(Image credit: Pete Linforth/The Digital Artist.)
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS, Mumbai/New York), a global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, has partnered with B3i Services AG (Zurich), a global industry-led blockchain initiative, to design, develop and launch ecosystem innovations based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the insurance industry.
Lakshmi Srinivasan, Global Head, TCS Blockchain Services.
This partnership combines TCS’s innovation capabilities and B3i’s production DLT platform, to accelerate the digitization of insurance for faster and more efficient delivery of tailored solutions to support risk managers, insurers, brokers, reinsurers, and industry service providers, according to a joint statement. Partners and customers will be able to leverage the B3i Fluidity platform by reusing common components and services, as well as ensuring interoperability with other applications in the B3i ecosystem, the companies say
The statement adds that TCS’s experience in curating ecosystems across industries, including manufacturing, distribution, logistics, retail, and insurance will enable B3i participants to close the “protection gap” by identifying opportunities for new or existing insurance products to facilitate ecosystems and value chains.
“TCS works with leading financial institutions across the world to drive business model innovation with digital technologies such as DLT,” comments Lakshmi Srinivasan, Global Head, TCS Blockchain Services. “TCS and B3i share a deep understanding of this cutting-edge technology as well as the insurance industry’s needs. Together we can leverage our complementary capabilities, deep industry experience, a modern technology platform, design prowess and core DLT technologies to shape the future of the insurance industry.”
John Carolin, CEO, B3i.
“By working together with trusted partners, the insurance industry can solve longstanding problems that individual insurers and brokers can’t solve alone,” John Carolin, CEO, B3i. “TCS’s capabilities and global scale complement B3i’s specifically in the insurance industry, where participants in B3i are establishing protocols, curating minimum standards, safeguarding interoperability, and setting a solid foundation to digitally transform the insurance industry.”
Powering Cross-Industry Applications
The joint statement identifies B3i’s Fluidity as the heart of the B3i ecosystem. Fluidity comprises common reusable components to accelerate the building of compliant applications by both B3i and third-party application developers, the statement says. B3i’s Risk Transfer Language (RTL) is one such key component. The RTL is a common data standard that was developed by over 40 organizations in the insurance industry to enable interoperable applications for risk transfer. RTL can power cross-industry applications such as placement platforms, trading marketplaces, and internal risk transfer to reduce administrative cost, improve data quality, and enable growth without expanding middle and back offices.
B3i recently released version 2.0 of B3i Re, an end-to-end reinsurance contract lifecycle management solution built on Fluidity. Additionally, B3i reports that it is accelerating the delivery of commercial insurance solutions including market-wide propositions and customer sponsored projects.
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