Asia’s not enough for FirstApex

FirstApex provides software solutions and services to the insurance sector. Firmly entrenched in the Asia-Pacific region, the company has global ambitions, says Abhinav Singh

FirstApex is working toward giving a local touch to its international operations by hiring country heads with considerable experience in the local insurance market, says Jagadish D V

FirstApex, a Singapore-headquartered company having its operational headquarters in India (this includes doing all its R&D in Bangalore), has been concentrating on the insurance sector since its inception. After establishing its presence in Far-Eastern markets such as Hong Kong and Japan, FirstApex has recently started its European operations and plans to gradually enter the US insurance market as well.

The "3 S roadmap"

To deal with tough competition in the insurance sector, the company has embarked upon a ‘3 S roadmap’ of ‘Support, Supplement and Substitute.’ This roadmap is a part and parcel of its initiative to gain a wider customer base across continents.

The support strategy involves offering support and consulting services to insurance companies that already have applications in place, helping them cut costs. FirstApex is able to advise insurance companies on gaining extra mileage from their applications.

The supplement strategy involves helping insurance companies enhance their legacy applications without having to resort to rip and replace.

Finally, the substitute strategy involves substituting legacy applications in insurance companies with FirstApex’s range of solutions. The substitute strategy consists of the phased replacement of legacy applications with FirstApex solutions such as X-GEN, e-LIFE, X-Group and X-RE. This strategy has been quite successful in India. The domestic insurance sector has been a late adopter of technology with little in the way of legacy systems.

Jagadish D V, group vice president for Sales and Marketing at FirstApex says, "Our operations in Europe will embark upon the same ‘3 S roadmap’ to effectively address the immediate time and cost pressures of European insurers and offer increasing value at each stage of the roadmap."

Global presence with a local touch

‘Think Global, Act Local’ is another of FirstApex’s strategies that has been adopted to make inroads in the European market. It has used this strategy to its advantage in various Asian countries in the past, particularly in Japan and Korea. As part of this strategy, FirstApex is working toward giving a local touch to its international operations by hiring country heads with considerable experience in the local insurance market. Jagadish says, "In Japan, we have placed Tazawa San, a Japanese entrepreneur having in-depth knowledge of the Japanese insurance market. Similarly we have Min Park, who has expertise in the Korean insurance market, heading FirstApex’s Korean operations." The company believes that such a strategy will help it adapt easily to new markets. Most of FirstApex’s products work across countries as they support multiple currencies and languages.

It's important for insurance companies to ensure that solutions are scalable and fit well into the existing architecture of an insurance company. FirstApex does just that and will continue to do so, says Ramesh K V

A healthy rate of executing projects

The company has executed over 70 projects across the globe. It claims to have four of the world’s top five insurance companies—AIG, Allianz, AXA and Mitsui Sumitomo—among its customers. Its customer list in India includes HDFC Standard Life Insurance, OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance and Tata AIG Insurance among others. FirstApex gets 70 percent of its revenues from Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. 20 percent comes from the Indian market with the remainder coming from the European market. FirstApex has tied up with several global technology partners, including Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Cognos to execute projects for global insurance companies.

The road ahead

• Staying focused on the insurance sector
  Having benefited from the rapid growth of the insurance market in India and other Asian countries, the company intends to continue its focus on the insurance sector. FirstApex claims to be the leader in the Indian insurance market and hopes that it will continue to reap the benefits of being numero uno in the Indian insurance market. That said, the Indian market does have its fair share of complexities. Ramesh K V, vice-president for Consulting at FirstApex says, "The Indian insurance market is being flooded with intermediaries like doctors, businessmen and graduates who want to sell insurance policies and remain competitive in the field. Insurance companies keep introducing new policies from time to time. It’s important to ensure that solutions are scalable and fit well into the existing architecture of an insurance company. We at FirstApex do just that and will continue to do so."
• Market-led product development
  When the company began operations, it set up shop in Hong Kong—the growing insurance market at that point of time. Proximity to a rapidly growing market helped FirstApex mould its products to customer requirements. It’s a company policy that representatives visit different countries to study the insurance market there and return to brief the R&D team in Bangalore.
• Listening to users
  In order to get regular feedback from its users, FirstApex frequently organises exchange programmes with its customers. Representatives of FirstApex demonstrate their products at such seminars and incorporate new designs and functions into the company’s products based upon the feedback received. FirstApex is set to organise a users group conference in Malaysia in August 2003.

Specialised insurance solutions