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Discover our solutions for insurance companies
In short: As a mid-level manager at an insurer, you are usually the one who has to turn a decision to buy procurement software into something your team actually uses. This guide covers what to evaluate, where rollouts typically go wrong, and how to plan the implementation phase by phase. It also covers what makes insurance different: Solvency II outsourcing rules for critical or important functions, DORA's requirements for ICT third-party contracts and the Register of Information, and GDPR processor agreements. A system that can't capture this evidence inside the workflow will leave your team collecting it by hand before every audit.
As a mid-level manager in insurance, you sit between two sets of expectations. Senior management wants better spend visibility, tighter control and fewer compliance surprises. Your team wants a system that doesn't slow them down. When a new procurement platform arrives, you are the one who has to make both work.
This guide is written from that position. It covers the evaluation criteria that matter for insurance, the pain points managers run into most often, and a practical implementation plan. If you want to share something with your team about what changes in their daily work, our practical guide for operations professionals covers the end-user side.
Tip: at the end of the article, you'll find a downloadable evaluation checklist for comparing procurement platforms against insurance-sector requirements.
Most procurement software is built for general purchasing. Insurance adds a layer of regulatory evidence that the system either captures inside the workflow or leaves for your team to reconstruct later.
Solvency II outsourcing rules. Article 49 of the Solvency II Directive and Article 274 of the Delegated Regulation set requirements for outsourcing critical or important functions, such as underwriting in the name of the insurer, compliance, internal audit, accounting, risk management and actuarial support. Where a function falls into that category, a written agreement is mandatory, and the supervisor must be notified before the outsourcing begins.
DORA. The Digital Operational Resilience Act has applied since 17 January 2025, and it covers Solvency II insurers and reinsurers, not just banks. For procurement, two obligations matter most: contracts with ICT third-party providers must contain specific mandatory clauses, and the organisation must keep a Register of Information covering every ICT third-party arrangement, including subcontracting chains. When DORA started applying, EIOPA also repealed its separate guidelines on cloud outsourcing, so ICT and cloud contracts now need to be assessed against DORA.
GDPR. Wherever a supplier processes personal data on the insurer's behalf, which is common with claims, customer service and IT suppliers, Article 28 requires a data processing agreement with defined content.
Cost allocation. How purchases are allocated to cost centres, products and claims also feeds finance and actuarial reporting, including the attribution of expenses under IFRS 17. It is worth agreeing the allocation logic with finance before the system is configured, not after.
When you assess procurement platforms, these are the areas that decide whether the system works for an insurance team:
Rule-based approval routing and automatic matching of invoices against orders and receipts remove most of the chasing and manual checking. The biggest gains usually come from exceptions: price differences, partial deliveries, urgent purchases. We wrote about handling these without losing control in our article on rule-based exception handling.
Tip: in demos, ask to see how the system handles an exception you deal with every month, not the standard happy path.
Real-time budget tracking lets you act before a budget is overspent, not after. A breakdown by category, supplier and cost centre shows where consolidation or renegotiation would pay off.
Tip: check whether dashboards can be set up per management level, so you see your own area's KPIs without building reports by hand.
A single supplier record with performance data, certifications and risk classification replaces scattered spreadsheets. In insurance, data protection and security compliance should be part of the supplier profile, not a separate file.
Automatic alerts for renewals and notice periods, easy access to current terms, and a central repository make audits considerably faster, and prevent contracts from rolling over unnoticed.
When procurement data is structured from the start, answering a question from management or compliance takes minutes instead of days, and savings can be demonstrated with data rather than estimates.
Discover our solutions for insurance companies
As a mid-level manager, you have more influence over whether a procurement platform succeeds than anyone else in the organisation, because you connect the decision with the people who have to use the system. In insurance, the right system does more than handle standard purchasing: it captures the evidence Solvency II, DORA and GDPR require as part of the normal workflow.
The approach that works: start from your current pain points and evidence gaps, choose a system that addresses those specifically, and invest in change management and training at least as much as in the software itself. To see how this works in practice, explore Fluenta One's insurance procurement solution.
What should a mid-level manager focus on when evaluating procurement software in insurance?
Process efficiency, spend visibility, supplier and contract management, integration with finance systems, and usability, plus one insurance-specific test: whether the system captures Solvency II outsourcing, DORA and GDPR evidence as part of the normal workflow.
Does DORA apply to insurance companies?
Yes. DORA has applied since 17 January 2025 and covers Solvency II insurance and reinsurance undertakings. For procurement, it means mandatory clauses in ICT third-party contracts and a Register of Information covering all ICT third-party arrangements, including subcontracting chains.
Do the EIOPA guidelines on cloud outsourcing still apply?
No. EIOPA repealed them when DORA started applying on 17 January 2025, because the two overlapped. Cloud and other ICT contracts are now assessed under DORA, while Solvency II outsourcing rules still apply to critical or important functions.
Why do implementations fail most often?
Usually because of low adoption, poor data quality or integration problems, not because of the software itself. Involving key users early, cleaning data before migration and testing integrations with real volumes prevent most of these problems.
Which KPIs should we track after go-live?
Requisition-to-order cycle time, share of spend under contract, invoice first-pass match rate, and the completeness of supplier classifications and register data. Measure the baseline before the rollout, otherwise the improvement can't be demonstrated.
Should we roll out all modules at once?
Usually not. A pilot with one team or category, followed by module-by-module rollout starting with the most regulation-sensitive areas, is less risky and gives you results you can show earlier.
Procurement software evaluation checklist: a checklist for evaluating procurement platforms against insurance-sector requirements. It covers:
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