The insurance business is complex and involves the administration of policies, the collection of premiums and claims payment, but ultimately revolves around the management of risk. Many insurance companies therefore insure their own business exposure for settling claims with other insurance companies. This involves making “recoveries” against such policies for claims paid out, thereby sharing the risk and exposure across the industry; this is the world of reinsurance.
As a competitive insurance business RiverStone has already customised its Oracle E-Business Release 11i system to cater for its particular business requirements to “net off” insurance and re- insurance transactions with other insurance companies.
Facing the ongoing costs of maintaining an ageing system, as well as the potential costs and complexities in upgrading existing customisations, this made an upgrade to R12 less attractive. In addition, business critical group revaluation and reporting requirements were being processed off-system using Excel spreadsheets and Discoverer, with all of the inherent issues in terms of time and accuracy.