Press Releases
Mastek Provide the ‘ELIXIR’ for Life & Pensions Administration
24 November 2005
Elixir Policy Administration Platform will equip companies for new market challenges
International software solutions and services provider, Mastek, has launched its innovative IT solution - Elixir - in the UK market. Elixir has been tailored specifically for the Life & Pensions and Savings & Investments markets, which currently faces numerous challenges as the competitive landscape alters and new regulations come into force.
Elixir is a comprehensive sales and administration system designed using an innovative component-based architecture. It combines a wide range of ‘wrappers' for Life, Pensions and Investment products with a comprehensive set of business components such as channel portal, channel management, new business, policy servicing, investment dealing, claims, income drawdown and re-assurance.
Trish Henry, Head of Life and Pensions at Mastek, explains: "The traditional markets are changing and the lines between Providers, Administration Providers and Fund Managers are becoming blurred with companies seeking to play in each others space - resulting in firms redefining what they consider their ‘niche' and ‘core' markets. Add legislation and WRAP into this mix and it means that the competitive landscape is shifting rapidly."
Providers still working with legacy systems will:
- Struggle to cope with ever increasing legislation changes (such as A-Day)
- Restrict the products/services that they can offer to the market, since they are restricted by what their IT platforms can deliver
- Continue to carry high costs of support and upgrading
- Have a high cost per head in administration costs to cope with manual overrides to existing systems
Ms. Henry continues, "At a time when profit margins are being squeezed, approving a potentially large outlay on implementing IT is a ‘leap of faith' that most companies are reluctant to make. But if they don't, they will be unable to extract the efficiencies they require from their current systems and will quickly become very uncompetitive. We are delighted to be able to bring the Elixir solution to the UK market following a number of successful global implementations in Asia Pacific and the US."
In the UK, Mastek has already installed Elixir for Capita Life and Pensions to support its Child Trust Fund Utility. Bob Puzey, IT Director for Capita L & P, explains how it works for them: "The architecture [of Elixir] allows IT systems to be deployed in separate layers: the front end is distributed over the web, meaning that it scales well over any geography; whereas the back office is centralised in one place, essential for effective security and performance, and efficient management and development. This makes for a low cost of ownership."
Puzey continues: "The component based design of the platform means that applications can be deployed piecemeal, or from the customer's perspective, they can outsource exactly the elements within a system that they wish to. This is key to developing the economies of scale. As the business process provider, we can supply customers with exactly the business processes that they want, fully customised, and at the same time it can be managed in the same way for us."
HSA has also installed Elixir to support its health products. Ian Maude, IT Director for HSA stated that: "The quality of the system Mastek designed [using Elixir] has been highlighted in its reliability - since it went live we have not had a single second's downtime, and response rates are all sub-second."
About Mastek:
Mastek, is a Rs. 576 cr., US $ 130 million (July 2004 - June 2005) publicly held, global IT application outsourcing company with global operations, that delivers cost effective quality solutions as per the customized requirements of Fortune 1000 organizations worldwide. With its principal offshore delivery facility based at Mumbai, India, Mastek operates across US, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific regions. Incorporated in 1982, Mastek has been in the forefront of technology, which along with proven methodologies and processes, increase IT value generation to its customers through onsite and offshore deliveries. Mastek follows methodologies that generate substantial value to its customers by reducing time-to-market and ensuring a high level of predictability in the time, cost and quality of its projects. The company also focuses on enhancing value for its customers by providing substantially superior IT solutions at a lower cost.
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Sanjay Mudnaney
Sr.Manager - PR
++91-22-28247745
sanjaym@mastek.com