Oracle Rolls Out Insurance Brand

"This is a real-time solution that allows users to manage cash flows on daily basis," Johnston says. "More new connectors for insurance are to be announced."

The third tier in the Oracle Insurance Strategy involves the "insurance company in a box" concept — an end-to-end offering that will handle CRM, product development, marketing, policy administration, billing, back office functions and more.

"We could deploy an insurance company today," Johnston says. "We expect most of our customers to buy pieces of the solutions, but they have a guarantee that in 3 years, they can connect new modules to what they buy now. You really can buy modules, don't have to buy a more complicated product, and shut off 80% of it."

Oracle is making such an aggressive move into insurance because "our customers have come to us and asked us to do this," Johnston says. "Oracle already has a lot of insurance customers. We needed to add focus.

Oracle announced the Oracle Insurance brand during a week of talk about financial turmoil.

"The market seems primed for serious solutions with real backing," Johnston says. "Given what's happening in the rest of the financial markets, this is a good time to focus on insurance. The insurance industry operates differently than the rest of the financial space. Insurers have taken some hits from financial portfolios, but insurance is one of the soundest pieces of the financial marketplace in general."

Johnston adds that the new architecture can support both life insurance and property-casualty operations.

"We can do a full deployment in either marketplace," Johnson says. "This is not vaporware. We're here to stay. Oracle has made a large investment in insurance, companies, people, and ongoing development."