Innovation Insurer Revalidated for IBM's Insurance Industry Framework

FARMINGTON, CT--(Marketwire - Feb 2, 2012) - The Innovation Group plc (Innovation Group), a global provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) and software solutions to the insurance, fleet, automotive and property industries, is pleased to announce the re-validation of Innovation Insurer software for the IBM Insurance Industry Framework. As the first Insurance Industry ISV validated in 2009, this re-validation reinforces the benefits of Innovation Insurer's robust service-oriented architecture (SOA), which helps insurers improve agility, productivity, competitiveness and total cost of ownership (TCO) from implementation through upgrade.

In addition, Innovation Group completed performance, scalability and resilience testing at IBM's Hursley lab in the UK for Innovation Insurer. Testing was on the IBM® POWER® processor-based platform and IBM WebSphere® Application Server to support Innovation customers and Innovation Group's BPO businesses using Insurer. The results were impressive, with Innovation Insurer running at least three times faster or more depending on the server, demonstrating a long-standing commitment to scalability and responsiveness.

Delivering top-tier service requires a flexible framework and robust SOA-based platform to meet today's challenges and the growth and change required for tomorrow. Insurer Enterprise, the implementation of the Innovation Insurer suite into Innovation Group's BPO businesses, is an important foundation for Innovation Group's strategy and internal development program. The BPO businesses in France and Spain, supporting over 100 companies in a SaaS environment, recently upgraded to version 7, highlighting the power of Innovation Insurer's robust SOA application with an extensive library of granular services that enables integration and speeds delivery and upgradability of Innovation Insurer.

"Our re-validation by IBM of Innovation Insurer, the performance testing and the upgrade of our BPO businesses demonstrates the power, leveragability, flexibility and agility of Innovation Insurer," said Euan King, CEO North America Software for Innovation Group. "While many in the industry say their solutions are SOA-based, the real test of SOA is the combination of implementation, validation and upgradability as we have recently demonstrated with Insurer Enterprise."

Innovation Insurer is a modular, best-of-breed, single vendor suite including Insurer Policy, Insurer Claims and Insurer Analytics. Innovation Insurer is designed to meet the challenges facing modern P&C insurers by delivering significant business transformation capabilities, seamless integration, process optimization, a tangible ROI with a lower TCO, business agility, scalability, leveragability and a platform for growth and real competitive advantage. Built on an agnostic SOA platform with a foundation of pre-built, re-usable services, Innovation Insurer supports standardized XML, includes a rich single insurance data model, extensive business functionality to support the entire insurance value chain, web access / portals for agents, customers and partners and business analytics and dashboards to manage the business.

Recently, Innovation Insurer was recognized by Celent with four XCelent Awards for functionality, technology and customer base for Insurer Policy and Celent's Model Insurer Award for Insurer Policy, Insurer Claims and Insurer Analytics. Additionally, Innovation Insurer received a VIP award for Insurer Claims and Insurer Analytics, and an Insurance IT RAVE award for Insurer Claims.

About The Innovation Group plc:
The Innovation Group plc (LSE: TIG.L) is a global provider of business process outsourcing and software solutions to the insurance, fleet, automotive and property industries. Innovation Group provides contact centres, repair networks, process management, supply chain and technology operations and decision support analytics to support accident management, repair and estimation and claims management services. Innovation Group has over 800 global clients including AXA Insurance, RSA, Encompass, Esurance, Hertz, CNA, Main Street America Group, American Modern Insurance Group, LeasePlan, The Ford Motor Company, Aviva, Toyota and Zurich. The Group processes more than 4 million claims per year with 20 per cent direct claims cost saving achieved. Innovation Group's 2,300 people are located in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and United States. www.innovation-group.com