CSC Offers Microsoft Option for Insurance Suite

CSC announces it has signed a technology development, marketing and sales alliance agreement with Microsoft to extend Integral, one of CSC's global insurance administration software suites, to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2.

The combination of Integral with Microsoft technology will offer insurance companies a new platform alternative with comprehensive insurance administration capabilities at an attractive total cost of ownership.

Under the agreement, Microsoft will provide CSC with technical support to move the Integral suite to the latest versions of Microsoft's server platform and database products, and the two IT companies will jointly promote the resulting software to insurance carriers globally. The first components running on the Microsoft infrastructure will be available later this year.

Integral, one of CSC's comprehensive administration suites for life insurance and annuities/pensions, property and casualty (P&C)/general insurance and group insurance, provides end-to-end policy/group management, product configuration and business analytics capabilities. More than 250 insurance operations are running Integral components.

Its portable Java-based architecture and multi-currency, multilingual and multicompany capabilities enable companies to implement Integral quickly across borders and operate cost-effectively, either in-house or hosted.

By running Integral on Microsoft's server infrastructure, the Integral suite will appeal to a broader set of customers that currently use or are considering Microsoft technology for their mission-critical and core systems. In addition, customers also will be able to tap into the large community of Microsoft and SQL Server experts and database administrators.

“We are seeing rapid adoption of Windows Server and SQL Server across the financial services sector, driven by banks and carriers and their desire to modernize legacy platforms,” says Karen Cone, general manager, worldwide financial services for Microsoft. “The resulting systems are more modern, more easily configurable and we believe feature the leading price-for-performance equation in the industry. By combining Integral with the Microsoft platform, the CSC-Microsoft alliance is going to better enable insurance carriers to pursue global opportunities efficiently across multiple lines, borders, languages and currencies.”

“This initiative will help insurers stretch their investments when moving into new markets and regions,” said Ray August, president of CSC's financial services group. “It builds upon our successful alliance for CSC's POINT IN administration software, which became generally available on Microsoft technologies earlier this year. New and existing client interest is high, with several insurers already implementing this version.”