ATLANTA, GA – March 25, 2015 – Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries, today announced that MetLife, a leading global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs, has won the Celent Model Insurer award presented at the recent Innovation & Insight Day ceremony, for its new end-to-end life insurance technology and solution architecture aimed at its US Direct channel. Ebix was the main technology supplier on the project, named Apollo, which was designed and implemented over a record period of 7-months.
Celent, a research and consulting firm focused on the application of information technology in the global financial services industry, focused their Innovation & Insight Day on exploring how banks and insurance carriers are leveraging technology in innovative ways to fundamentally transform how they do business.
As a exchange vendor supporting MetLife, Ebix was the provider and host of The Policy Processor (TPP) underwriting platform suite, offering a solution for receiving applications, connecting to third party databases, orchestrating workflow and processes, rendering decisions, capturing data and issuing policies.
As part of the project, Ebix partnered with global reinsurer, Swiss Re to provide MetLife with the Magnum underwriting rules engine which was integrated and hosted with Ebix TPP. This engine delivers Swiss Re's underwriting expertise electronically to MetLife, enabling the automatic ordering and assessment of underwriting information and streamlined decision making. This was the first deployment of the plasmaTM solution (Magnum combined with TPP) with a US carrier. Jason Bowman, Senior Vice President at Swiss Re commented on the scale of the achievement:
"In many years implementing our Magnum system across the globe, I have never seen a project of this complexity, involving multiple vendors and technologies, completed in such a tight timeframe. MetLife has shown what can be achieved through a pioneering spirit and commitment to partnership."
In addition, Ebix, provided MetLife with a centralized database and repository, enabling integration and connection between all related systems and housing marketing, sales and policy information for analytical reporting, acting as a third party administrator and processor for policies, payments, servicing, correspondences and claims.
Thomas Corwin, Assistant Vice President at MetLife U.S. Direct Business commented on the successful project, "We are incredibly proud of this collaborative and innovative initiative, which has helped transform the direct-to-consumer life insurance landscape and pave the way for future business growth into new and exciting products and distribution channels. The results have been outstanding, including significant underwriting expense reductions, faster processing times, innovative data and analytical capabilities and a vastly improved customer experience."
"We congratulate MetLife for winning the Celent Model Insurer award. This is an example of how Ebix is involved in convergence of mission critical carrier processes. The combination of the Ebix and Swiss Re solution, for which both companies have spent years in R&D, is transformational in nature and the value proposition is unprecedented.” Robin Raina, president & CEO, Ebix Inc. said, “The solution incorporates best in class end-to-end automation of the new business and underwriting process from Ebix, alongside with underwriting rules and risk management capabilities of Swiss Re. The combination has created a solution which we believe to be the most comprehensive and advanced in the industry, and is getting a lot of interest in the marketplace."
A leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries, Ebix, Inc., (NASDAQ: EBIX) provides end-to-end solutions ranging from infrastructure exchanges, carrier systems, agency systems and risk compliance solutions to custom software development for all entities involved in the insurance industry.
With 40+ offices across Brazil, Singapore, Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand, India and Canada, Ebix powers multiple exchanges across the world in the field of life, annuity, health and property & casualty insurance while conducting in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums on its platforms. Through its various SaaS-based software platforms, Ebix employs hundreds of insurance and technology professionals to provide products, support and consultancy to thousands of customers on six continents. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.ebix.com
Jacqueline Marcus, Edelman – 212-277-3787 or Jacqueline.Marcus@edelman.com
Aaron Tikkoo, Ebix – 678 -281-2027 or atikkoo@ebix.com