EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 4 — Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) today announced that it has enhanced its VANTAGE-ONE(R) insurance and annuity administration system to support Japanese business requirements.
Manulife Life Insurance Company (Japan), a subsidiary of
Manulife Financial Corporation (NYSE: MFC) headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, is the first
annuity user of the enhanced system, which is supporting Manulife’s recently introduced
“ManuSolution” annuity. ManuSolution is one of Japan’s first tax-deferred, investment-type annuities.
CSC’s VANTAGE-ONE system administers more than half of the
variable annuity policies sold in the U.S. To meet Japan’s business requirements, CSC
tailored VANTAGE-ONE to support Japanese-language data storage, displays, transactions and
reports, as well as Yen currency and tax compliance. CSC manages and operates the Japanese
version of VANTAGE-ONE at its San Diego, Calif., data center, in support of Manulife’s employees in Japan.
“Manulife aspires to be the most professional life
insurance company in Japan,” said Trevor Matthews, president and chief executive
officer of Manulife Japan. “We are known as a leading provider of innovative
products, and CSC helped us import that capability into our Japanese operation. CSC used
its knowledge of annuities, Manulife and local requirements to deliver our Japanese
annuity platform on time in less than one year.”
Supporting languages like Japanese, which uses a complex
character set, requires fundamental architectural changes to computer systems built for
languages that use Latin letters, such as English. Working with Manulife, CSC enhanced
VANTAGE-ONE to support the complex character set, called “double-byte character set” or
DBCS. With the enhancement, CSC can now readily adapt the system to support other Asian languages.
“CSC has extensive experience providing insurance
software for the Japanese market and has supported Manulife USA’s annuities for more than
15 years,” said Jim Cook, president of CSC’s Financial Services Group.
“Helping Manulife execute its strategy in Japan is a
logical extension of our relationship. With this product enhancement, we are pleased to
bring another market-leading processing platform to Asia.”
About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is committed to offering the highest
quality annuity, life insurance, pension and tax-deferred college savings products to its
U.S. clients. Its family of products has been built around a powerful combination of
investment options chosen with the goal of providing risk-adjusted returns and broad
diversification across asset classes, investment styles and asset managers. With its broad
product lines, competitive underwriting, excellent ratings and quality customer service,
Manulife Financial is dedicated to providing quality products designed to help create and
preserve wealth for its clients.
Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial
services group operating in 15 countries and territories worldwide. Through its extensive
network of employees, agents and distribution partners, Manulife Financial offers clients
a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services. Funds
under management by Manulife Financial were US$92.1 billion (Cdn$146.7 billion) at March 31, 2002.
About CSC
Computer Sciences Corporation, one of the world’s leading
consulting and information technology (IT) services firms, helps clients in industry and
government achieve strategic and operational results through the use of technology. The
company’s success is based on its culture of working collaboratively with clients to
develop innovative technology strategies and solutions that address specific business challenges.
Having guided clients through every major wave of change in
information technology since 1959, CSC combines the newest technologies with its
capabilities in consulting, systems design and integration, IT and business process
outsourcing, applications software, and Web and application hosting to meet the individual
needs of global corporations and organizations. With some 67,000 employees in locations
worldwide, CSC had revenues of $11.4 billion for the 12 months ended March 29, 2002. It is
headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at
www.csc.com.
