Oracle today announced the official launch of its new OracleInsurance brand and the release of its new Application IntegrationArchitecture (AIA) for insurance.

It said AIA will create a broad foundation that can integratediffering insurer systems.

The new brand was created “in response to global insuranceindustry customer needs,” said Redwood Shores, Calif.-basedOracle.

“Oracle Insurance helps insurers improve business agilitythrough an end-to-end software offering that manages the entireenterprise–from technical infrastructure to core insuranceprocessing,” the company said.

It added, “With Oracle Insurance products, insurers can getproducts to market faster, reduce operational costs, strengthencustomer and distributor relationships, and gain full visibilityinto their business operations.”

The move puts another worldwide technology giant into theinsurance space, along with Microsoft and IBM.

“The story is our focus on insurance,” said Chuck Johnston, vicepresident, Strategy and Alliances, for Oracle Insurance. “We boughttwo of the major up-and-coming players in the market space. Withthe combination of our AdminServer and Skywire assets, we now haveover 2,000 customers globally.”

According to the company, “Oracle Insurance leverages a broadstandards-based product set that spans Oracle Database, OracleFusion Middleware, Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise PerformanceManagement applications (EPM).”

Mr. Johnston described what Oracle sees as a three-tier strategyfor the insurance marketplace. The first tier involves offering a“best of breed” product line that touches many areas, includingpolicy administration, document automation and rating.

The second tier is an integration strategy that involves thecompany's own products, as well as those of other vendors, henoted. “Oracle is a software company. Our focus is to have softwarethat works out of the box, although you may have to configure andwrite rules.

“The new AIA is our strategy to connect our stuff to our stuffand our stuff to other stuff,” he continued. He emphasized that theAIA foundation is being laid as a global strategy across manyindustries. In insurance, the first “connection pack” will link thecompany's claims products to its financial solution.

“This is a real-time solution that allows users to manage cashflows on a daily basis,” he added. “More new connectors forinsurance are to be announced.”

Mr. Johnston said the connectors are not exclusive to Oracleproducts but also provide tools that allow users to connect toother software.

The third tier specified by Mr. Johnston is the “insurancecompany in a box” concept, which represents an end-to-end offeringthat will encompass CRM, product development, marketing, policyadministration, billing, back office functions and more.

“We could deploy an insurance company today,” he asserted,although he declined to comment on the associated costs. “We expectmost of our customers to buy pieces of the solutions, but they havea guarantee that in three years they can connect new modules towhat they buy now. You really can buy modules; you don't have tobuy a more complicated product and shut off 80 percent of it.”

Why has Oracle been making such an aggressive move intoinsurance? “Oracle already has a lot of insurance customers,” saidMr. Johnston. “We needed to add focus. In fact, our customers havecome to us and asked us to do this.”

Commenting on the timing of the announcement, Mr. Johnstonobserved that, “The market seems primed for serious solutions withreal backing. Given what's happening in the rest of the financialmarkets, this is a good time to focus on insurance.

“The insurance industry operates differently than the rest ofthe financial space,” he continued. “Insurers have taken some hitsfrom financial portfolios, but insurance is one of the soundestpieces of the financial marketplace in general.”

He added that the new architecture is applicable for both theproperty-casualty and life insurance sectors. “We can do a fulldeployment in either marketplace,” he stated. “This is notvaporware. We're here to stay. Oracle has made a large investmentin insurance, companies, people and ongoing development.”