First Combination of Distribution, Policy Administration and CRM Components to the P&C Industry
New York and Boston – 19 November 2009 – Group (NYSE Euronext: SWP) today announced the acquisition of the full share capital of privately-held Boston-based AgencyPort, the industry leader in insurance distribution technology. The acquisition is further evidence of Sword’s commitment to the global insurance marketplace and to expanding its presence in the North American market.
Founded in 2000, AgencyPort provides web-based software and solutions to property and casualty insurance companies to automate distribution. With a blue-chip customer base in excess of 50 insurers, AgencyPort brings Group a widely-installed software base, a development and delivery organization with deep domain expertise and an accomplished management team within the insurance technology industry.
Coinciding with the acquisition Steve Hauck, co-founder of AgencyPort, will lead Sword’s insurance division as CEO in the Americas and AgencyPort co-founder Eric Harnden will take on the Global role of CTO for in insurance. They will join an elite team of executives from to drive the newly-combined division consisting of 350 experienced staff, pro-forma revenues of more than $77 million in 2009 and forecasted revenue of $100 million in 2010.
Sword’s insurance proposition will bring a unique combination of products that span policy administration (Intech) and multi-channel CRM (Ciboodle) with AgencyPort’s distribution technology (the renamed AgencyPort). Each of these three components will retain its own product development strategy to remain best-in-class and additional resources will be allocated to realize product integration.
Commenting on the impact on the property & casualty market, Matthew Josefowicz, head of the insurance practice at Novarica stated “Bringing together AgencyPort's strong front-end solutions and loyal client base with Sword's core processing and CRM capabilities creates a very interesting option for US P&C insurers."
Heath Davies, Chief Executive Officer Group said, “The acquisition of AgencyPort is a strategic step for the Group and our customers. We are moving towards our goal of providing an impressive a-la-carte portfolio of leading software solutions encompassing policy administration, CRM and distribution technology to the global insurance marketplace. AgencyPort’s customer base in the Americas, ACORD-based product suite and over 100 professionals trained in insurance IT delivery will be a strong addition to our existing operations and key ingredients as we grow our US and global market footprint.”
“We are very pleased that AgencyPort has joined Group,” confirmed Steve Hauck. “is a rapidly growing and global software business with a proven acquisition strategy which allows us to immediately extend our market presence and offer even greater value to both the and AgencyPort client bases. The best reflection of our strategic synergy is the fact that already numerous customers and prospects are engaged in evaluating the combination of our respective offerings.”
“This agreement brings together a unique combination of best-of-breed components,” said AgencyPort’s Eric Harnden. “Our team, our culture, our focus on innovation and our ability to execute for customers have been the key drivers for our success and these won’t change. brings us both a complementary suite of proven products and the resources needed to help us scale on a global level such as internationalization of our products, 24x7 hosting services, offshore development and a global delivery infrastructure.”
Kevin Ebers, Senior Vice President of Information Technology at WR Berkley stated: “As a customer of both Intech and AgencyPort, we are enthusiastic about deriving the additional value resulting from the combination of these two companies.”
For more information about Sword’s software portfolio visit www.sword-group.com
For more information on AgencyPort, visit www.agencyport.com
To read the full pdf press release, please click here.
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CTSpace is unique in offering both online ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) solutions (FusionLive) and on premises enterprise solutions (FusionEnterprise).
FusionEnterprise® is a specialist Content Application for your Capital Projects and Operations that works hand-in-hand with your current ECM platform. It has been specifically designed to manage engineering documentation in the context of a construction project or operating plant or facility. It supplements an organization’s chosen ECM system (such as IBM FileNet®, EMC Documentum®, Microsoft SharePoint®, Oracle UCM®, or CTSpace’s Cimage®) with modules that optimize the business processes of an enterprise from top-to-bottom, from project management to workflow management. FusionEnterprise also provides a complete integration with CTSpace's dynamic Cloud-based Document Management & Project Collaboration solution FusionLive.
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When integrated, CTSpace’s global solution provides a best practices environment that supports a project’s entire lifecycle: from design, through construction, and into operations and maintenance.
About CTSpace
CTSpace provides document control, cost management and business process automation solutions to companies with capital assets to design, engineer, construct and maintain in any location in the world. More than 145,000 professionals on 13,000 projects in 56 countries benefit through improved collaboration, enhanced ability to manage schedules and risks, and improved regulatory compliance. CTSpace is unique in offering both online ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) solutions and on premises enterprise solutions, the latter of which leverage an organization's existing investment in leading ECM platforms. CTSpace is part of the Group of companies. For more information, please visit www.sword-ctspace.com
About Group
Group (NYSE Euronext: FR0004180578 SWP) delivers high value business applications to the world’s largest companies globally. With operations in 37 countries, today employs around 1,700 people and generates more than $270m in consolidated revenue. An international leader in the delivery of Business Process Improvement solutions, Sword’s skills, infrastructure and experience help our customers across regulated industries optimize performance, increase efficiencies and maximize return on investment. With flexible delivery options, including On Demand and On Premises, combined with our extensive industry expertise, provides comprehensive support to customers across insurance & healthcare, energy, banking & finance, telecoms, utilities, engineering & construction and the public sector. For more information, please visit www.sword-group.com.
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