CGI helps ING Re streamline administration and improve productivity

“CGI was a clear choice for ING Re. First and foremost, the company came to us with a better cost than the competitors and a quicker delivery timeframe. We were also attracted by CGI’s extensive background in the insurance business, excellent project management skills and in-depth technical capacity. All of this was essential to the project’s success.”

Larry Erb, Chief Information Officer, ING Re.

In today’s high risk insurance business, life insurers turn to the seasoned professionals at ING Re, through Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, a firm specialized in helping clients manage risk by assuming risk from other insurers. ING Re is a part of Holland-based ING Group, a world leader in providing integrated financial services to over 50 million private, corporate and institutional clients in over 65 countries.

In 2000, ING Re in Denver, Colorado was scanning the market for a system that would expertly manage the increasingly complex function of life reinsurance administration. And CGI outperformed its competitors by delivering the systems development solution that was needed.

The Challenge
For ING Re, the daily reality of the company’s business had changed dramatically in the past few years. Administering information, treaties, underwriting, billing, accounting, claims and reporting had become an unwieldy task. With ING Re’s existing mainframe, it was increasingly difficult to develop new products and to change the parameters of existing products. As well, the system’s reporting function was inflexible.

ING Re urgently needed to migrate to a new system that would give the company the flexibility to quickly introduce new products as it evolved with a changing market. At the same time, the system had to handle the administration of ING Re’s reinsurance business, which means accessing different companies and data from a multitude of sources. The company was also faced with the challenge of keeping costs low in a competitive market and making the transition to the new system smoothly and rapidly.

“CGI was a clear choice for ING Re. First and foremost, the company came to us with a better cost than the competitors and a quicker delivery timeframe. We were also attracted by CGI’s extensive background in the insurance business, excellent project management skills and an in-depth technical capacity. All of this was essential to the project’s success,” says Larry Erb, Chief Information Officer, ING Re.

The Strategy
It was a clear collaboration from the start. In October 2000, CGI assembled a team of sixteen IT professionals to work on site with ING Re to develop and implement their reinsurance administration system within two years. “CGI’s solution is built using a framework of reusable business modules or components that can easily be customized to meet our unique needs. This is why it stood out from the competitors,” explains Erb. “We were also impressed with the multi-cultural aspect of the CGI team with collaborators from ten different countries around the world. It is important to get diverse views in our work. This certainly reflects the truly global nature of our company.”

To respond to ING Re’s need for rapid implementation and to reduce the time for training, the CGI team also relied on a “Rapid Application Development” methodology. Basically, the company was able to quickly create prototypes or workable versions of the application and get them in the users’ hands rapidly. “We really appreciated CGI’s unique Rapid Application Development approach here, which enabled us to get users comfortable with the system, provide us vital feedback and adjust accordingly,” he says.

The Technology

• Insurance Component Framework
  
  
• Wyde Development Toolset
  
  

The Results
Today, ING Re has a comprehensive administration system in place that can substantially improve productivity, lower operating costs, as well as offer richer functionality. “Ultimately, CGI worked in partnership with us to build a more efficient company. Our new reinsurance administration system will help us meet our objectives to streamline our administrative and IT operations. As well, we will be able to significantly reduce our time to bring new products to the market from months to literally days. Without a doubt, CGI’s excellent project management and technical skills ensured that we got our project off the ground quickly and running smoothly.”