HP and Oracle Propel Insurance Company WGV to Lowest Cost Operating Model in Its Industry.

European Insurer Realizes a 311 Percent Return on Investment - Study

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Leading European insurance company Wurttembergische Gemeinde-Versicherung A.G. (WGV) has migrated from an outdated mainframe environment to a flexible, scalable solution from HP and has achieved a 311 percent return on investment in the process, according to an independent study by Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC.(1)

By partnering with HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Oracle, WGV has accelerated business growth by enhancing customer service, reducing time to market for new products and generating new revenue. At the same time, it has improved productivity and lowered costs.

According to the study, WGV achieved payback in 42 months with a single, comprehensive insurance solution: the standards-based Insurance Company Information System, or ICIS. The system helped the company achieve the lowest IT cost basis in the German insurance industry and reduced IT costs by more than 40 percent.

In addition, productivity gains enabled WGV to almost double its business while only requiring a 30 percent increase in staff. Customer service also improved, with a 30 percent shift of personnel from the back office to the front, where they can address customer needs and process requests immediately.

"Before ICIS, our business relied on traditional manual, paper-based processes that caused delays and made it difficult to innovate and generate growth and profit," said Klaus Hackbarth, chief information officer, deputy chief executive officer and member of the board, WGV. "HP and Oracle technology have not only enabled us to reduce IT expenditures and automate and streamline business processes, which helps address compliance issues, but we can also quickly respond to customer needs and bring innovative products to market faster."

The HP solution enabled WGV to move to a shared-services model and increase service-level agreements to 24x7 status, while reducing costs, avoiding additional headcount and rapidly rolling out innovative new service offerings that have contributed to their rapid growth.

"WGV is an excellent example of how HP delivers positive and measurable business outcomes for our customers," said Monique Dahler, global director of marketing, Financial Services Industry, HP. "HP can help financial institutions transition to a computing environment that flexes to meet the needs of the business, thus enabling greater focus on growth and innovation."

In addition to the benefits that WGV realized by improving its own processes, it has created a significant new revenue stream by offering other insurance companies ICIS, which can be up and running in 10-12 months. Today, there are more than 20 live ICIS implementations helping companies improve their businesses.

Thoughtware Worldwide is a San Francisco-based firm specializing in investment decisions and value management. The complete WGV case study is available at http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/ 20061206%20HP%20WGV%20(full).pdf. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

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(1) Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC, "WGV chooses Oracle and HP to propel them to the lowest-cost operating model in the insurance industry - realizes a 311% ROI," December 2006.

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