for similar projects in case PO details
cannot be shared due to confidentiality clause/legal or other reasons
Does star union has a approval process in place for mass movement of agents to a new hireachy?
We would have a process in place with authorization levels
Please clarify how would the targets would be passed to proposed channel management system
and is entire target management is the expectation of SUD team then please explain the entire
process and the expectation?
Targets are rolled up to the next supervisory level . The AM on the bancassurance side for example
would have a target based upon his salary level etc. Please note that the targets of AM do not only
depend on salary levels. It is a combination of many factors which may change from year to year
depending upon the strategy of the company. Broadly it is dependent upon the productivity level of
type of branches handled by the AM . It may therefore change as and when the no of branches are
added or reduced from the said AM and a BM will have his target as the sum of the AMs reporting
to him. All channels have similar arrangements.
Please share the KYC norms document to have more clarity? KYC norms are standard across the
industry.
They are Education Certificate,DOB Certificate,Address Proof,PAN CardColor photograph and Bank
A/c No.
Please clarify whether star union team wants a approval workflow for onboarding of agents? We
would prefer one
Please clarify on the point that SUD team would like to have facility to store free form notes on an
agent with a follow up facility?
This is to faciliatate follow/up on some requirements which may be entered as free text instead of
standard requirement. Standard/mandatory requirement normally stop further processing for the
transaction for the agent or it may be a non-standard requirement specific to the agent/situation
and not part of standard template
Please explain the point that the system should have a ability to record training activity and what is
the expectation on terms of system capable to record examination results for producers and please
let us know from which systems we need integrate to able to display examination results for
producers? The following fields are needed for training and examination ( Please refer sheet 1) No
system integration is needed only uploads would be required
Please provide more information on the point that application process mass transfers in both on-line
and batch mode and please explain the expectation? Facility should be there for processing bulk
and individual reallocation of producers from one supervisor to another
Please provide more information on the point system store licensing data with expiry dates and
configurable reminder date? System should be capable of storing license date with multiple
reminders/alerts possible at configurable time periods eg. 15 days before expiry, 30 days before
expiry,45 days before expiry etc. The system should be able to record license termination and re-
instatement history.
Please provide more information on the point that whether the system store license record include
license types,sponsorship and grace period? Please refer to various license types allowed by IRDA,
sponsership means organization sponsoring the license in case of specified persons/producers
belonging to a corporate agent.
Please provide more information on the point that the license validation on secondary compensation
if required? For agents we need to ensure that his license is in-force before he can be paid
secondary commission. Therefore before paying secondary commission/renewal commission it has
to be checked that the agency license is in-force. Secondly if the agency license has been in force
for 5 continuous years then under Sec. 45 he is entitled to renewal commission
Please provide more information on the point that does the application take care of cases where
license has expired? It means we want to know how the proposed system handles commission
payments ( by way of holds and accounting ) in cases where license has expired at the time of
payment of renewal/other commisssion. It may happen that the payment would have to be made
after sometime when license is renewed
Please provide more information of primary and secondary comission? Primary commission is the
1st commission paid on policy procurement to the producer/agent. Secondary commission may
comprise of bonus commisssion and renewal commission based on the policy procured being in-
force i.e commission based on receipt of renewal commission or some such condition
Please provide more information on the point that does vendor application support complicated UL
products and funds coverage? Self explanatory i.e application should be able to support calculations
for all products being sold in the Indian market
Please provide more information on the point that Can the rate setting insertions and updates be
audited? We would need audit trails if changes are made in commission rates regarding who has
made the changes when it was made and what changes were done
Please provide more information on the point that Does the annualization process track the paid vs.
earned amounts? And have a configurable settle-up by product? Annualization feature normally
entails payment of commission in advance for the year irrespective of mode of premium payment.
Therefore we have to track paid amount v/s the earned commission which is commission for the
amount of premium recd. by the insurer. Similarly settle-up provisions for commissions are currently
not in India but are widely prevalent in other geographies. In the Indian context we also have
annualization where commission below a certain amount for each agent is paid as annual
instalment as the amount is so less for the month to justify processing each month and therefore
we wait for his total commission earnings to cross a certain threshold before we pay his commission
Please provide more information on the point that Can the annualization of commission be set as a
default? and also on the point Are Cap Amounts for Annualization preferences determined by set
amounts and percentages? Please refer to previous answer
Please provide more information on the point the application should support compensation vesting?
Refer below
please provide more information on the point that Can vesting rules be created at an individual level
in the system?
Vesting is Commissions paid to an agent regardless of whether they still work for the insurer, based
on renewal business. This is vesting of renewal commission and the system should have the
capability to configure the same at an individual level
Please provide more information on the point that Does the application allow compensation to be
generated for expense allowances, service fees and trailer fees and also please clarify as to how
these transactions would be passed to channel management system? The system should have a
facility to at least record these data manually and do some calculation based on production figures
Please provide more information on the point that Does it have provision to handle loan payments
and interest calculations? Loans and advances are typically granted to the field force system should
be able to manage the same in terms of administration of the same
Please provide more information on the point that Can production objectives be setup and
compared against actual for various compensation types and level? We should be able to compare
targets set with achievement for various periods during the year for the field force
Please provide more information on the point that Can different channels be configured for different
seasonality of targets? Self explanatory we want that target setting should be configurable at
channel level also
Please provide more information as to how sud life wants to make comission payment to the
nominee of the deceased agent? We expect a facility of commission redirect which could be
configured for nominee
Please provide more information on the point that Can TDS be calculated based on different
certificates (for different exemption limits) issued by Income Tax Department to individual agents?
IT department sometimes gives partial exemption to agents in terms of income tax eg. TDS not to
be deducted till say Rs. 15000. System should be able to handle such cases
please provide more information on the point that Does the application allow processed financial
activity to be reversed? Self explanatory we should be able to reverse processed transactions at
least at a global level and preferably at individual level
Please provide more information on the point that Does the application allow for interest charging
for debit balances/advances? The application should have a configurable facility to charge
simple/compound interest or achieve the same via a rate table on advances to field force
please provide more information on the point that Does the application support Debt rules by
channels, calculation methods and a breakdown by hierarchy using the existing rate maintenance
setup? Refer to the previous channel with the added functionality that the debt recovery should be
configurable at channel level and at various hierarchy levels
Please provide more information on the point that Does your application support Debt roll-ups and
Debt Refinancing rules? Debt Roll-up & refinancing refer to debt of a reportee to be rolled-up to his
superior for recovery purpose should the reportee leave the system or due to any other reason.
Rules to be set up in such cases regarding recovery and interest rate etc. would be debt refinancing
rules
Please provide more information on the point that Is the display of your Balance and Production
records configurable by a user? We would like to have the display as a configurable item which can
be managed by us regarding the details we want to see on the screen
Please provide expectation on the point that Does your application generate all commission
accounting entries? The sub-ledger for accounting would be generated in the system so that any
entry can be accounted for in a proper manner from an accounting perspective
Please provide more information on the point that Is there a facility to account for earned vs. paid
accounting? Whenever an insurance company pays commission in advance then an accounting
entry is passed and a paid account is debited. As and when the renewal premium is received an
earned commission entry is passed where paid account is credited and earned account is debited
Please explain the point that Does the application able to allow for Cheque, Transfer to another
producer and/or EFT payouts? Self explanatory system should be able to support various payout
methods by generating feeds or faciliate printing in case of cheque printing
Please provide more information on the point Does it support setup for this international program
like MDRT, COT and TOT and track the persons participating? We should be able to configure
qualifying conditions for such programs and support the same with reminders,alerts etc. as he
nears qualifying criteria or if he is in danger of losing his qualification
Please provide expectation on the point that Does the application produce notifications for
events/transactions occurring in the system, either manually or through an interface? System
should be able to integrate with MS exchange/SMS platforms or should have internal alert system
by way of reports etc. for configured events
Please provide more information on the point that generating letters for performance review? We
have end of month/ quarter/yearly reviews based on targets and achievement based on business
figures. The system should have the facility where the data can be populated from the system on
the standard template to generate performance review for the field force
Please provide more information on the point that Does the solution offer pre-built calculations on
the data? For example, average, attainment, variance etc. We would like the system to help in
analysis of business figures through forecasting by way of assumptions of growth in some criteria or
on trend .simple mathematical functions as mentioned above can also be used to analyze all
performance data
Please provide more information on the point that Does the solution provide planning capability?
I.e. Budgets and Forecasts We expect the system to support budgeting exercise by utilizing data
present in the system eg: by analysis of performance of agents and recruitment data it could help
to budget for business figures
Please provide more information on the point that Is the user interface of the application
customizable by each user? Self explanatory eg. Also given during pre-bid meeting
Please provide more information on the point that Can wild card searches be used to filter on
information/data? System should provide facility to match data/string by giving wild card search
eg: if you recall only a few alphanumeric characters then using them in combination with '*' should
give probable matches
Please provide more information on the point thatDoes your application provide reminders on set
dates as requested? System should allow for reminders to be set on specific dates for a desired set
of events
please provide more information on the point that The Bidder shall provide licensed software for all
software products, whether developed by it or acquired from others. The Bidder shall also indemnify
SUD Life against any levies / penalties on account of any default in this regard. We expect all
softwares if any relating to the consortium or procured by you on our behalf to be licensed
software; therefore any violation in the nature of unlicensed software procured by you and used by
us as a result of this engagement should it be detected and fines levied on SUD by any authority
the consortium shall imdemnify us for the same. These terms are general and in this engagement
since operating software and other hardware are being procured by us directly there is remote
possibility of the same occuring
Please clarfy on the point that If and when the bidder updates its software to fix some product level
bugs or incorporates any functionality as per regulatory and business changes the same should be
provided to SUD free of cost. What we mean is that there shall not be any extra cost other than
AMC for regular upgrades or for any defects in the product. For customization done at our instance
we will pay as per the agreement with the vendor
Please clarify on the point that Does the product support WebSphere MQ? We would like to know
which middleware is supported for integration MQ series, Websphere etc
Is the workflow module a part of the requirement of Star Union? It is preferred
Preliminary Questions
1. General Question: Just to help us understand the complexity involved, can you please let us
know the numbers of channels that form your distribution network and what are they? Right now
we have bancassurance , tied agency and direct sale by our staff, brokers as corporate agents and
direct web selling. We propose to utilize all permitted channels for distribution.
2. General Question: Can we get the data volume in the context of data migration? You can
assume data between 600 MB to 1GB
3. General Question: How do the channel hierarchies differ from each other, if any? For
traditional agency we have all the field force within our system whereas for bancassurance we have
specified persons acting as agents who are bank employees so we have to interact with bank
hierarchy we have separate reporting hierarchy for the channels
4. General Question: How does your corporate hierarchy interact with the partner hierarchy
across different channels? Yes we have links across bancassurance hierarchy with our counterparts
in SUD and targets are assigned at each level in our hierarchy to be achieved with the help of
counterparts in bank hierarchy
5. General Question: Provide more details on data archiving. How long the data need to be
maintained for transactional purpose and analytics purpose. For transactional purpose 1 year for
analytics purpose 5 years
6. General Question: Para 2 at the Tender Notice (page 2) of the RFP doc states:
“The purpose of this RFP is to invite proposals from Bidders for procurement, installation and
commissioning of Channel Management Solution at identified locations of Star Union Dai-ichi Life
Insurance (SUD LIFE). Detailed functional specifications of the total solution have been given in
section 2 and technical, company details and commercials are present in attachments provided in
excel format with this document. The proposed Channel Management Solution comprises of the
following:”
We did not find any excel documents embedded to the Tender document (pdf document) or
available at the SUD website. Do you provide any excel documents for submitting our responses?
They have been merged in single pdf document available in website.
7. General Question: Section 3 - Instructions to Vendors. There is a reference to Form 3.
Form 3 format is not available in the RFP PDF document. Please read it as „Annexure-3‟
8. General Questions: 3.1.3. Page 4 “The SUD LIFE reserves the right to inspect such
installation/s while evaluating the Technical Bid. The Bidder should obtain permissions and bear all
the expenses in this regard”. We will be able to organize conference calls or site visits depending
upon client locations and approval. Please clarify any other support required. No other support
required. Question has been answered elsewhere.
9. General Questions: Incidental Services Page 10 e: Porting with any other OS at future date
if the need arises: Needs clarification as to how to include this in the price bid. Not to be included
10. General Questions: Page 20, 13.5 (Maintenance Services) & Page 21 (Liquidity Damages):
Overlapping clauses. Request for clarification. One applies in case of maintenance the other when
the system cannot be delivered and therefore represents liquidated damages
11. Ref: Requirement 6 in 1.1 - Hierarchy management; what data constitutes of a typical contract
for a producer? What would be differences in data across many contracts associated to one agent?
Details about the contract like contract no., product and term, any rider information, branch ,
premium, client-id, channel-id and other such fields. Normally there would be no difference as the
type of data would be the same
12. Ref: Requirement 7 in 1.1 - Hierarchy management; can you please give us typical scenarios
for multiple Reporting Hierarchies and multiple concurrent Compensation Hierarchies?
Vendors are expected to know the same. By multiple reporting hierarchies we mean reporting
hierarchy based on region or organization and another hierarchy based on channel. This is a typical
scenario in bancassurance model. Currently we have separate targets for channel s which converge
at region level.
13. Ref: Requirement 10 in 1.1 - Hierarchy management; can you please give us a typical scenario
of mass movement of agents to new hierarchies?
A typical example would be a creation of an extra layer in the reporting hierarchy or shifting to a
newly created channel
14. Ref: Requirement 11 in 1.1 - Hierarchy management; can you provide us a typical outlay of
incentive plan for no. of branches based targets? What roles participate in this target achievement
to get incentives?
Eg A bank branch may be de-allocated from one manager and given to another manager. Targets
are normally assigned to an AM and he is allocated 4-6 branches of bank in bancassurance channel
to achieve the allotted target. AMs target roll-up to the next hierarchy who may have a no. of AMs
reporting to him. Typically an AM handles 4-6 branches of bancassurance partners and therefore
many times there is re-alignment of branches due to him getting transferred or leaving the system.
15. Ref: Requirement 1 and 3 in 1.2 – Agency on-boarding; what are the various agent types
across all channels and what are differences in data capture and or related functionality?
We expect agency on-boarding process for tied agents and career agents; for specified persons we
only require data upload to load their details
16. Ref: Requirement 2 in 1.2 – Agency on-boarding; are there any differences in capture of agent
data for agents belonging to different channels such as tied channel and career agent channel or
Agent serving via Partner Channel? Yes the entire on-boarding process will be applicable for tied
and career agency for partner agent please refer to previous answer
17. Ref: Requirement 12 in 1.2 – Agency on-boarding; what is the application process being
referred to as „mass transfers of both online and batch mode‟ in agency-on-boarding with respect to
transfer within hierarchy or on-boarding of new agents to an existing hierarchy?
Transfer of agents as a result of change of reporting authority
18. Ref: Requirement 3 and 5 in 2.1 - Rate Setup/Processing; what are the different secondary
compensation types in use? What parameters drive definition of secondary compensation?
We currently only pay renewal commission as secondary commission
19. Ref: Requirement 20 in 2.1 - Rate Setup/Processing; what are typical compensation vesting
options that are currently used by your company? What additional benefits are added to the vested
compensation?
Please refer to answer given in a different sheet. No additional benefits are added
20. Ref: Requirement 25 in 2.1 - Rate Setup/Processing; what are various other basis types used,
apart from fixed and variables amounts?
This is a future provision and there are many basis types prevalent in the industry eg: on the basis
of total revenue generated etc.
21. Ref: Requirement 27 in 2.1 - Rate Setup/Processing; what are all the possible roles (multiple)
that a producer can have and what different compensation types are applicable for such producers?
Eg :He may be the insured person or could have been an agent earlier and now joined as area
manager
22. Ref: Requirement 11, 12 and 14 in 2.2 - Commission Accounting and Processing; what
different financial re-directs you would like to have? Is this requirement in the context of mergers
and acquisitions for transfer of book of business?
Yes primarily for that but in the Indian context we could use the same for transferring business for
orphan policies
23. Ref: Requirement 15 in 5.2 - Commission Analytics/Dashboards; can you specify the possible
multiple data sources from which the data need to be accepted and the interfacing with it?
Life Asia, Group system for policies in the context of analytics; for other requirements the question
has been answered in another query
24. Ref: Requirement 16 in 5.2 - Commission Analytics/Dashboards; what are common data
structures required for data comparison and reporting? Example has been given in 16 only. For data
comparison normally we would compare current business figures with previous periods figures so
essentially production and commission figures would be required. Hierarchy data structure,
recruitment data of field force etc. are some other common data structures requiredLeagalDescription
Cl 5 Patent Rights?
The Bidder seeks to propose that since the Bidder is not the owner of the software, the Bidder will
pass through all the necessary recourse available from the software vendor for the infringement of
the software. The Bidder agrees to indemnify the client against any third party claim for
infringement of copyright or trade secrets with respect to services provided by the Bidder.
We suggest you enter into a back to back agreement with OEM partner for copyright/patent issues
CL.6.2 For the system & other software?
The bidder seeks deletion of the indemnity provisions.
We suggest you enter into a back to back agreement with OEM partner for copyright issues
CL.19 taxes and Duties?
The bidder seeks to propose that Client shall pay for all taxes in connection with this engagement
including, but not limited to, sales, use, excise, value-added, goods and services, consumption, and
other similar taxes or duties. Each party shall be responsible for taxes based on its own net income,
employment taxes of its own employees.
CL.28 termination for default?
The bidder seeks to propose that a cure period of not less than 30 days should be provided to the
bidder to rectify any defects before the client exercises its right to terminate the contract. The
Bidder further seeks a reciprocal right to terminate the contract for any material breach by the
Client.
We are discussing the same with procurement team. Such issues can also be discussed at the
contracting stage
Cl 30 Limitation of liability?
Bidder seeks that the liability cap be capped at the contract value. Ten times the contract value is
an anomaly to the market practice in India.
We are discussing the same with our Procurement team. Any updates shall be posted on the web-
site. TCC conditions can also be discussed during contracting stage if we find that the same vary
widely from the terms and conditions prevalant in the industry
Cl.33 Indemnity?
Bidder seeks for deletion of indemnity for patent infringement.
We suggest you discuss it with your OEM partner as though such incidents normally have not been
reported in the industry we cannot take this liability on us
Cl. 8 Insurance?
Is the insurance clause applicable in the current scenario?
No
RFP Queries
Response
It is mentioned in the RFP "The same should continue to be in successful operation for minimum
one project of similar or higher capacity in the last five years (at least in one Life Insurance
company compulsorily)." - We would like to know if we can remove the reference of Life Insurance
as the Channel Management is Line of Business Agnostic?
No we would like the vendor to have expertise in implementation of channel management in life
insurance company as we would believe the domain has certain unique characteristics
It is mentioned in the RFP "Does the system have a single client id to manage various relationships?
Can the system support “one to many” relationships between the agent personal information and
their contract data?" - Does this requirement refer to Single Customer View as available with MDM /
CRM Integration or an in-built single customer view of end customers attached to the agent /
broker?
This refers to the requirement that we want a client centric view within this application. So any
person will have a single client-id though he may be related to this clent-id in many ways eg. A
policy holder, an agent who later becomes an AM
What are all the Channels that are exoected to be part of Hierarchy Management - is it Agent /
Broker or does it also include, direct customer, Customer Service Representative for Cross / Up-Sell
and Bancassurance?
We want to manage our sales hierarchy within the organizationand its relationship with the bank
hierarchy
What are the internal and external integration points that are intended to be part of Agency On-
boarding - including License Validation, Credit Validation, Background Verification and Third-party
Services?
We would like integration with Life Asia/Group Asia and possibly with an email/SMS application for
agency on-boarding; other direct integration is not expected for agency on-boarding
What are the internal and external integration points that are intended to be part of Agency On-
boarding - including License Validation, Credit Validation, Background Verification and Third-party
Services?
As mentioned in the RFP we would like to have this functionality in the product but implementation
would not include commission calculation as the same would be done in Life Asia
Does SUD have a centralized commission processing and disbursement facility for whole India or
have decentralized commission facility at Branch / ?
Centralized
In case the answer is "yes" to decentralized commission calculation mentioned in the question
above - Does the requirement to transfer the commission to the servicing agent or transferred
agent in the other Branch / Region / State expected to online?
NA
Does the system require to track Bonus and Contest in terms of Cash or should it also track the
same that is distributed in kinds that are different than Cash?
Some contests have non-monetary rewards we would like to track to the extent that the application
would have upload facility for delivery details of these rewards
Does the web portal / security requirement include single-sign-on validation for agents etc. when
integrated with Agency / Broker / Bancassurance self-service portal?
Yes we would prefer it
Does SUD intend to implement and integrated CRM and MDM / ODS with the Channel Management
Solution and hence require readiness?
This questionis not relevant at this stage and not part of the RFP. We alreafy have a CRM solution
which has been partially implemented
Does SUD intend to implement and integrated CRM and MDM / ODS with the Channel Management
Solution and hence require readiness?
Yes
This clause states that both the bidder and OEM must be registering profits in at least one of the
last three years. Is it a restrictive clause or it be relaxed to include only one partner in the
consortium?
Yes
1. What are the applications/ systems to be integrated with the CMS?
2. How many applications/ systems need to be integrated?
3. What is the mode of integration with these applications/ systems?
4. What other feeds, apart from base commission, would flow from Life Asia?
5. Which data elements would constitute the feeds?
At present we would have our Life and Group systems( based on AS400 platform), our Finance
system( Sun GL) and our receipting system integrated in CMS. We currently have MQ series and
Biztalk which could be used for the same.Vendors can suggest different approaches based on their
experience in similar projects. No other feed is expected only syncing of data between CMS and LA
apart from commission feed is expected. Vendors are expected to know 8-10 fields that constitute a
typical commission feed .SMS/email solutions would be another integration point
What is the warranty period - 12 months from actual Go-Live date of the solution in SUD Life or 12
months from the date of acceptance of the software?
12 months from actual go-live date
What is the number of SUD Life's personnel who are required to be trained?
20 people
Supply of device drivers in case of change in operating environment in SUD - this service shall not
be covered under warranty and shall be chargeable?
It will be a chargeable service but the vendor will have to provide these services should the need
arise at a reasonable cost