Agreement with Mastek

RNS Number : 9835V

Focus Solutions Group PLC

21 July 2009

 



Press Release

21 July 2009

Focus Solutions Group plc

("Focus Solutions" or the "Group")

Agreement with Mastek

Mastek and Focus to offer a combined front and back-office solution to the insurance industry

Focus Solutions, (AIM:FSG) a supplier of enterprise solutions to the financial services industry, today announces that it has signed an agreement with Mastek, the global software solutions specialist for the Insurance and Government verticals, to provide a combined front and back-office solution to the global insurance market.

Mastek will integrate focus:360° life & pension extranet, Focus' multi-channel, e-commerce platform, into the latest version of their market leading policy administration software, Elixir 4. This combined solution will help major providers to dramatically reduce integration costs and launch new products and services in a significantly shorter timescale than was previously possible.  It will also enable product providers to contract with a single supplier for both their front and back office requirements moving forward.  

As part of the partnership, Mastek will resell focus:360° life & pension extranet, providing a single point of reference for clients, as well as act as a systems integrator for the joint solution for larger implementations.  

Commenting on the partnership, Steve Williams, Business Development Director at Mastek said:  "We have long been impressed with Focus' extranet capability and their strong reputation in the Life & Pensions sector. The partnership between the two organisations and our specialist domain knowledge in our specific areas offers  real solutions to our clients needs in launching new products such as Group and Individual SIPPs, and in transforming their businesses to reduce costs and comply with imminent regulatory changes such as those expected from the RDR."

Richard Stevenson, CEO of Focus added: "This is a great endorsement for Focus that an organisation of the size and scale of Mastek has selected our focus:360° life & pension extranet product to front end the latest version of their policy administration platform.   Focus and Mastek have the same strategic objective to deliver world class, scaleable solutions to some of the largest financial institutions across the globe." 

- Ends - 

For further information:

Focus Solutions Group plc
Richard Stevenson, Chief Executive	Tel: [phone]
Martin Clements, Finance Director	www.focus-solutions.co.uk

Daniel Stewart & Company plc
Graham Webster	Tel: [phone]
	www.danielstewart.co.uk

Media enquiries:

Abchurch
Heather Salmond / Joanne Shears / Mark Dixon	Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]	www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to editors:

About Focus Solutions Group plc

Focus Solutions is an established and proven supplier of enterprise solutions to the financial services industry in the UK, Ireland and more recently across Europe.  

Focus has delivered over 100 complex front office projects with multiple integration points and partners to a blue chip client base including 8 out of the top 10 UK Life & Pension providers, a number of leading bancassurers including the likes of HSBC and Irish Life, significant wealth management players such as St James's Place and a number of mortgage providers. The technology truly enables straight through processing whilst providing an engaging client and adviser experience to submit and service business electronically.  

focus:360° is at the core of all client implementations providing a single, agile, multi-channel technology platform. Focus has brought together three key areas of expertise: software, consultancy and service delivery. This totally integrated approach means clients can distribute any product across any channel. At the same time they can maintain an enterprise-wide view of the customer value and risk. 

For further information on Focus, please visit www.focus-solutions.co.uk

About Mastek

Mastek Limited is a global applications solution company founded in 1982. It operates in the UK, Europe, US, Asia-Pacific and Japan with 2007-2008 revenues of £237m. Mastek (UK) Limited was founded in 1992 as a subsidiary of Mastek Limited. 

Mastek provides intellectual property, application build, enterprise architecture capability and complex programme management to a large client base of blue chip financial services companies around the globe.

Mastek has an outstanding track record in the successful delivery of business critical and ground breaking IT projects - according to Forrester research, less than 30% of projects achieve the set objectives, whereas Mastek's track record of delivering 94.7% projects on time and to budget. This figure is derived from Mastek's CMM level 3 and CMMI level 5 accreditation and the associated measurement techniques. Mastek's highly effective on-site / offshore delivery model has successfully delivered thousands of projects.

Mastek has been operating in the Financial Services sector for 15 years, and has delivered high quality IT services and solutions to an extensive blue-chip client base including Capita Life and Pensions (UK), SimplyHealth, (UK), HBOS (Lex Leasing, Mourant), Pacific Life (US), Provident Financial (UK), Aviva (Asia), New York Life (India), Prudential (Asia) and Sun Life (India).

In 1992, Mastek made a strategic decision to invest in building sector specific business solutions for the Insurance sector. The first version of the Elixir solution was built for the Asia Pacific market and was initially implemented for a number of clients in the Asia Pacific region, which continues today to be a primary market for Mastek. 

Following a further investment in 2001 to re-architect the solution onto a modern architecture; Mastek has enjoyed significant success across the globe and now has circa 20 clients using the Elixir platform. 

The Insurance sector now contributes more than 30% of Mastek's revenues and contains more than 1500 dedicated staff.

 

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