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IBM and Chordiant Sign Strategic Alliance to Deliver Customer Management Solutions for Insurance CompaniesWHITE PLAINS, N.Y. & CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2002-- New Agreement Provides For Intelligent Customer Interactions While Helping Reduce Operational Costs and Speed Transaction Times IBM and Chordiant Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:CHRD - News) today announced they have signed a strategic alliance in which they will offer insurance companies a customer management solution that provides an insurer an instantaneous, single view of customer data across the enterprise. As a result, insurers can increase transaction efficiency and reduce operational costs. Research by IBM shows that insurers will spend more than $2 billion in the next year developing customer management solutions and the e-business infrastructure to deploy them. The strategic alliance provides insurers with a scalable infrastructure from IBM -- to securely manage high-volume transactions -- and an application software suite from Chordiant. The new offering combines and uses an insurance carrier's business processes, customer profiles and policy specifications to determine the most effective approach in handling transactions and responding to customer needs. Chordiant solutions provide reusable components and applications that enable insurance companies to automate the end-to-end business processes associated with each customer interaction. The result is consistent and relevant customer interactions across all channels and touch points - the contact center, Web site, back office, field agent and the local office. Such consistency helps drive down operational expenses as any changes made centrally to business processes are applied simultaneously across the enterprise. "This alliance will help carriers enhance their core capability infrastructure, which includes managing complex customer transactions," said William N. Pieroni, general manager, IBM Global Insurance Industry. "Chordiant applications running on IBM's e-business infrastructure means carriers will have a clear view of what products policy holders are using now and might need in the future. Carriers will have a better opportunity to offer new, highly attractive, services and offerings at lower costs." The joint IBM and Chordiant solutions help insurance providers to reduce other costs associated with customer management. These include reducing the cost of providing services and improving marketing effectiveness and lead management while streamlining customer-related business processes and operational efficiencies. For example, a real-time single view of customer data enables both a call-center operator and the local field agent to instantly summon the same consistent information about a customer when that customer calls for help or to make a transaction. Under another scenario, an insurance sales person can proactively contact a customer to offer a new service or suggest a new offering that the customer might want to buy as an existing policy is about to mature. Additional substantive cost savings are also gained in application development and delivery through the reuse of software components. Under the terms of agreement, the two companies will jointly market the Chordiant 5 software optimized for IBM eServer pSeries(a) and xSeries(a) hardware, DB2(a) database software and the WebSphere(a) infrastructure software platform including the WebSphere Application Server. IBM Global Services (IGS) will build Chordiant- specific skills to cater to customers who require contemporary, integrated, enterprise-level customer programs. "This agreement between Chordiant and IBM positions us to meet the customer service challenges of any insurance carrier," said Stephen Kelly, Chordiant's president and CEO. "Add IBM's world-class implementation skill set to Chordiant's scalability and ability to adapt to legacy systems, protecting and integrating all the data and processes companies keep in their back-office, and you've got a very cost effective customer centric combination." The Chordiant strategic alliance builds on an existing relationship between the two companies in which Chordiant 5 Enterprise Platform was made available for deployment with IBM WebSphere Application Server. The strategic alliance is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program. Under this initiative, IBM has signed agreements with recognized software leaders. These alliances target industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and solution segments including enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and business intelligence. The goal is to provide developers with access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's marketing, sales, and solutions resources. In return, developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services in offerings to customers. About IBM PartnerWorld for Developers PartnerWorld for Developers is the developer resource for IBM Business Partners. It is a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/developer or call 800/627-8363 in North America, 770/835-9902 outside North America. About IBM Financial Services Sector IBM is the world's largest provider of information technology (IT) services, hardware and software and a preeminent technology partner to the world's financial services industry. Working directly with its financial services customers, IBM helps them become more competitive through the innovative deployment of high-impact solutions. These solutions comprise the full range of IBM capabilities including consulting, services, implementation, software, hardware and research. Additional information can be found at www.ibm.com/solutions/financialservices. About Chordiant Software, Inc. Chordiant Software provides innovative customer management solutions for global business-to-consumer companies. Chordiant serves businesses that have millions of consumer relationships where it is critical to balance the cost of servicing with customer value. Chordiant solutions are driven by business processes and provide an enterprise-wide, real-time view of the customer at any touchpoint, through self service, the contact center, or through retail channels. Using Chordiant solutions, enterprises benefit from reduced operational expenses through more efficient and effective marketing, selling and customer service. Additionally, Chordiant quickly reduces internal IT costs by leveraging and adapting to existing information-technology investments and infrastructure. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Chordiant maintains offices in Boston; Chicago; Manchester, N.H.; New York City; London; Paris; Amsterdam; Frankfurt; Munich; Madrid; Johannesburg; Sydney and Melbourne. Visit us on the Web at http://www.chordiant.com. Safe Harbor This news release includes "forward-looking statements" that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release are generally identified by words, such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," "would," "guidance," "projects" and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the results of Chordiant to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements, including, among others, potential difficulties in the assimilation of operations, strategies, technologies, personnel and products of acquired companies and technologies, the impact of perceived or actual weakening of economic conditions on customers' and prospective customers' spending on Chordiant software and services; quarterly fluctuations in Chordiant's revenues or other operating results; failure by Chordiant to meet financial expectations of analysts and investors, including failure resulting from significant reductions in demand from earlier anticipated levels; risks related to market acceptance of Chordiant's products; customization and deployment delays or errors associated with Chordiant products; impact of long sales and implementation cycles for certain Chordiant products; reliance by Chordiant on a limited number of customers for a majority of its revenues; Chordiant's need to retain and enhance business relationships with systems integrators and other parties; Chordiant's use in its products of third-party software; activities by Chordiant and others regarding protection of intellectual property; and competitors' release of competitive products and other actions. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Chordiant are included in risks detailed from time to time in Chordiant's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including without limitation Chordiant's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 29, 2002. These filings are available on a Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov. Chordiant does not undertake an obligation to update forward-looking or other statements in this release. Note to Editors: Chordiant and the Chordiant logo are registered trademarks of Chordiant Software, Inc., JX Architecture and Dynamically Driven CRM are trademarks of Chordiant Software, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. (a) Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the IBM Corporation Editorial Contact: James Strohecker Chordiant Software 408-517-6191 james.strohecker@chordiant.com top of page |
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