In the coming months, these product offerings will be enhanced for use in an e-enabled, service-oriented architecture, allowing rapid adoption of emerging technologies.
The new architecture will allow banking and insurance clients to leverage their investments in CSC’s enterprise applications, including those assumed through CSC’s acquisition of Mynd Corporation.
Our clients tell us our administrative engines continue to serve as the foundation for their business operations, but the way they want to access the data and functionality is changing, said Ray August, executive vice president of Property & Casualty Solutions for CSC’s Financial Services Group. In an environment of industry consolidation and convergence, financial services firms need to unify many heterogeneous systems. Companies are still very dependent upon highly complex processing contained in mission-critical applications of varying ages, origins and technical characteristics. By transitioning to an integrated, service-oriented architecture, many of those differences become irrelevant. Our customers will have the freedom to determine when and how they leverage the business value of their CSC applications.
To implement this new strategy, the business functions of CSC’s financial services software will be redefined using ACORD-based XML data structures. They will employ open standards, HTTP-based protocols, and leading eAI middleware to manage the communication between all major parties involved in financial services transactions, both inside and outside the enterprise. As a result, companies will be able to achieve enterprisewide business process management. Consumers, distributors and other users will have access to key business functions across all channels and devices.
CSC’s software applications are well-positioned to operate in a decentralized, distributed environment using ACORD XML interfaces. The company’s Web-based insurance platforms, ViLink and iSolutions, have been recognized for early adoption of ACORD’s XML standards. The two applications won the ACORD 2000 Early Adopter Award and are expected to receive the 2001 ACORD XML Implementation Champions Award at ACORD’s annual conference in Orlando this week. In addition, much of the core functionality of CSC’s line of business applications is already accessible through open Java- and COM-based interfaces.
System conversions and elimination are not always practical in life insurance, said Paul DeFuria, executive vice president of Life and Annuity Solutions for CSC’s Financial Services Group. For most life insurers, the number of enterprise administration systems in production continues to grow, due to industry consolidation and the evolution of insurance products over the years. With an e-enabled, service-oriented architecture, CSC will be able to implement new common functions across multiple enterprise systems faster and with less complexity. For example, we can help our clients integrate customer-facing operations such as Web support and call centers with all systems in a much more stable and durable way.
CSC’s common architectural model will be extended across its product portfolio including the company’s flagship administrative engines for life insurance and annuities, VANTAGE ONE, CyberLife, FutureFirst and PolicyLink; property and casualty insurance, S3+, COGEN and POINT; and banking, the Hogan Suite. In addition, CSC clients across lines of business will be able to access other time-saving applications such as AWD, an enterprise workflow engine; VP/MS, a rapid product builder and calculation engine; JETS, an automated data trading tool; and PerformancePlus, a distributor compensation support environment.
Our common architectural blueprint will unify mission-critical systems across the financial services industry, said David Blanton, executive vice president of Banking Solutions for CSC’s Financial Services Group. At a time when both banks and insurance companies face pressure to respond to rapidly changing technologies and consumer demands, our applications will allow companies to rapidly roll out new business functions by re-using existing, proven and reliable components.
The processes, tools and techniques CSC employs in its own product development are also available to adapt non-CSC systems for the new service-oriented architecture. CSC’s Enterprise Application Integration (eAI) consulting practice helps clients craft business-specific, end-to-end solutions. CSC has a track record of successfully delivering complex customer relationship management (CRM), e-business, and workflow-enabled solutions, using CSC and best-of-breed third-party products.
