Innovation Group Teams With IBM To Help Reduce Operational C

Innovation Group plc (LSE:TIG.L) ("Innovation" or "the Company" or "the Group"), the leading provider of enterprise software, business process outsourcing (BPO) and repair and service network management solutions to the global Property and Casualty industry, today announced that it had completed validation of its Innovation Insurer™ software for the IBM Insurance Process Acceleration Framework (IPA). As part of the new IBM framework, the Innovation Insurer software will help insurance companies improve business processes based on best practices, global experience and service oriented technologies that improve agility, productivity, competitiveness, profitability and combined ratios.

During changing economic climates, insurance leaders are under pressure to transform their core business by increasing agility and responsiveness to market shifts. Insurance companies also face heightened customer expectations for everything from improved operations and underwriting to claims and rapid product development. As they strive to meet these goals, insurance providers often find that many of their legacy systems cannot respond quickly and cost-effectively to these challenges.

To counter this, Innovation Insurer uses the latest interactive technologies and business tools within a service-orientated architecture (SOA) model to increase business flexibility while maximizing re-use of assets and reducing total cost of ownership. Innovation Insurer is the latest release of a globally installed, proven solution that combines industry expertise and best practices into a holistic, yet modular insurance business platform.

Through the partnership with IBM, Innovation Group also provides customers with access to an industry-specific software framework that efficiently deploys their solutions. The framework can help accelerate the insurance industry solution lifecycle from creation through to the availability of a service, while providing quality assurance, enhanced security and ongoing management and maintenance.

"IBM's IPA provides a platform that allows insurance companies to get up and running quickly with a pre-integrated and pre-validated industry solutions and to help them meet cost and profit objectives," said Chae An, Vice President - Financial Sector Industry Solutions, IBM Software Group. "IPA delivers an end-to-end service delivery framework which, when combined with Innovation Insurer, can provide the business services necessary for insurance companies meet current challenges and opportunities while providing a foundation for future applications and solutions."

"Change is inevitable and a constant. We believe the P&C insurance industry will benefit tremendously by creating an environment that supports business transformation, innovation and enables new levels of competitive and strategic advantage. Innovation Insurer leverages the services oriented architecture and IBM's IPA as an accelerator for business transformation today and in the future. This allows insurers to focus on redefining their business processes and capabilities to focus on innovation, redesign, automation, flexibility and agility by leveraging the combined business and technology value from IBM and Innovation Group through the IPA," commented Hassan Sadiq, CEO.

Innovation Insurerhas been designed with significant input from key customers, partners and industry analysts. A key differentiator of Innovation Insureris services-oriented architecture (SOA), this enables insurance functionality to be used together, selectively or as stand-alone solution components. These components include complete policy administration, first notice of loss, full claims processing, analytics, fraud, and usage-based insurance processing. Innovation Insurer provides a platform for rapid scalability for new product, distribution, or market expansion creating business value based on optimum flexibility, best practices, and innovative options.

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About Innovation Group

Innovation Group plc (LSE: TIG.L) is the leading provider of enterprise software, business process outsourcing and repair and service network management solutions to the global Property and Casualty industry. Innovation 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 has over 1,000 global clients including AXA Insurance, RSA, AAA NCNU, LeasePlan, The Ford Motor Company, Aviva, Toyota (South Africa) and Zurich (UK). The Group processes more than 4 million claims per year with 20% direct claims cost saving achieved. Our 2,400 people are located in United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, United States. Innovation achieved revenues of UK £143 million in the financial year ending September 2008.www.innovation-group.com