Miami, FL (May 1, 2007) – SunGard today announced that Liberty Life, a South African financial services group, has completed Phase I of its single platform project with SunGard’s iWORKS COMPASS, a group and individual insurance, pension and investment product administration system.
In December 2005, Liberty Life selected SunGard iWORKS COMPASS as its single, strategic platform to administer and support its annuity, conventional, and lifestyle products in South Africa. Liberty Life plans to expand the use of the SunGard iWORKS COMPASS system and consolidate all of its systems on to this single platform. SunGard iWORKS COMPASS will also help support Liberty Life’s initiatives to enhance quality of client service, improve time to market for new product and service offerings and reduce operational costs.
Throughout 2006, the Personal Benefits Division of Liberty Life and SunGard worked together and have successfully completed Phase I of the single platform project. Liberty Life has gone live with the upgrade to the SunGard iWORKS COMPASS system and the conversion of all its annuity policies on to the system. Throughout 2007 and 2008, Liberty Life and SunGard will continue to work together to complete the remaining phases of the project, converting Liberty Life’s conventional and lifestyle products on to the system.
According to Andre du Plessis, chief operating officer at Liberty Life, “After successfully working with us closely over the past year to understand our requirements and IT infrastructure, SunGard demonstrated why it has a proven track record of success and strong credibility in the insurance industry. We were using an older version of the SunGard iWORKS COMPASS system for some of our products and after becoming familiar with the system functionality and flexibility, we have chosen SunGard iWORKS COMPASS as our strategic platform for the future. SunGard iWORKS COMPASS provides the flexibility to rapidly introduce new products, move existing blocks of business and help improve the efficiency of our core business processes. This will become our strategic, single platform that scales to meet our evolving business requirements. Because of SunGard’s proven reputation, flexible application and knowledgeable services organization we are confident the SunGard team will help us to achieve our service goals and growth strategy.”
Greg Webber, president of SunGard’s iWORKS business unit, said, “We are pleased to support Liberty Life in its efforts to introduce new products, convert existing blocks of business, and leverage industry leading best practices within the SunGard iWORKS COMPASS solution. We are very pleased with the working relationship we have established with Liberty Life and look forward to enhancing this relationship as we move forward in tailoring SunGard iWORKS COMPASS to further strategic growth initiatives in South Africa. To have such a respected organization on our customer list is a great endorsement of SunGard.”
About Liberty Life
Liberty Life is a progressive South African financial services group, offering a comprehensive range of long-term insurance products and services to both the individual and corporate markets. Liberty Life is the third largest life office in South Africa. It is also among the Top 40 groups listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in Johannesburg, with market capitalisation at 30 March 2007 was R23bn. Liberty Life is a member of the Standard Bank group.
About SunGard iWORKS
SunGard iWORKS is a business-driven IT product family for the insurance industry in each of the following major business lines: life/health/annuities/pensions, property and casualty and reinsurance. SunGard iWORKS offers a range of products and services including front-office tools, policy administration, reinsurance, actuarial calculations, financial accounting, investment accounting, and reporting. SunGard partners with customers to deliver products and services that align with changing business and regulatory needs.
About SunGard
With annual revenue exceeding $4 billion, SunGard is a global leader in software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also helps information-dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world’s 50 largest financial services companies. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
