International Insurance Traffic with Software Agents

This paper presents a business case on digital crossborder information flow within a European network of insurance companies. Underlying the business case is the multi-agent paradigm. The paper explores a structured approach for designing agent behavior based on the 5 Capabilities (5C) agent model. The central value of the 5C model is the conceptual separation of concerns. It breaks apart five different dimensions of capabilities upon which an intelligent agent must draw. The work shows that functional as well as technical constraints can be reflected in an intuitive manner along these five dimensions. The outcome of the business case was the KIR system, a network of information exchanging agents handling green card insurance traffic within Europe. The strength of the agent paradigm combined with the simplicity of the application design acted as an eye-opener; with two major consequences. First, the customer has given the green light to develop and implement the KIR system at European level. Second, the customer has become a strong believer in the value of solutions in the insurance domain based on intelligent agents.