Level 2 — Candidate Brief: Meridian Specialty Lines¶
About this exercise¶
This is your Level 2 configuration exercise. You will configure a production-ready client — Meridian Specialty Lines — end to end in your local Send PDE, covering two lines of business, O365/SharePoint rating, a straight-through processing pipeline with referral, email notifications via the client microservice, and a full set of roles with authority limits.
Unlike Level 1, this exercise reflects the complexity you will encounter on real client engagements. You are expected to make architectural decisions, work through ambiguities in the brief, and produce a DynamoDB specification document for DevOps alongside your configuration files.
By the end you must demonstrate a full end-to-end submission flow for both lines of business in your PDE.
What you need before you start¶
- [ ] Level 1 passed
- [ ] Your Send PDE running locally
- [ ] The Configuration Standards page open — all standards apply and will be assessed
- [ ] The Meridian rater Excel file (provided separately by your trainer)
- [ ] The New Project Questionnaire completed answers below
DynamoDB specification required
You must produce a written DynamoDB specification document alongside your configuration. This document tracks all the values you have added (or will add) to each environment's dynamodb/{env}/data.json, including which credential fields are still awaiting real values. It is the reference used when raising a Deploy DynamoDB Changes request in the Send Partner Portal — you own the file contents and the specification.
Client Profile¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Client name | Meridian Specialty Lines Ltd |
| Client code | meridian |
| D&B DUNS number | urn:duns:519274061 |
| Country of operation | United Kingdom |
| Primary currency | USD |
| Secondary currency | GBP |
| Business types | Open Market only |
Lines of Business¶
Meridian writes two classes at go-live:
| Class | Type Code | Rating Method | STP | Referral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property | PR |
O365 / SharePoint (Excel rater) | Yes | Yes — see trigger rules below |
| General Liability | GL |
Manual premium entry | No | No |
Line of Business 1 — Property (PR)¶
Submission form fields¶
| Field Label | Type | Mandatory | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insured Name | Text | Yes | |
| Broker Name | Text | Yes | |
| Inception Date | Date | Yes | |
| Expiry Date | Date | Yes | Must be after inception |
| Risk Address (Line 1) | Text | Yes | |
| Risk Address (City) | Text | Yes | |
| Risk Address (Country) | Text | Yes | |
| Construction Type | Dropdown | Yes | Options: Frame, Masonry, Steel Frame, Concrete |
| Occupancy | Dropdown | Yes | Options: Commercial, Industrial, Mixed Use, Warehouse |
| Year Built | Number | Yes | |
| Total Insured Value | Currency (USD) | Yes | |
| Number of Locations | Number | Yes | Used to drive asset schedule |
| Sprinkler System | Yes/No | Yes | |
| Fire Alarm | Yes/No | Yes | |
| Prior Loss History | Text area | No | |
| Underwriter Notes | Text area | No |
Asset schedule¶
Meridian's Property risks include a schedule of locations. Each location record must capture:
| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Location Reference | Text | e.g. LOC-001 |
| Address Line 1 | Text | |
| City | Text | |
| Country | Text | |
| Construction Type | Dropdown | Same options as submission form |
| Occupancy | Dropdown | Same options as submission form |
| Year Built | Number | |
| Sum Insured (USD) | Currency | Per location |
| Sprinkler System | Yes/No | |
| Fire Alarm | Yes/No |
The asset schedule is uploaded by the underwriter as a spreadsheet. The rater Excel file (provided by your trainer) expects these fields in specific columns — you must produce the WB_TO_O365 mapping file to match.
STP pipeline¶
The Property STP pipeline must run in the following order:
- Auto appetite check — rules-based. Reject if
Countryis on the excluded countries list (provided below) or ifYear Builtis before 1950 - Sanctions check — standard platform sanctions against the insured name
- Clearance — check for duplicate submissions via client-rest
- Structured quote — push asset schedule and risk data to the SharePoint rater, wait for the premium to be returned, and populate the submission
- Referral check — evaluate referral trigger rules (see below). If triggered, route to referral pipeline. If not triggered, allow bind
- Bind — enforce authority limits and mark submission as bound
- Document generation — generate Quote Slip (at quote) and Policy Schedule (at bind)
- Notification — send referral email when referral is triggered (see below)
Excluded countries (appetite rule): Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Belarus
Referral trigger rules (any one of these triggers a referral):
- Total Insured Value exceeds USD 10,000,000
- Occupancy is Industrial or Warehouse
- Year Built is before 1975
- Prior Loss History field is not empty
Rating — O365 / SharePoint¶
Meridian's rater is hosted on SharePoint. The following values will be provided by DevOps per environment (include them in your DynamoDB specification):
| Config Item | Dev Value | UAT Value | Prod Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| SharePoint Site ID | d1a34f92-0012-4b7c-8e22-ff291aa04512 |
a9f21c08-5e67-4d90-bc14-7731ef209034 |
TBC — to be confirmed by Meridian |
| Rater file name | MeridianPropertyRater_Dev.xlsx |
MeridianPropertyRater_UAT.xlsx |
TBC |
| Import tab | WB_Input |
WB_Input |
WB_Input |
| Export tab | WB_Output |
WB_Output |
WB_Output |
| Table name | PropertyRaterTable |
PropertyRaterTable |
PropertyRaterTable |
Referral email notification¶
When a Property submission is referred, the Senior Underwriter must receive an email notification. The email is sent via the client-rest microservice routing through AWS API Gateway.
The following values must be included in your DynamoDB specification for DevOps:
| Config Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Email type | ReferralNotification |
| Recipient role | senior_uw |
| Auth method | OAuth2 client credentials (Microsoft Graph API) |
| Tenant ID | b7e4c291-1122-4f8d-9a03-cc5d91e2f344 |
| Client ID | To be provided by Meridian IT — placeholder in spec |
| Client Secret | To be provided by Meridian IT — placeholder in spec |
| AWS API Gateway URL | To be provisioned by DevOps — placeholder in spec |
Line of Business 2 — General Liability (GL)¶
Submission form fields¶
| Field Label | Type | Mandatory | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insured Name | Text | Yes | |
| Broker Name | Text | Yes | |
| Inception Date | Date | Yes | |
| Expiry Date | Date | Yes | Must be after inception |
| Business Description | Text area | Yes | |
| Jurisdiction | Dropdown | Yes | Options: UK, USA, Europe, Rest of World |
| Limit of Liability | Currency (USD) | Yes | |
| Retroactive Date | Date | No | |
| Number of Employees | Number | No | |
| Annual Turnover (USD) | Currency | No | |
| Underwriter Notes | Text area | No |
Workflow¶
GL uses a simple three-step workflow with no STP automation:
- Sanctions check — standard platform sanctions against insured name (runs automatically on creation)
- Structured quote — underwriter reviews, enters premium manually, quotes
- Bind — underwriter confirms bind with authority limit enforcement
Documents: Quote Slip (at quote), Policy Schedule (at bind).
MTA — Property Only¶
Property risks require an MTA (mid-term adjustment) workflow. The MTA must allow the underwriter to amend the Total Insured Value and re-push the asset schedule to the rater. MTA is not required for GL at this stage.
Roles and Authority¶
All roles apply across both business classes.
| Role | Can Create | Can Quote | Bind Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Assistant | Yes | No | None |
| Underwriter | Yes | Yes | USD 500,000 / GBP 400,000 |
| Senior Underwriter | Yes | Yes | USD 5,000,000 / GBP 4,000,000 |
Documents¶
| Document | Business Class | Trigger | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote Slip | PR and GL | When submission is quoted | HTML template — your design |
| Policy Schedule | PR and GL | When submission is bound | HTML template — your design |
| Referral Summary | PR only | When submission enters referral | HTML template — minimum: insured name, TIV, referral trigger reason |
All three templates must include at minimum: insured name, class of business, inception and expiry dates, and the relevant financial figure (sum insured or limit).
Deliverables¶
You must produce all of the following and be able to demonstrate items 7 and 8 in your PDE:
- Complete
be_config.json— correct DUNS, roles, currencies, feature switches - Business class definitions —
PR.jsonandGL.json - Action files —
pr-open-market-actions.jsonandgl-open-market-actions.json - Pipelines — referral pipeline for PR (with approve and decline paths), bind pipelines for both
- Rating config —
rating/config/pr/rating-config.jsonandrating/files/pr/WB_TO_O365-assets-mapping.json - Document templates — Quote Slip, Policy Schedule, Referral Summary (HTML)
- DynamoDB specification document — a written document specifying every value to be set in each environment's
dynamodb/{env}/data.json, with placeholders clearly marked for values not yet available - Demonstrated in PDE:
- Property submission flowing through full STP to quote, triggering referral, approved by Senior Underwriter, bound with Policy Schedule generated
- Property submission with TIV under $10m and no referral triggers flowing straight from quote to bind
- GL submission created, manually quoted, and bound
- Underwriter attempting to bind a PR risk above USD 500,000 — confirm platform prevents it
- MTA on a bound PR submission — confirm the rater is re-invoked
Assessment Criteria¶
Your configuration will be reviewed by a senior configurator against the criteria below. The PDE demonstration counts for 40% of the assessment. The configuration file review counts for 60%.
| Area | Weight | What will be checked |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration standards compliance | 25% | No Critical violations; High violations each reduce score by 5% |
| STP pipeline correctness | 15% | Correct order, sanctions first, referral resolves in both directions |
| Rating integration | 15% | WB_TO_O365 mapping accurate against rater columns; both push and pull configured |
| DynamoDB specification | 15% | All required values present; credentials correctly identified as placeholders (not committed as real values); per-environment values specified |
| Authority limit enforcement | 10% | Demonstrated in PDE across all roles and both currencies |
| Document generation | 10% | All three documents generated at correct trigger points via pipeline steps |
| MTA workflow | 10% | MTA for PR re-invokes rater and allows TIV amendment |
A score of 70% or above is a pass.