In the News
Mastek to release 'Core Elixir' in Q1'07
The company claims it would be the first enterprise SOA platform for insurance industry.
NEW DELHI: Mastek Ltd, a global technology solution provider is planning to launch its enterprise service oriented architecture (SOA) platform for the insurance industry – Elixir in Q1, 2007. The company claims that this is the world's first SOA platform for the insurance industry.
SOA enables different applications in an organization to operate together, typically by using Web services technologies. "The SOA will help in easing out the integration challenges within various components of back office application and third party applications. It will help in rolling out business initiatives much faster (e.g. time to market to launch new product or introduce new channel etc). It will bring business agility in the IT platforms that is lacking in the current legacy environment," said Vijay Chavan, Mastek Worldwide Head, Insurance and Financial Services Verticals. "We expect the revenue from insurance vertical to continue to grow at 50 per cent year on year basis for next three years on increasing base. The new avatar of Elixir will help us in positioning Mastek as one of the top 3 global solution provider in the world," he added.
Mastek currently generates over $30 million per year in insurance-related software and services specializing in the life, annuity and health insurance sectors. The company launched its Elixir solutions in 1994.In its third generation, the company is launching the Elixir platform on SOA with global product set, comprehensive functionality, rich features and high flexibility that the company claims would drive achievement of business key performance indicators (KPIs) much quicker that the competing products available in the market.
Commenting on the Indian market, Chavan said, "Insurance is a huge market in India. In mature markets, three per cent of the premium collected is invested in IT. In developing markets like India, this percent can go up to six per cent – 10 per cent. So this presents a huge opportunity for growth."
He added, "Insurance companies are expecting CIO's to deliver business value rather than reducing IT cost through offshore"
For the quarter ending March 31, 2006, 28 per cent revenues of Mastek were contributed by the insurance vertical, which has grown from 16 per cent in the last financial year. Mastek employs around 1,000 people, which represents one-third of the total Mastek employee base. Chavan said, "We expect this share to increase because of revenue expectation and order pipeline that Mastek currently has. For the FY ending June 30, 2006, we expect to register 50 percent growth in the revenue from insurance solutions and services. The company's current market share in the Indian Insurance industry is around 25 per cent and we are targeting to increase it to 50 per cent within one year."
Since the company's model is based on the high impact solution delivery, it is not planning to add large headcount like other Indian IT companies that are thriving on services model. Chavan said, "We will add 500-1,000 people in the Insurance vertical every year." Mastek's current focus geographies include the US, UK, Germany, France, etc. Going forward, it plans to tap the large insurance markets of Japan, Korea and Australia by getting into strategic partnerships.