JNBridge Enables Global Reinsurance Firm Swiss Re to Eliminate Redevelopment of Core Analytics API

SwissRe able to shorten development times, improve localization and gain consistent business results

Boulder, Colorado, Sept. 26, 2011

JNBridge, (www.jnbridge.com), the award-winning provider of interoperability tools that connect the Java and .NET Frameworks, and Swiss Re, (www.swissre.com) one of the world’s largest and most diversified reinsurers, together are now enabling actuaries all over the world to incorporate a common numerical analysis Java API in their local market Excel-based applications in order to eliminate the need for local code reinvention and duplication.

“Giving actuaries working in local markets access to key functions from their VBA/.NET environments has changed the way they develop applications,” said Johannes M. Hug, Ph.D. director of information technology at Swiss Re. “Without the need to reinvent critical code, they now can focus on integrating local market conditions for even more accurate analysis.”

Insurance underwriting relies on complex analysis to make critical business decisions — including reviewing financials, valuing potential losses and mitigating risk. At Swiss Re, these analyses are performed by actuaries who chart and analyze probabilistic data using a proprietary library containing hundreds of classes of numerical and business functions that capture reinsurance knowledge and perform key computations.

Prior to seeking out JNBridgePro, Swiss Re had spent considerable resources in developing the Swiss Re Actuarial Library (SAL), its proprietary Java-based API that contains rich numerical analysis functionality. SAL is readily available to actuaries working on corporate enterprise applications at the home office but it was not accessible to actuaries in local markets thus resulting in actuaries continuing to reinvent the wheel by writing their own logic, investing time and effort to create and test more limited function sets.

“A great deal of business knowledge is embedded in the API — cost models, internal overhead and profit margin calculations and critical numerical and business functionality — content local users might not think to create,” said Thomas Kruppa, director of products at Swiss Re. “Yet the API cannot address every market or rapidly changing local conditions. Local markets have unique characteristics that our Java-based enterprise library does not address. That is why many of Swiss Re’s actuaries develop standalone Microsoft Excel applications that are tailored to local markets.”

JNBridgePro is an interoperability bridge between Java and .NET that simplifies the issue of cross-platform integration. Using JNBridgePro, SwissRe was able to:

• Integrate the solution quickly with a simple deployment.
  JNBridgePro quickly made SAL available to users. Dr. Hug estimates it took only a few weeks to validate the proxied Java API and distribute it directly to each user’s desktop.
• Gain consistent, repeatable results without reinventing code. By exposing the Java API, VBA/.NET developers can take advantage of an extensively tested, common code base to ensure greater numerical accuracy and eliminate errors. Users no longer need to code functions in Visual Basic or C+ and test them to ensure they return the same answer with the same precision as those provided by SAL. The result is centralized numerical and business intelligence that can be accessed by all actuaries to deliver consistent and repeatable results.
• Develop local applications faster.
  Access to powerful routines lets users take advantage of sophisticated functionality that is unavailable when creating code from scratch. As a result, actuaries can spend their valuable time developing market-specific logic and build localized solutions faster.

For more information on JNBridge, please visit (www.jnbridge.com).

About JNBridge

JNBridge connects Java and .NET Framework-based components and applications together with tools and adapters that are fast, simple to use and remove the complexities of cross-platform interoperability, both in the cloud and on the ground. JNBridge is a privately-held company based in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 2001, JNBridge has over 450 unique customers in 40 countries that use JNBridge’s award-winning solutions in a wide variety of applications in financial services, insurance, media, manufacturing and other industries. Please visit www.jnbridge.com for more information.