In Australia personal lines products, and particularly car insurance, are primarily sold direct through call centers, according to Tom King, head of international operations, Progressive. "Our research suggests there is a market for an online only product. We wanted a cost-effective, best-of-breed package that would deliver straight-through processing," King comments. "SSP and S4i enabled us to get our Australia program off the ground quickly and within budget."
In under twelve months SSP developed and implemented an entire insurance solution encompassing a fully customized Web front-end and the configuration and implementation of the S4i back-office application for the Australian market, according to the SSP release. The vendor used its S4i Product Builder to execute Progressive's complex pricing model, the release claims.
"S4i has lived up to its reputation," comments King. "Its flexibility and core capabilities were a key factor in ensuring we completed this project on time and on budget. The combination of SSP's experience in transacting car insurance and their knowledge of the Australian insurance market increased our speed to market."
SSP describes S4i as a highly-flexible, end-to-end policy administration system for all lines of business, with modules including product development, policy administration and claims management. As a fully scalable, Web-enabled solution, the vendor claims, S4i provides a modern platform for property/casualty carriers to manage the entire business lifecycle from a single system. With rich functionality, S4i delivers self-sufficiency and provides a rapid return on investment, the SSP release asserts.
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