CGI Group, Inc. (TSX: GIB.A; NYSE: GIB), a leading provider of information technology and business process services announced that its clients Allianz Insurance UK, Aviva UK General Insurance and Harford Mutual Insurance Companies have been included in the Celent Model Carrier 2009 Report spotlighting implementation of CGI solutions. This marks the third year that CGI clients have received this honor.
Celent, a research and consulting firm focused on the application of information technology in the global financial services industry, publishes the Celent Model Carrier Report to illustrate case studies of key best practices in the use of technology in IT infrastructure and management that a "model carrier" would use.
Harford Mutual was recognized as a Model Carrier: P/C (Property and Casualty) in the rating category for their implementation of Ratabase®; a solution that allowed them increased speed to market and the successful accomplishment of their SOA technology objectives. With Ratabase, Harford Mutual was able to convert all internal rating systems to one common rating engine and offer online access to their agents.
Steve Fabian, Assistant Vice President IT, Harford Mutual explained, "Working with CGI to implement Ratabase allowed us to achieve the best possible results within our aggressive timeframes to incorporate rating in our agency portal. Our agents are extremely satisfied with the system we implemented and have increased the new business being sent to Harford Mutual."
Allianz Insurance UK and Aviva UK General Insurance teamed with CGI to develop the Account Reconciliation Centre (ARC), an electronic collections tool that streamlines the account reconciliation process eliminating the previous paper-based system. Both insurers, who have been live on the system for over a year, cite significant savings such as a 25% reduction in outstanding queries, a 7-day reduction in debtor days and a 35% reduction in bad debt.
Chris Hanks, General Manager Commercial Division, Allianz commented, "ARC has the potential to become an industry wide solution for handling and reconciling broker accounts, making the process far simpler and significantly less labor-intensive for all parties."
"Celent is pleased to recognize Allianz Insurance UK, Aviva UK General Insurance and Harford Mutual Insurance Company as Model Carriers," said Craig Weber, Senior Vice President of Celent's insurance practice. "Among many excellent nominations this year, Allianz Insurance UK, AVIVA and Harford Mutual were all selected for demonstrating improvements in their business through use of IT best practices."
Gordon Gaar, Vice-President, Global Marketing, Insurance Sector, CGI said, "CGI congratulates Allianz Insurance UK, Aviva and Harford Mutual and takes pride in partnering with clients to transform their business to achieve measurable results. These initiatives are especially important during these difficult economic times in order to ensure the greatest value to their stakeholders."
About Ratabase®
CGI's Ratabase is a comprehensive set of tools that empowers your business professionals to build, design, and publish insurance products in the fastest possible time and manner. Since business users maintain the business logic, the dependency on IT resources is minimized thus increasing the speed with which organizations can respond to market needs. Because it is not line of business specific, Ratabase is successfully implemented by many insurance organizations to create different and unique product plans.
About Account Reconciliation Centre (ARC)
The Account Reconciliation Centre (ARC) is a web based reconciliation solution that eradicates the current manual and paper insurer / broker statement process. ARC provides an online view of statements enabling electronic reconciliation between brokers and insurers. It incorporates online query management making the process faster and simpler. Use of ARC has been proven to dramatically improve the efficiency of the reconciliation process.
About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is one of the largest independent information technology and business process services firms in the world. CGI and its affiliated companies employ approximately 25,000 professionals. CGI provides end-to-end IT and business process services to clients worldwide from offices in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific as well as from centers of excellence in North America, Europe and India. CGI's annual revenue run rate stands at $4.0 billion and at December 31, 2008, CGI's order backlog was $11.4 billion. CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB) and are included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index as well as the S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology and MidCap Indices. Website: www.cgi.com.
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For more information:
Business Development
Gordon Gaar
Vice-President
Global Marketing
803-216-2400
gordon.gaar@cgi.com
Media
Linda Odorisio
Vice-President, US Communications
703-267-8118
linda.odorisio@cgi.com
