Product Knowledge

Product knowledge (Produktwissen) is the part of the standard that describes what an insurance product is and which configurations of it are permitted: the sales product with its components, attributes, cardinalities and risk objects, the rules under which a configuration is valid, the application questions, and the persons and roles that belong to a contract. The insurer defines it a priori and delivers it at runtime so that a client – a broker system, a smart client or an AI agent – can configure a product without knowing it beforehand.

Product knowledge is the structural pillar of the vocabulary (Vocabulary Layers) and the core of the product knowledge profile (Profiles of the Standard). It is independent of the process in which it is used: the same product definition carries the configuration in the application process, the change of an existing configuration in the contract change and the move to a current product in the conversion. How business cases, business objects and operations work with it is described by Process Knowledge.

Structure

Product and Product Configuration – what a product is: calculation and rule set, risk parameters as the formal interface between product and concrete case.
Product Model: Product Tree and Instance Tree – the vocabulary p: for the product definition and i: for the product instance: sales product, components, attributes, cardinalities, risk objects, examples from the sample catalogue of the standard.
Insurance Products as Rule Sets – how admissibility, mandatory data and value ranges are described and checked as SHACL shapes.
Application Questions – questions an insurer asks about product or risk, delivered as part of the product knowledge.
Objects – risk objects such as vehicle, building or person and their assignment to components.
Application and Contract Roles – policyholder, insured person, payer and further roles that complete a configuration into an application and a contract.

Use in the Business Case Types

Business case type	Role of the product knowledge
Application process	The chosen sales product is delivered by the product knowledge for configuration; calculation, offer, application and contract carry this configuration and enrich it. First type to be implemented and tried out.
Contract change	The starting point is the configuration of the existing contract, delivered with the product knowledge of the product the contract runs on; the contract change application changes it with the same edits as the application process.
Conversion	The product knowledge of the current product supplies the target configuration; an inquiry on the existing contract names the products it can be converted to and proposes a configuration that the conversion application takes over and adapts.
Claim notification and handling	The product knowledge describes the cover of the components against which a claim notification is checked; the claim notification itself is not product knowledge (description follows with the business case type).

Business case type

Role of the product knowledge

Application process

The chosen sales product is delivered by the product knowledge for configuration; calculation, offer, application and contract carry this configuration and enrich it. First type to be implemented and tried out.

Contract change

The starting point is the configuration of the existing contract, delivered with the product knowledge of the product the contract runs on; the contract change application changes it with the same edits as the application process.

Conversion

The product knowledge of the current product supplies the target configuration; an inquiry on the existing contract names the products it can be converted to and proposes a configuration that the conversion application takes over and adapts.

Claim notification and handling

The product knowledge describes the cover of the components against which a claim notification is checked; the claim notification itself is not product knowledge (description follows with the business case type).

Delimitation

Product knowledge says what may be configured; process knowledge says how a process runs: which business objects exist, which operations are admissible in which state and who triggers them. The two pillars are connected by references: a business object carries a product configuration as content, and a next step names the expected form of a configuration as a shape of the product knowledge.