DAF Underwriting
A scalable SaaS underwriting platform designed to help insurance brokers manage configurable insurance products — built around extensibility from the ground up.
A wholesale insurance platform for brokers
DAF Underwriting is a production SaaS platform that serves as a wholesale underwriting partner for insurance brokers. It provides brokers with a dedicated digital space to manage their business — from getting quotes and subscribing to insurance products, to tracking cases, handling documents, and processing payments.
The platform initially focused on temporary car insurance as its first commercial product. This roadmap — expanding product coverage without rebuilding the platform — was a central driver of the architectural approach chosen from the beginning.
Target users
Insurance brokers
Business context
Wholesale underwriting
Initial product
Temporary car insurance
Architecture goal
Extensible product engine
The challenge behind the architecture
How do you build an insurance platform that can evolve without rebuilding?
The platform needed to support multiple insurance products over time without hard-coding product-specific logic or requiring a new application for every product. That constraint shaped the architecture from the start.
Extensible product architecture
Challenge
Support multiple insurance products without rebuilding the platform or hard-coding product-specific logic.
Engineering decision
Designed a configurable product engine around questionnaires, dynamic conditions, calculation tables and pricing formulas.
Coordinating a microservices architecture
Challenge
Distribute business logic across independent services while maintaining consistent communication between the admin and broker applications.
Engineering decision
Defined service boundaries, API contracts and BPMN flows around a centralized Gateway acting as the single entry point for the frontends.
Integrating heterogeneous systems
Challenge
Connect external systems using different communication models — from REST and SOAP to webhooks and real-time connections.
Engineering decision
Integrated each system according to its protocol: ORIAS via SOAP, Docage via REST and webhooks, real-time notifications via WebSockets.
Full-Stack Developer
Horiatech · Team project
I was responsible for a large part of the technical design and core development of the platform. Working independently on a significant portion of the project, I later contributed to knowledge transfer as additional developers joined the team.
Architecture & Design
- Technical requirements & specification
- Solution design & BPMN process flows
- Microservices architecture design
- Service boundaries & API design
- Database schema design
- Technology choices (validated with CEO)
- Presentation & validation with customer
Development
- Backend microservices (Node.js · Express · TypeScript)
- React admin dashboard
- Next.js broker dashboard
- Redux Toolkit for state management
- ORIAS integration (SOAP)
- Aerial Assurances integration (REST API)
- PayPal payment flow (REST API)
- Docage e-signature (REST API · Webhooks)
- WebSocket real-time notifications
Collaboration
- Close collaboration with client & CEO
- Requirements validation & alignment
- Technical documentation
- Architecture handover to new developers
- Onboarding & knowledge transfer sessions
Microservices architecture
The platform is built around a set of independently deployable microservices, each responsible for a distinct bounded context. A gateway acts as the single entry point for both frontend applications.
System architecture
React
Admin Portal
WebSocketsExpress.js
API GATEWAY
Next.js
Broker Portal
Client Pages
WebSocketsMicroservices
MS 1
Auth & User
MS 2
Products
MS 3
Contracts
MS 4
Payment
MS 5
Notifications
SMTPMS 6
Statistics
* MS 6 — architectural design; not developed by me
Configurable insurance products
One of the most significant architectural decisions was designing the platform around configurable insurance products rather than hard-coding product-specific logic.
The platform includes an editor that allows administrators to configure an insurance product by defining its questionnaire, possible answers, dynamic conditions, calculation tables, and pricing formulas — making a new insurance product achievable with minimal or no additional development work.
In practice, adding a new insurance product meant filling out a structured configuration — no code deployment, no schema migration. Each product is defined through five sequential layers: Product, Questionnaire, Calculation Table, Pricing Formula and Quote / Price.
PRODUCT
Define the insurance product
QUESTIONNAIRE
Questions, answers, conditions & dependencies
CALC. TABLE
Structured pricing data based on answers
PRICING FORMULA
Evaluates tables and collected answers
QUOTE / PRICE
Final computed price returned to the broker
Product / questionnaire editor screenshot
The configurable product editor — most important visual for this section
Pricing configuration screenshot
Calculation tables or formula editor
Two distinct interfaces, one coherent platform
The platform serves two different user types — administrators managing platform configuration, and brokers managing their own business — each with a dedicated frontend application built on a different framework.
Admin Dashboard
- Insurance product configuration
- Questionnaire & pricing formula editor
- Broker & client management
- Quote & contract oversight
- Platform administration
Admin dashboard screenshot
React + Material UI interface
Broker Dashboard
- Product quotation & subscription
- Case & contract tracking
- Payment processing (PayPal)
- Electronic signature workflow
- Real-time notifications
Broker dashboard screenshot
Next.js + Redux Toolkit interface
Built for integration
A full-stack TypeScript platform with a microservices architecture — connecting multiple front-end portals to a shared API Gateway and bridging modern REST services with legacy SOAP systems.
Frontend
Backend
Protocols
Integrations
ORIASDocageA live SaaS platform
for insurance brokers
DAF Underwriting is a live SaaS platform used by insurance brokers, designed to support new insurance products without rebuilding the platform.
Status
Live · Production
Users
Insurance brokers
Architecture
Microservices · SaaS
Part of Khaled ABBACI's portfolio
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