Product Description

SAVANT® Virtual Insurer is a fully web-enabled insurance system developed by insurance professionals for insurance business. It is a complete but modular Property and Casualty Insurance System built on the novel, innovative and proprietary SAVANT® artificial intelligence engine that has been ported to IBM Lotus Domino®, specifically chosen for its unsurpassed security features. The artificial intelligence delivers unprecedented power, versatility and flexibility to the entire system that can be interfaced with existing insurers' and/or re-insurers' legacy systems, brokers' and/or agents' operational systems as well as external service providers' information to manage processes.

The point of differentiation from other systems is its unique function in enabling business managers to have full control over the insurance portfolio. It automatically reinforces the business rules and underwriting guidelines in all aspects of the insurance operations.

Recognising the industry's business needs, we created a suite of integrated insurance modules that leverage existing IT assets to cost-effectively modernise business processes with the following key features:

• Fast front end solution – Great speed to market - quick ROI

• Easy integration/interface with other systems – no need for replacement of existing legacy systems

• Immediate analytical reports on business without programming need

• In-built Risk Control System

• Low development costs and low total cost of ownership

• Proven stability, security and scalability

• Built on practical logic of insurance experts

The modular structure of the system allows SAVANT® Virtual Insurer to be either taken as a complete stand-alone insurance solution or as modules of choice:

• Policy Administration

• Client Administration

• Broker & Agent Administration

• Fronting Partner & Reinsurer Administration

• Debtors Control

• Claims Administration

• Reporting and Risk Control

• Interface with Brokers' and Insurers' systems

SAVANT® Virtual Insurer is extremely user driven in its design. The solution is easy and cost effective to install and manage.

Innovation

Innovation is present in the following aspects of the application:

• Fast front end solution – Great speed to market - quick ROI: 
  The SAVANT® artificial intelligence reduces the build time of insurance products (eg Home & Contents, Motor Vehicle, Business Pack, or any other insurance product.) to a few working days each and almost no hard code is required.

• Easy Integration/Interfacing with other systems – no need for replacement of legacy systems:
  The innovative SAVANT® Smart Interface technology permits to establish an affordable and reliable connectivity with the most complex systems. SAVANT® Virtual Insurer has been made compatible with the Sunrise Exchange interface platform (a product from Telstra e-Business) in record time. It therefore provides connectivity to 900 broker companies in Australia including 7,200 registered users.

• Immediate analytical reports on business without programming need: 
  The SAVANT® artificial intelligence allows the build of any report with a few mouse clicks. No hard coding required. Totally dynamic, efficient, innovative.

• A tool to control risk selection:
  The Insurers' Business Rules are fully driven by the SAVANT® artificial intelligence. 
  As a result, Referrals or Declinatures are dynamically controlled by the Underwriters without reprogramming needs.

• Low development costs and low total cost of ownership:
  A complete Policy and Claims administration system can now be built and interfaced with existing systems within a few working weeks (conventional systems require many months or years) and at a cost of a few hundred thousand AUD (conventional systems costs several million AUD).

Performance

• Stability, and Scalability: 
  The entire system and its interfaces have been designed to deliver ACORD compliant B2B as well as B2C capabilities and Single-Entry Multiple Company Interface (SEMCI). In addition, all modules can be interfaced with IBM DB2 (or other similar relational databases) back ends for unlimited scalability. SAVANT® Virtual Insurer has also been ported to LINUX and all configurations, Windows and LINUX based, have been tested in an IBM Innovation Centre.

• Security and Speed:
  The application has been ported to the IBM Lotus Domino® platform, specifically chosen for its unsurpassed security and unique web enabling features. 
  As a result, it delivers the highest level of security and high speed of operation which is a pre-requisite for a successful B2B application.

• Highest Professional Experience at all levels:
  
  In the IT area, founders and owners of SAVANT® as well as any staff employed accumulate the highest level of qualification and experience in their respective field of activity:

Rodo Ehrat
Managing Director and co-founder of SAVANT® Systems International Pty Ltd. Director and co-founder of Smart-Insurer Pty Ltd. Rodo has 36 years experience in a broad range of IT disciplines and has been in senior executive management positions for over 25 years. He holds Master's Degrees in Chemical Engineering, Computer Science and Business Administration. Rodo was CEO of Sulzer Australia, a large multi-national group, prior to starting SAVANT® Systems International Pty Ltd in 1997.

Paul Guignard 
Co-founder of SAVANT® Systems International Pty Ltd. Director of Savant Systems (Aust) Pty Ltd. Co-founder of Cloverworxs Inc., a company in the distance learning space with activities in the US, China and Japan. Paul has over 25 years experience in research, development, consulting and management; most of them in the IT area. 
He holds a Ph.D from the University of Melbourne.

In the insurance industry area, Rodo has founded Smart-Insurer (Australia) and Smart-Insurer AG with partners:

Daniel R Nikles - Managing Director
Daniel has 30 years of experience in the insurance industry In his last position he was CEO of XL Winterthur International Australia Prior to this he was a member of senior management at Winterthur Insurance Group's Head Office in Winterthur, Switzerland Daniel has worked as an expatriate executive in the UK, US and Australia for 14 years His background is large international commercial insurance. 

Thor Vo - Director and CFO
Thor has 16 years of experience in insurance accounting and financial reporting. Prior to joining Smart-Insurer he was CFO of XL Winterthur International Australia Thor was with HIH Insurance Group until 1999 when he was approached by XL Winterthur International Australia to fill the position of CFO.

They are experts that understand the relevant market sectors and the related issues to support the application.

Proof of real world performance
- First commercial use of initial modules of SAVANT® Virtual Insurer with Winterthur International Australia Pty Ltd in 1998-2000.

- Field application for complex agricultural products with Cranston Australia Pty Ltd from 1999-2002.

- Deployment of a full scale multi-product insurance system with Landline Financial Services Pty Ltd from 2002 to 2005. The application was used by some 400 registered users of 78 brokers companies.

- SAVANT® Virtual Insurer is currently used by Lumley General as its EDI solution and the connectivity to the Sunrise Exchange platform (Telstra e-business), now fully developed and tested, becomes available for use on 5th February 2007. The application is also interfaced with Lumley's legacy system providing a fully integrated end to end solution.

Potential

• Identified potential markets:
  Almost every insurance company in the world.

• Designed for international use:
  SAVANT® Virtual Insurer is designed for multiple currency and multiple language. It is easily configurable to any taxation system in the world. As an example, the full complexity of the Terrorism Insurance Act was implemented in a total of 3 working days in September 2003.

• International partner or distributors:
  SAVANT® has created an impressive and dedicated distribution network through Smart-Insurer (see above). The network is based on the concept of partnering; independent firms in the insurance industry exchange resources, share risks and divide rewards from a joint enterprise perspective. It has today partners in Australia and various countries in Europe and is growing rapidly. It offers the platform to embrace SAVANT® Virtual Insurer's unprecedented powerful technology, adjust the solution to the needs of the market and to offer to clients a unique product. Feedback from the network allows quick adaptation to changes and needs.

Other information the judges should know

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