are "global" and "vertical".
Many Indian vendors talk about "global delivery" when 90% of their resources are in India. Hardware vendors brag about their vertical expertise when their products are not even boxed differently by industry. And software vendors will harp on the fact that customers in certain industries use some of their horizontal capabilities as proof that they offer vertical functionality.
So, Oracle comes along with a double punch - a "Global Insurance" offering: "Serving more than 2,000 insurance customers worldwide, Oracle Insurance is an end-to-end software offering that manages the entire enterprise".
Oracle makes its case : 20 of the top 20 insurers use Oracle Applications. Just because they use ledger or payroll functionality does not mean Oracle can do their claims processing or policy management.
OK, well, Oracle did acquire an insurance focused vendor, Skywire in June. But Skywire had revenues of only $ 100 million last year in a very fragmented insurance software market (with other specialists you likely have not heard about like Exstream, Duck Creek and INSTEC)
Here is the reality about why the insurance software market is fragmented:
a) There is little "global" about insurance. Each US state does its own regulation. Gets compounded around the world (and will only get even worse as regulators are wary of big bailouts like AIG)
b) There is no such thing as an "insurance industry". There is life, property, health, and many more types of insurance - each deserving its own NAICS codes
So, while it is good to see Oracle make industry investments (I have lamented the bigger vendors have been paying lip service to verticalization), I wish they would not overreach in what they can deliver in industry specific functional breadth or global nuances.
