SSP wins $20m contract

SSP has been awarded a contract worth $20m by Absa, one of the largest financial services companies in South Africa, to provide its core insurance IT solution across its entire general and life insurance business.

The initial five year contract will generate SSP over $20m in licence fees, services, support and maintenance revenues.

SSP said the deal followed a thorough evaluation of the IT solutions available, including solutions from global IT consultancies and other software companies.

Absa will become the first insurer to implement SSP’s new general insurance solution InsureJ, which will eventually replace four legacy systems and support over 1,000 employees and several million policies. SSP will be responsible for the entire solution delivery, which will see InsureJ supporting a variety of traditional and electronic distribution channels, including bancassurance, insurance brokers and the Internet. The solution will support a wide range of insurance products, including, home, motor, commercial lines, personal accident and life, with the first set of products going live in 16 months.

David Rasche, SSP executive chairman said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Absa as their technology partner for this major contract. This is the largest contract in SSP’s history and one of the most significant international agreements in the global insurance marketplace in the last year."

He added: "Given the continued uncertainty across financial markets this shows the strength of the Absa business and is a huge endorsement of both the InsureJ solution and SSP. It’s possible that the global financial crisis will help focus the insurance industry’s attention on streamlining its systems.”

Willie Lategan, executive director at Absa said: “The speed of change in the insurance marketplace continues to increase as does the pressures on IT costs. By replacing four outdated and inefficient systems with one modern, flexible system we’re reducing costs as well as increasing productivity across the business – from sales right through to administration and customer service through the elimination of re-keying, due to straight through processing.

"InsureJ will allow us to automate our business processes to ensure they are streamlined and efficient, to launch innovative products to market quickly and enable us to move into a wider range of distribution channels."