Swiss Re Chooses CSC to Host Insurance Processing Platform

By Linda Dobel
TMCnet Contributor

The reinsurance business is a large and complex one. Swiss Re, with headquarters in Zurich and offices in more than 20 countries, is one of the largest. It stands to reason that it has taken steps to streamline and standardize its business operations in North America.

CSC (News - Alert), a global leader in providing technology-enabled business solutions and services, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, announced today that it has been chosen by Swiss Re to provide it with a hosted strategic property and casualty (P&C) insurance processing platform to support its North American Corporate Solutions business.

CSC reported that the agreement between the two business entities specifies that CSC will “host and manage POINT IN, a comprehensive insurance administration system; AWD business process management (BPM) software; Advanced Claims, claims management software; and Agency Link, real-time Web portal for agents.”  Specifically, CSC said the processing platform will run on Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Server and SQL Server 2008 infrastructure and will be hosted in a secure CSC environment.

Jan Ellerbrock, chief operating officer of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, explained that the combination and integration of the Java versions of CSC’s POINT IN and AWD systems with CSC’s Advanced Claims and Agency Link “will help Swiss Re Corporate Solutions standardize and streamline its North American business operations, which range from mid-sized commercial to large industrial and specialty risks. A new, modern, end-to-end policy administration platform is a significant step forward to consolidate our business on a single platform and support our growth aspirations in Corporate Solutions.”

According to CSC, POINT IN components licensed by Swiss Re also include Media Management, Document Production and Underwriting. It said that the latest release of POINT IN allows carriers such as Swiss Re to create their own rules or choose from “hundreds pre-built into the system.” In addition, the latest release features improved graphical interfaces, which it said should “significantly accelerate the introduction of new products and lines of business, as well as entry into additional states.”

AWD(10), which CSC described as “the new version of the business process engine from DST Technologies,” has been designed, it said, to foster staff productivity improvement as well as aid in cost reduction as a result of streamlined business processes, along with the automation of manual tasks and balancing of work  for worldwide organizations. “All work moves through the organization based on configurable business rules designed by business users.”  

According to CSC, the benefit for managers of this is that through real-time dashboards and reports they have the ability to monitor and track staff, as well as work and processes, and be alerted to any work that exceeds service levels. It also provides a full suite of scan, capture, image storage and retrieval capabilities, CSC reported.

Swiss Re is reportedly looking into opportunities to move, over time, more property and casualty business in other regions to the same processing platform announced today.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.