Using OPC UA for Integrating and Tracing Data Flows in the Insurance Industry

Process compliance is a major concern in the financial services industry. Today there is no standard approach for ensuring the traceability of data transfers, requiring development and maintenance of customized solutions. This paper shows how one of the key technologies for integrating production systems, the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA, IEC 62541), can be used for addressing this issue. OPC UA provides a number of out-of-the-box functionalities including history management and data validation, which are generic and applicable to any type of data. However, to date there are hardly any known applications of this standard outside the manufacturing domain. The paper presents the architecture and implementation of a prototype incorporating an OPC UA communication interface, and illustrates its application in the context of insurance processing. This work provides the potential not only for enhanced data traceability within the financial services industry but also for a more enterprise-wide use of OPC UA leading to cross-domain system integration such as envisioned for Industry 4.0.