Mumbai, 15th July, 2013: Mumbai : Agile Financial Technologies, a leading software provider for insurance, banking and financial services sectors, announced that it has signed a contract with Focus General Insurance (FGI), who have recently acquired their license in Zambia, to deploy its general insurance solution – Agilis Core General Insurance. Agile FT’s integrated comprehensive insurance solution will cover FGI’s entire business cycle from underwriting and claims management to reinsurance and accounting in addition to helping the company streamline its business processes and increase operational efficiency.

“In our quest to meet the changing needs of our marketplace as well as to meet our company’s strategic objectives, we were looking to implement a comprehensive core insurance software , which would not only automate our day to day tasks, but would also provide mobility and accessibility to our brokers, agents and customers. The solution also needed to be scalable, where it could easily be integrated with new technologies to aid our future growth and expansion in the region. After thoroughly reviewing a number of solutions from different vendors, we found that Agilis Core General Insurance came closest to meeting all of our requirements,” explained Issac Gunda, Managing Director of Focus General Insurance.

“Agilis will cover the entire spectrum of FGI’s operations and finance management including insurance product management and distribution (policies), underwriting, reinsurance, claims and accounting. It not only meets the end-to-end processing of our business requirements but it also has strong mobile technology integration capabilities as well as the ability to extend our outreach to agents over the web. We are confident that Agilis will help us streamline our insurance business processes, enhance operational efficiency and aid in scaling up the business to new geographical regions,” Mr. Gunda added.

Agilis Core General Insurance is an integrated comprehensive solution for insurance companies covering the entire business cycle from underwriting and claim management to reinsurance and accounting. With a set of powerful tools, this solution is aimed at enhancing insurance business processes and other aspects of an Insurance company that directly leads to higher profitability. Featuring multi-language and multi-currency support as well as consolidated financial information on multi-currency transactions, Agilis’ well-defined workflow covers all the steps of the insurance business from a single view of the customer profile to effective management with pre-configured reports, including MIS, as well as web-portals.

“FGI is a recently established general insurance company and a firm believer in technology being the foundation for growth and market penetration. After a stringent evaluation process, FGI chose Agilis Core Insurance as their technology backbone. Agilis is entirely web-based and ensures quick, accurate and easy access to information by employing a modular and parametric approach to the management of insurance business and deploying it enterprise wide. In addition to the core operational efficiencies that Agilis brings in, FGI will also be able to leverage our mobility solutions and web portals to automate agents and brokers. FGI’s time-to-market will be substantially reduced due to our comprehensive product configuration capabilities,” said Kalpesh Desai, CEO at Agile FT.

“We are working closely with FGI’s management and IT teams to ensure that the implementation is done quickly and the transition is smooth and successful. With this sign up, Agile FT has now consolidated its position as the market leader in the provisioning of core insurance software in the Sub-Saharan region,” he added.

FGI offers a wide range of structured general insurance for both commercial insurance products and retail/personal insurance products. Currently operating only in Zambia, FGI plans to expand its business and reach across the African continent in the near future.

Agile Financial Technologies (Agile FT), set up by seasoned financial management software professionals, has launched its operations from its offices in the Business Central Towers at Dubai Internet City to handle its EMEA business.

Agile FT is in the process of setting up a back office services set up in SAIF Zone and its associated Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company in Dubai Outsource Zone.

The company's portfolio of products and services are a result of mergers and acquisition of leading software technology companies that offered products and solutions including BPO and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

"We are uniquely structured to offer a blend of software applications and services as one integrated offering," said Kalpesh Desai, CEO for Agile Financial Technologies. "The UAE is a great hub, logistically and in terms of economic fundamentals, to enable us manage our immediate markets that include emerging countries in Europe, Central Asia, Middle East & Africa. Over the next quarter, we plan to finalise 37 channel partnerships in strategic markets that we have researched and desire to have a presence in."

Agile Financial Technologies' unique capability ensures that it not only offer the application software that runs the core businesses of Asset (investment) Management, Insurance (Non-life, Life and Takaful) and Finance companies; but also has the capability to outsource the back-office accounting and analytical processes, transaction processing, reconciliation and infrastructure.

Says Desai, "We have experienced the influx of Software As A Service (SaaS), as a successful delivery model, over the past 5 years in the enterprise space. We believe financial institutions in the current economic context will be the demand for a delivery model that will require application software vendors servicing the space to offer Everything As A Service, and we at Agile FT are well poised to meet that expectation".

Considering the recent events in the banking and financial services sector, Agile FT has launched iDEAL Liquidity Management that is targeted towards banks, finance or lending houses, asset management firms, real estate companies or large corporates who leverage long term borrowings like Sukooks, debt instruments and convertibles to fund their businesses.

The application provides for a holistic view of an institution's liquidity position by enabling the management of short and long term borrowings (debt instruments, Sukooks, other liabilities) leveraged against assets and cash flows.

The application also has an optional analytical engine that provides for ALM (Asset-Liability Management), that can pull in data from 3rd party applications or Agile's own iDEAL Fund Management solution that manages the asset side of the institution's business.

Agile FT has also launched AGILIS Insurance Management, which services the core business of Life, Non-Life and Takaful companies.

Agilis is web-based, can be deployed over multiple jurisdictions and time zones and covers underwriting, claims, re-insurance, back office accounting and investment management. Agilis' First Degree allows insurance companies to extend their services online to their clients, agents and brokers using the web as a medium.

Agile FT's software applications are used extensively by leading financial institutions in India, ME & South East Asia.

About Agile Financial Technologies

Agile FT was formed by the coming together of seasoned industry professionals who envisioned the creation of an unparalleled enterprise that would be an agile technology partner to leading players in the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services or Insurance) sector.

This resulted in the amalgamation of strategic technology companies in the space of software solutions, technology services, Business Process Outsourcing and Knowledge Process Outsourcing.

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With more than 45 years of expertise in the BFSI sector, the recent launch of Agile FT's operations from its offices at Dubai Internet City to handle its EMEA business, has all the makings of a success story.  Launched at a time when the credit crunch has bitten many a Dubai conglomerates, Mr. Kalpesh Desai, CEO of Agile FT feels there has been never a more apt time for their company's launch. GoDubai gets Mr. Desai on the hotseat….

With more than 45 years of expertise in the BFSI sector, the recent launch of Agile FT's operations from its offices at Dubai Internet City to handle its EMEA business, has all the makings of a success story.  Launched at a time when the credit crunch has bitten many a Dubai conglomerates, Mr. Kalpesh Desai, CEO of Agile FT feels there has been never a more apt time for their company's launch. GoDubai gets Mr. Desai on the hotseat….

1) Launched only recently in the UAE business sector, how does Agile FT plan to find its footing in the market?

Kalpesh Desai (KD): Although Agile Financial Technologies is a new entity, the company has been formed by acquiring and merging existing businesses to become a stronger platform. These businesses have been in operation for over a decade accumulating over 45 years of experience. They have made their presence felt in these markets. Our existing clients will now be able to look forward to a regional presence with our enhanced infrastructure in Dubai Internet City, Saif Zone and also with our BPO Company, Pamac's presence in Dubai Outsourcing Zone.

We are appointing close to 37 channel partners in approximately 20 countries in  Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, Africa and M.E.

2) What is the USP of Agile FT that makes it different from its competitors?

KD: Agile FT's offering include application software, consulting, managed services and outsourcing services for Banks, Investment/Asset Management companies, Insurance firms and other financial institutions. In these trying times, where these enterprises are trying to balance growth with good governance and increasing regulatory oversight, we provide a mechanism to augment capacity, reduce operational risk and increase the ability to service their clients better through a unique and innovative delivery mechanism that allows us to offer the enter process as a service, matching our client's cash flows. This enables financial institutions  who desire to, or are forced to deploy new systems to comply with increasing regulation or business need, without having to look at an increase in capital expenditure.

3) Everyone's talking about recession, what is your view on this and is it in anyway affecting the firm's business?

KD: As the recession is here, we believe that the road to recovery is 'U' shaped. With a lot of regional funds locked in investments overseas, in assets which have seen a significant attrition in value during the financial crisis, coupled with flight of speculative capital from our capital markets, have led to a situation where corporates are faced with a liquidity crunch.

Agile FT is uniquely positioned to not only weather the storm, but also capitalise on the fact that institutions and regulators will impose the use of liquidity management solutions (one of our core offerings), and stronger systems. We service wealth management firms, who in a recession period are called on by clients to preserve their wealth, if not grow the same.

We are seeing an increased demand for our insurance management solutions by insurance companies, who are seeing a demand on their products with financial institutions, large corporate houses and high net worth individuals seeking to secure their assets by increasing the insurance cover. We see innovation in areas of private equity, alternative investments, and Islamic Funds, and it's our strategic intent to stay ahead of the curve in terms of ensuring that our technology is ready to serve the new needs in these hard times.

4) Could you tell us more about iDEAL Liquidity Management and its benefits? How is it beneficial to the current economic scenario in UAE?

KD: iDeal Liquidity Management is a unique solution that can be used not only by banks and finance houses, but also by large corporates and enterprises. The application has the ability to manage long term liabilities of the enterprise, be they convertibles, Sukooks, or other debt instruments. Cash in flows are extracted from the balance sheet and extrapolated into our Asset-Liability Management system that ensures that enterprises liquidity ratios are not busted and that liabilities and commitments are covered by sufficient liquidity.

5) Please name a few organisations or countries which have implemented Agile software?

KD: Our solutions have been extensively implemented in India, UAE, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia. Over 30 percent of the AUM in India is serviced by our software, with one of India's largest Mutual Fund (AUM exceeding $ 20 billion) using the same.

6) Agile has also launched AGILIS Insurance Management. Could you brief us about it?

KD: AGILIS covers the core functions of General, Life and Takaful Insurance companies including customer and channel management, product development policy and claims administration, underwriting, reinsurance and accounting.

Agilis enables the deployment of the application across the insurance companies constituents. These include channel partners, brokers, agents and banks offering BancAssurance solutions

8) What are the company's plans for future development in ME?

KD: It is our intent to build onshore outsourcing capabilities in each of the key markets. We are exploring a potential joint venture in Saudi Arabia at this time to leverage the local workforce that can be inducted into outsourced processes for financial institutions.

Source: Editor, GoDubai.com
Posted: 11/12/2008