HP and FINEOS Announce Agreement to Provide Claims Solutions for Central European Insurance Companies(email this article)

GENEVA and DUBLIN, 6 November, 2003 - HP (NYSE:HPQ) and FINEOS Corporation
today announced an agreement for HP (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) to market, sell and implement FINEOS Claims(tm) solutions to customers in Central Europe. These solutions focus on significantly reducing the processing time spent on insurance claims, which is currently estimated to be 80 percent of an insurer's total costs. The FINEOS Claims solution will complement HP's portfolio of technology products, IT architecture and components, point solutions and services, all of which enable insurance companies to achieve significant cost reductions and increase efficiencies. HP and FINEOS customer statements also confirm that customers can expect to see settlement costs cut by 10 percent, claims management costs reduced by 10-15 percent, and reduction of annual reserves by 1 percent due to better management of claims. The total result enables organisations to streamline communications and improve efficiencies in case and file management, while driving down costs of IT infrastructure and business processes.

The agreement extends the relationship from the UK and Benelux to throughout Central Europe, enabling HP and FINEOS to capitalize on their respective strengths in the financial services and emerging markets leadership. According to Datamonitor*, IT spending on claims-related projects will be a $2.2 billion market opportunity for vendors by 2004. Market demand for the solution is also expected to increase with the 2004 entry of 11 countries into the EU, which will open new market opportunities.

Claims solution proven to yield success with customers Delta Lloyd, a leading insurer in the Netherlands, is currently using the FINEOS Claims solution.

"The key benefit for Delta LIoyd is that the reliability of our claims prediction is improved," said Berend-Jan de Leeuw, Manager, Bodily Injury Claims Department, Delta Lloyd. "Also we are able to pay out claims faster, which means we are paying less. Settling claims more quickly actually helps us to reduce the amount of damages we pay each year. This is a huge advantage for Delta Lloyd."

"Insurance companies identify the cost of claims processing as one of their major headaches," said Tony Evans, Business Development Director, Insurance Sector, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, HP. "Those who provide a lower cost of ownership and increase customer satisfaction in this important area will be the long-term winners in the rapidly growing Central European market. As the IT market leader for Central Europe, HP is delighted to help companies in this region achieve these savings and performance benefits."

Partnership specifics provide an exceptional value proposition as a part of the agreement, FINEOS will provide HP with both business and technology product training on the FINEOS solution set. The result of the FINEOS Claims solution, combined with HP's extensive systems integration skills and superior IT technology solutions, presents an exceptional value proposition to Central European customers by improving processing performance. One specific example of this would be a 70 percent reduction in calls from call centre to claims department.

"Working with a partner of HP's stature strongly supports our ongoing efforts to increase our market presence and generate real business development opportunities," said Michael Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, FINEOS. "We complement each other perfectly, as together, we are focused on delivering 'best in class' business solutions on modern, scalable architectures that deliver rapid return on investment for our customers."


* Source: Datamonitor, report 'Claims Automation in Europe', published March
2003.