Xchanging Announces $13 Million Partnership with Microsoft

Xchanging, the U.K.-based global business processing services company, has announced a 3-year, £7.5 million ($13 million) investment program and a partnership with Microsoft in the continuing development of Genius, its general insurance business processing solution.

“The pressure on insurers is more intense than ever, with highly competitive markets and an increasingly demanding regulatory regime, driven by Sarbanes-Oxley and the FSA,” said the bulletin. “Insurance companies are striving to improve customer focus and meet the heightened reporting requirements.”

Xchanging said its “service-oriented technology architecture is a method of building business processes through the linking together of a number of related services into a comprehensive business solution. This approach allows Genius to be rapidly adapted to the new regulatory environment and readily tailored to facilitate new business opportunities.

“Genius is based on over 15 years of investment and provides business processing to over 50 customers, deployed in 30 countries. Xchanging will improve upon this class-leading business functionality by deploying Genius on a Microsoft .NET platform, making it relevant to a wider community of insurance users.”

Gordon Ejsmond-Frey, EMEA insurance industry manager at Microsoft, commented: “This is a fantastic commitment by Xchanging to Microsoft’s technologies. By combining Xchanging’s deep expertise in the insurance industry with Microsoft’s proven technologies, we can offer insurers flexible, open solutions for all of their processing needs, allowing them to grow their business and meet regulatory requirements.”

Xchanging CEO added: “Genius is already used by 70 insurers in 23 countries. So, we are taking what is already recognized as a world-class solution, extending functionality, partnering with Microsoft and modernizing the technology to make Genius the best global straight-through processing answer for the general insurance sector.”

Lloyd’s and the London-based International Underwriting Association (IUA) selected Xchanging in October 2000 as a partner in a joint venture to develop and operate a unified premium processing and claims service covering the London market.