i-flex scouts for insurance solutions cos

Priya Padmanabhan

BANGALORE: i-flex

Solutions, which has so far focused on offering core banking products,

solutions and services for the banking industry, is now looking to increase its

competencies in the insurance sphere.

Last year the company took a 73 per cent stake in a Canadian property and

casualty insurance solutions firm, Castek Software Inc., which has an insurance

suite called (Insure)3.

Post acquisition, i-flex made the first major customer breakthrough when it

won a multi-million dollar three year deal to replace US-based Tokio Marine

Management's old processes with its property insurance systems in the US and

across its various branches.

In India, the company has undertaken a banking and insurance deal for Canara

Bank.

Speaking to CyberMedia News, V Shankar, the company's executive vice

president, PrimeSourcing, said that i-flex is now looking to buy a stake in

companies that have product and solution expertise in areas like life insurance

and reinsurance.

Explaining the business potential of the insurance industry, Shankar said,

“The insurance industry is around 10 years behind in IT adoption. They have

legacy mainframe systems and have complex requirements since they have many

sub-verticals unlike the banking industry.”

However, rather than going for a complete overhaul of the existing legacy

systems, insurance companies prefer to go in for replacement in parts, said

Shankar.

“They also want to fill in visible gaps in the solutions such as agency

automation. Adapting Service Oriented Architecture (SoA) architecture and risk

management and compliance solutions are also in demand.”

The US insurance industry alone spends around $28 billion annually. Besides

the US, i-flex is looking at under-served markets like China, South Korea and

South Africa. The company also hopes to target the Indian market by incubating

new solutions at the Indian branches of global insurance companies, which are

still dealing with legacy systems.

i-flex has set up a Castek competency center in Bangalore, which has over 100

employees working on developing casualty and property insurance solutions.

© CyberMedia News