Insurance Global Operations, a P&C and life insurance core system vendor, announced its rebranding as zags on June 9 at the IASA Annual Educational Conference and Business Show. The company, which has also rebranded its IGO6 policy admin system as zags, also announced that it has switched its headquarters from Paris to New York and received an infusion of $30 million in new funding, provided by its existing shareholders. The company launched at last year’s IASA Show.

“We chose to rebrand as ‘zags’ because the name symbolizes taking a road that…is much less traveled,” comments Olivier Jaillon, founder and CEO. “While every other core insurance solution provider zigs, our plan is to zag – to do things differently – whether it’s how we creatively apply technology, help insurers improve their businesses or collaborate internally and externally throughout the industry.”

With the commitment from its shareholders and a healthy financial position, zags is poised to make significant investments in the continued research and development of its solutions and in its North American sales and marketing effort, according to a statement announcing the company’s rebranding.

“We’ve learned a lot since introducing the company and our solution to the North American market at last year’s IASA,” Jaillon adds. “Most importantly, we validated that the insurance industry is open to a new approach to its core processes and systems – one that requires a combination of innovative thinking and technology, as well as an environment of close collaboration.”

zags characterizes its solution as unique for being the first insurance core processing system developed on a full Microsoft stack, embedding Microsoft enterprise solutions; for being the only genuinely collaborative insurance administration platform; and for being designed to reengineer insurance processes by embedding collaboration, business intelligence and user experience capabilities.

“The decision to move the company headquarters to the U.S., coupled with the renewed investment and the first U.S. client win, are key success factors for ongoing growth in the U.S. market,” comments Chad Hersh, principal, Novarica. “Combined with the expansion into the group life space, zags looks poised for an exciting 2014.”

The vendor’s focus on the North American market has been accompanied by an ivestment in primary research, which the vendor says has validated its market assumptions; selection of zags by two early-adopter U.S. insurance carriers; 200 percent growth of zags’ North American team; and continued product development to develop a more tailored approach to the North American insurance core systems market.