Safeco Chooses Accenture for Insurance Product Configuration System
SEATTLE, 15 May 2008 - Safeco Insurance has chosen Accenture to help implement a new product development system for the carrier's commercial and personal lines of business. The system will be based on a newly released Accenture product configuration management application. Accenture management and IT consultants will help Safeco centralize and enhance its product development capability across geographies.
"Customer satisfaction, growth and efficiency are Safeco's highest priorities," said Tom Troy, senior vice president, Safeco Business Insurance. "Based upon Accenture technology, our enhanced product development suite is designed to satisfy the needs of our growing customer base and support product innovation well into the future. We are pleased to make Accenture our technology and consulting provider for this important initiative."
Accenture says that Safeco is the charter client of its new Insurance Configuration Components Solution (ICCS), a modular software application offering a full range of product configuration capabilities for medium and large property and casualty insurers (P&C). The solution is the latest addition to Accenture's suite of P&C technology offerings, which also include claims, underwriting and policy administration systems. Accenture expects to help Safeco adapt and implement the solution by the end of 2008.
Accenture's ICCS was developed by Accenture, Microsoft and Avanade, an Accenture/Microsoft joint venture. According to Accenture, ICCS will help Safeco:
• Support centralized product definitions that can be configured and maintained by business users;
• Interoperate with external engines for underwriting, rating and forms management;
• Associate product changes to their impact on insurance premiums; and
• Incorporate Microsoft .NET 3.0 for support of Web services and full services-oriented architecture.
"The Product Development Suite is a key component in Safeco's strategy to modernize its product and policy systems and allow for greater innovation in the product development process," Kurt Schulenburg director, Product & Policy Information Technology, Safeco. "The ability to quickly configure and analyze new product logic will improve speed to market and reduce implementation costs associated with introducing new products to the marketplace."
"Efficient product configuration is one of the most challenging operational objectives for P&C carriers today," said Gail McGiffin, senior executive in Accenture's insurance practice. "Our new component-based solution frees leading insurers like Safeco of the traditional limits of legacy policy systems, enabling them to rapidly develop and deploy their product offerings, efficiently centralize their product management operations across product and regulatory lines, and integrate their product systems with other best-of-breed technology and information tools."
Continental Casualty Company, a subsidiary of CNA Financial Corp., has selected Accenture in a 5-year business process outsourcing agreement to administer some of its annuity and retirement-related products that the company no longer underwrites, markets or promotes. The agreement calls for Accenture to administer customer inquiries, requests and payments on a number of policy administration systems, including Accenture's Life Insurance Platform.
According to Accenture, CNA's goal is to "maintain excellent customer service on behalf of CNA while controlling the cost of administering 'closed' annuity and retirement product portfolios with slowly receding volumes."
Accenture has 178,000 staff in 49 countries, and had net revenues of $19.7 billion in its fiscal year ended 31-August-2007. Safeco is based in Seattle, Wa., and has been selling property and casualty insurance since 1923. It is also a leading provider of surety bonds.