Swedbank Forsakring Signs Data Warehouse SaaS Contract with Graz Sweden

A new Software as a Service (SaaS) agreement has been forged between Graz Sweden AB and Swedbank Forsakring AB. Swedbank, the insurance arm of Sweden's largest bank, has signed a contract with Graz to utilize Hinc, the company's data warehouse for the financial industry.

The data warehouse will be delivered through a SaaS model and the contract is set to run for more than two years. According to Graz, the financial industry has traditionally been hesitant about adopting SaaS solutions. But rising expenses related to legal reporting and compliance requirements are causing this to change.

“In recent years, we have seen an explosion of interest from clients in SaaS data warehouse solutions, particularly in the area of legal reporting,” said Jonas Olsson, CEO of Graz Sweden AB. “Swedbank’s insurance group was an early adopter in this area, which is why we are extremely happy that they have chosen to both extend and expand their cooperation with Graz.”

Graz says that insurance companies, asset managers and banks are increasingly turning to SaaS solutions as they are more cost effective than local hosting options. They also place less of a burden on internal IT departments, freeing up staff to focus on customers' core business interests.

The Hinc data warehouse solution offers reporting and analysis to meet a variety of compliance requirements. These include reporting, business intelligence, risk and portfolio replication. The solution is used by 120 banks and 13 insurance companies, and may be installed as a cloud service or via a local installation.

“The Hinc data warehouse from Graz has supported our legal reporting for the last couple of years,” said Göran Böhlmark, CFO at Swedbank Försäkring. “As we work to adapt to new rules and regulations, being able to tap into the power of the Hinc data warehouse via a SaaS model gives us continued control of costs and makes us more able to quickly and easily make changes if circumstances require.”