Annual Report 2007

Case Study UNIQA

Together toward success. After their merger, Software AG and webMethods, Inc. were able to accomplish something that they would not have been able to do alone. The "Power of Two" made it possible for us to obtain a large order from the UNIQA Group.

The Power of Two

The UNIQA Group is one of Austria’s largest insurance companies while the Raiffeisen Group is one of the country’s leading banks. For several years, the two companies have worked together in a sales cooperation arrangement under which the insurance products of Raiffeisen Insurance – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the UNIQA Group – are sold through the branch network of Raiffeisen’s 570 independent local banks as a preferred provider.

Liberalization within Eastern and Central Europe, including these countries entry into the European Union, have presented the two companies with the opportunity to significantly expand their partnership. By taking advantage of both Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management (BPM), each company has secured the agility, efficiency and accountability needed to seize upon this opportunity.

For most financial services institutions, the equation is simple. To maximize return-on-equity, they need to fully leverage all of their financial resources and corporate strengths, including complementary customer channels as well as potential synergies across their back-office infrastructure. The challenge that they face is doing so without jeopardizing the speed-to-market and customer-focus. Further complicating this issue is the need to maintain the utmost transparency, security and redundancy throughout these operations. In the case of UNIQA and Raiffeisen, these issues needed to be addressed across multiple, often unrelated operating companies.

Recognizing these challenges, both organizations had partnered with Software AG since 2001 on the implementation of a SOA to better leverage their mainframe systems. Replacing these systems wasn't an option as to do so would require "an investment of 400 man-years" according to Karl Unger, member of the Management Board of UNIQA, "and a development freeze lasting two or three years". As an alternative to this 'rip & replace', SOA allowed them to implement a 'update & extend' strategy in which core functionality was exposed as services for reuse in new applications.

This approach quickly paid real dividends. For example, UNIQA has expanded rapidly throughout Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, with the company now serving 20 international markets. Each of these market entries required that new systems and processes be put in place in accordance with local underwriting laws, distribution and marketing strategies, and financial requirements. Through the use of SOA, these objectives were met.

With this foundation in place, the two companies have subsequently decided to implement Software AG’s comprehensive Business Process Management suite - webMethods BPMS - across their entire SOA implementation. The use of BPM allows users to create the framework - business logic, rules and process models - needed for transforming distinct services into more complex business processes.

For UNIQA, this will allow the company to replace their current sequential processing of applications with a parallel processing approach. As a result, tasks can be distributed to different operational centers, based on availability or expertise, as a means for reducing the time needed to complete the end-to-end transaction. The goal is to realize cost reductions while increasing accountability via improved monitoring and control capabilities.