APA partners with CSC of Singapore for digital insurance
APA partners with CSC of Singapore for digital insurance
Laos' first local composite insurance company selects CSC to form the backbone of its processing system
A global leader in next-generation IT services and solutions on Saturday announced it has signed a five-year license agreement with Phongsavanh Insurance Company (APA) to implement CSC's Integral P&C, Integral Life and Integral Point-of-Sale systems.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Singap orean Embassy to Laos and representatives from Singaporean companies and the Phongsavanh Group (PSVG) attended the ceremony.
APA is CSC's first direct account in Laos and the first to implement the CSC Integral Suite to manage its portfolio of life and non-life insurance products, according to a press release.
A new entity in the largely untapped insurance market of Laos, APA sought an integrated solution suite to help streamline and automate its operations across all insurance lines, and optimise its features to create new insurance products and services in future, bringing them to market more quickly as demand grows.
Implementation, customisation, training and testing of the Integral components will be managed by the combined APA and CSC teams over the next few months.
The scalable nature of Integral will allow APA to enhance productivity and operational performance, and go after new opportunities to develop their business and drive efficiencies while improving services for clients and distributors.
The roll-out is expected to be completed by early 2017, the press release noted.
Mr Paul de Bruijn, Chief Executive Officer of APA said APA is forward-looking and we have ambitious plans to expand our business locally and regionally.
The deployment of state-of-the-art technology to support the entire value chain of the insurance business and one that could be scaled as we grow was a key factor in our choice of vendor. We were impressed by CSC's technical knowledge and experience, and this collaboration will help support our growth strategy, Paul de Bruijn said.
Mr Rajesh Iyer, General Manager, Asia, Middle East & Africa, CSC, said With a population of nearly 7 million, the insurance market in Laos holds much promise and the opportunities for growth are tremendous as the country and its emerging neighbours like Myanmar and Cambodia start to embrace the digital economy.
We are pleased APA has entrusted us to help build and manage their insurance portfolio and they can rely on us to support them on their digital journey, Rajesh Iyer said.
An officer of APA said As a new entrant and the first local insurance brand in Laos, we opted to partner with CSC because of their long-standing success as a leading insurance technology provider and their local delivery capabilities.
They had the flexibility and appropriate product features and specifications to support a greenfield initiative such as ours, the officer said.
We are confident of kick-starting our operations with them by our side and look forward to growing both our businesses in Laos.
The press release noted the insurance landscape is changing all the time with new products and regulatory requirements. An agile, integrated solution such as Integral which is functionally-rich, comprehensive and cost-effective empowers insurers like APA to adapt quickly to market dynamics and innovate new products.
CSC is a leader in the provision of software, services and outsourcing to the insurance industry. It leverages its extensive software capability to build services and deliver next-generation technology to insurance industry customers globally, helping them build new digital businesses and transform their current operations.
PSVG is a leading group of companies in Laos with successful pioneering enterprises in banking, oil distribution, airline, logistics, trading, food and beverage, timber and telecommunications. APA, a subsidiary of PSVG, is the first composite insurer in Laos, with operations commencing in 2016.
PSVG is one part of the partnership for Lao economic development and in line with the Lao economic boom. APA is committed to fulfilling its responsibility in developing the insurance sector to provide protection to the Lao public as well as abroad, with the AEC already in existence.
Insurance will become a customer centric proposition whereby Lao insurance businesses play a great role in tailoring end-to-end protection of Lao society, for customers, families, goods,assets and business, throughout their lives.
PSVG aimed to establish the insurance company, known as APA, as a Lao local insurance company with free movement of skilled consultants and with a vision for five years of objectives, to provide a foundation for the growth of the Lao insurance industry in the AEC, meet the needs of the Lao public, and hopefully expand into neighbouring countries.
It has seen that the process of insurance has evolved to safeguard the interests of Lao people from uncertainty by providing certainty of payment for a given contingency. It has also seen that the insurance principle comes to be more and more used and useful in modern affairs, including by individuals.
Insurance affords peace of mind, insurance protects mortgage property; insurance eliminates dependency; life insurance encourages saving, provides profitable investment, fulfills the needs of persons (like family needs, old-age needs, re-adjustment needs, special needs, clean up funds); insurance is used by businesses for a variety of options (like uncertainty of reduction business losses, enhancement of credit, business continuity, welfare of employees), as well as general uses like the reduction of inflation economic growth of the country, the wealth of society is protected and so on.
