Configure BimaStack, start to end

BimaStack turns an insurer’s rate card into a product anyone can quote, compare, buy and service, with no code written for that product. This post is the map: what each piece is, which order to build them in, and where each one is explained in full. Everything here is configuration your own team writes, tests and approves.

The pieces, from the bottom up

How a quote flows through them

request: product code, answers, chosen covers, date
   |
   1  find the product version in effect on that date
   2  check every answer against the product's own inputs
   3  work out which covers are on, with their limits
   4  validation  -> workflow -> rule flags (ERROR)
   5  eligibility -> workflow -> rule flags (DECLINE / REFER)
   6  underwriting-> workflow -> rule flags (DECLINE / REFER)
   7  pricing     -> workflow -> rate tables + formulas + blocks
   8  outcome: DECLINE if any decline rule fired, else REFER, else ACCEPT
   9  quote: premium, reasons, covers, every version read, and a trace
   |
recorded, replayable, and ready to buy

Every box above is generic. Nothing in the platform knows what motor, travel or medical insurance is. A product is its definition plus the workflows and rate tables it names, and the same executor runs all of them.

The order to build in

1. 1

   Load the rate card

   Put each table of the card in as a rate table: by hand, or by filling in the Excel template. The platform rejects gaps, overlaps and duplicates before anything is saved.

   Rate tables
2. 2

   Write the pricing workflow

   Read the rates from your tables, apply the loadings and discounts, add the levies. Write it as text in the Studio or wire it on the canvas; both are the same thing.

   Open the Studio
3. 3

   Add eligibility and underwriting checks

   Small workflows that raise yes/no flags: “any traveller over 80”, “sum insured above the limit in this table”.

4. 4

   Define the product

   Its questions and their limits, its covers, which workflow runs each stage, and what each flag means: refer, decline or reject the request.

   Products
5. 5

   Test it

   Simulate the draft against real cases and read every step of the trace. The Setup checklist shows anything still missing.

   Setup checklist
6. 6

   Approve and publish

   A second person approves each piece. Publish today, or schedule it to take effect on a later date while the current version keeps pricing.

   Approvals

Rules the whole platform keeps

• Configuration, not code. If a product needs something the platform can’t express, it is added as a general capability for every product, never as code for one.
• Exact money. Every amount is an exact decimal carried at ten places and rounded only where a figure leaves the calculation, half to even unless a formula says otherwise.
• Fail closed. A rate that matches no row, a missing setting or a failed lookup stops the calculation with a clear error. Nothing is ever priced at zero by accident.
• Dated versions. Every table, formula, workflow and product version has a start date. Yesterday’s quote can be recalculated exactly as it was.
• Two people. Whoever drafts a change can’t approve it.
• Everything explained. Each quote lists every version it read and can show every step that produced its price.