Oracle Introduces Newest Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting solution

Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle Insurance Insbridge, Rating and Underwriting 4.6, an adaptive, enterprise-wide rating engine for product management, premium calculation and underwriting rules management. The new release is designed to make it easier for insurers to use Insurance Services Office (ISO) standards and incorporate them into their unique rating environments to accelerate time-to-market.

The latest release extends the market-leading product's capabilities to support ISO Electronic Rating Content (ERC) -- content which includes complete and current rating data and rules for all major ISO    lines in the United States.  Using the new ISO ERC Accelerator, insurers can import ISO ERC into Oracle Insurance Insbridge. Variables such as input and table variables are automatically created, reducing the amount of manual work required. Insurers can use the ISO definitions as-is or tailor them to meet their specific business needs, getting a jump-start on new product creation and ultimately accelerating time-to-market.

"With Release 4.6, insurers can more seamlessly manage their ISO content. The application's flexibility also enables them to deviate from ISO and still accept regular ISO updates. The Import/Export 2.0 and Custom XML capabilities further improve the mapping process so insurers can maintain their competitive edge and have the flexibility to do rating their way. By expanding the math functionality, Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting continues to broaden its functionality to provide insurers with a wide variety of tools to help maximize their competitive differentiation," said Srini Venkatasanthanam, vice president, insurance products, Oracle.

Other new features of Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting 4.6 include: Import/Export 2.0 - Helps reduce production downtime for a new rating release. Insurers can export rating data into a "sandbox” environment where actuaries, underwriters and business analysts can make changes to a product line, collaborate, and test the impact of the new rates -- then seamlessly import them into the live environment and put them into production.

"ISO rates can provide a jump-start on creating new products because insurers don't need to enter loss costs, deductibles and other data from scratch. Yet every insurer wants to keep the 'secret sauce' that makes their products unique. This leads to property and casualty insurers spending significant amounts of time and money to maintain and customize ISO rates; every time a new update is issued, the insurer has to manually comb through the circulars and find out where the deviations are. The ability to automatically compare and customize ISO content to an insurer's specific business needs can greatly accelerate time to market and result in significant savings," said Karlyn Carnahan, principal analyst, Novarica.

Advanced Math Functionality - Enables actuaries, underwriters and rate analysts to create even the most complex rating algorithms to help make an insurer's offerings more competitive. The new functionality provides a user-friendly environment for rate modeling and testing.

Custom XML Mapping Screen - Designed to improve data accuracy by enabling users to define and store custom XML templates in a central location. Further, insurers can improve productivity by enabling users to reuse the custom XML templates saved in the library for use in mapping from multiple systems such as legacy systems or other rating engines.