The Standard General Insurance Company Limited (Stangen), a subsidiary of African Bank Investments Limited, went live with the first phase of an implementation project on the Exergy insurance administration software platform from SilverBridge. SilverBridge is listed on the JSE's Alt-X.
Stangen offers a portfolio of credit life insurance and funeral insurance products to its customers through retail channels such as Ellerines, also wholly owned by African Bank Investments Limited. The insurer, which has been a SilverBridge customer for more than eight years, is rolling out the Exergy software to improve the performance and flexibility of its core insurance administration environment.
In the first phase of the project, Stangen migrated more than six million credit life policies onto the Exergy platform. Stangen moved onto the Exergy software from a legacy product called SDT Life. Already the project sees operational efficiency improvements at Stangen of hundreds of percentage points. In one instance a premium run process on over 3 million policies that use to take Stangen a little over a week to complete, including the data prep, now gets done within a morning.
Exergy is a modular, rules-based administration solution that is built on an integrated, unified framework. In a future phase Stangen plans to utilise Exergy to increase the scope of its offering. SilverBridge will also write interfaces between the Exergy system and the African Bank data warehouse.
Says Muller Strauss, chief financial officer at African Bank: "The rapid pace of change in our industry and the growth of our businesses demanded that we move from our old platform onto a more modern solution. With the Exergy software in place, we will have the agility and capacity to support the growth of our business well into the future."
Strauss says that the ease with which Exergy can be configured and customised will enable Stangen to react quickly to changes in the competitive and regulatory landscape. Exergy's scalability will support Stangen's business as it grows.
"We are happy to continue our relationship with SilverBridge, which has evolved its products alongside the needs of the industry and has always shown a great understanding of our business," he adds.
Johan Reyneke, SilverBridge operational executive, says many insurance firms such as Stangen are revamping their legacy systems to cater for a changing regulatory environment and new competitive pressures. Many of them are opting for Exergy and SilverBridge because of the expertise and track record. Big system implementation projects should always be seen as collaboration between the client and the provider. We are fortunate that Stangen knows how to engage with us in a constructive way. This is why we were able to help them bring such high levels of efficiency into their business.
The Standard General Insurance Company Limited (Stangen), a subsidiary of African Bank Investments Limited, went live with the first phase of an implementation project on the Exergy insurance administration software platform from SilverBridge. SilverBridge is listed on the JSE's Alt-X.
Stangen offers a portfolio of credit life insurance and funeral insurance products to its customers through retail channels such as Ellerines, also wholly owned by African Bank Investments Limited. The insurer, which has been a SilverBridge customer for more than eight years, is rolling out the Exergy software to improve the performance and flexibility of its core insurance administration environment.
In the first phase of the project, Stangen migrated more than six million credit life policies onto the Exergy platform. Stangen moved onto the Exergy software from a legacy product called SDT Life. Already the project sees operational efficiency improvements at Stangen of hundreds of percentage points. In one instance a premium run process on over 3 million policies that use to take Stangen a little over a week to complete, including the data prep, now gets done within a morning.
Exergy is a modular, rules-based administration solution that is built on an integrated, unified framework. In a future phase Stangen plans to utilise Exergy to increase the scope of its offering. SilverBridge will also write interfaces between the Exergy system and the African Bank data warehouse.
Says Muller Strauss, chief financial officer at African Bank: "The rapid pace of change in our industry and the growth of our businesses demanded that we move from our old platform onto a more modern solution. With the Exergy software in place, we will have the agility and capacity to support the growth of our business well into the future."
Strauss says that the ease with which Exergy can be configured and customised will enable Stangen to react quickly to changes in the competitive and regulatory landscape. Exergy's scalability will support Stangen's business as it grows.
"We are happy to continue our relationship with SilverBridge, which has evolved its products alongside the needs of the industry and has always shown a great understanding of our business," he adds.
Johan Reyneke, SilverBridge operational executive, says many insurance firms such as Stangen are revamping their legacy systems to cater for a changing regulatory environment and new competitive pressures. Many of them are opting for Exergy and SilverBridge because of the expertise and track record. Big system implementation projects should always be seen as collaboration between the client and the provider. We are fortunate that Stangen knows how to engage with us in a constructive way. This is why we were able to help them bring such high levels of efficiency into their business.
Commenting on the Group's financial results for the 16 months ended June 30 2011, SilverBridge CEO Jaco Swanepoel says that the Group has completed the streamlining of its business with the integration of its operating subsidiaries into a single operating company called SilverBridge Software Solutions.
This process – combined with other cost-saving measures and a realignment of the Group's skills base and the effects of some challenging projects – had a negative impact on SilverBridge's results for the reporting period but will deliver financial benefits to the Group in the medium term. SilverBridge has also improved its solution design, implementation and client service methodologies.
"We have turned the corner," says Swanepoel. "Following the corrective actions of the previous financial period, we now have a business with a sustainable cost base and a service offering geared to meet the needs of our clients in the financial services industry."
SilverBridge is reporting financial results for a 16 month period because it has taken the decision to change its year end to 30 June to align it closer with the natural selling and delivery cycles of the business. During the period under review, SilverBridge generated revenues of R121.042 million compared to R106.508 million for the year ended 28 February 2010.
The Group made a loss after tax of R24.264 million compared to a profit of R16.160 million in the previous financial year. SilverBridge's bottom-line was impacted by goodwill impairment expenses of R22.970 million arising from the acquisitions of Ones & Zeros and Acczone.
Swanepoel says that SilverBridge saw pleasing growth in its support contracts and software rentals, which provide the Group with a stable stream of annuity revenues.
A key project at Absa is progressing well, with the financial services Group going live with the first phase of the implementation of SilverBridge's Exergy system in July, just outside of the financial period under review. In addition, SilverBridge has a strong order book for the coming financial year, including conversion of existing clients to the new Exergy solution as well as potential contracts with new clients.
"We are confident that we have resolved our operational and structural challenges," says Swanepoel. "The market remains competitive with long sales cycles and pressurised margins, but we are ideally placed to work with financial institutions as they search for ways to reduce costs and improve services to their clients."
Pretoria:
First Floor,
Castle View North
495 Prieska Street
Erasmuskloof, 0048
Tel: +27 12 360 0100
Fax: +27 12 360 0110
Johannesburg:
Block E, Ground floor
Sandhurst Office Park
Corner Katherine & Rivonia, Sandton
Tel: +27 11 783 3749
Fax: +27 11 783 3622
Follow Us:
