For Immediate Release
COUNTRY Insurance &
Financial Services Contracts Castek
Insure3 Provides Product Flexibility, Functionality,
Scalability
Toronto, Ontario, May 21, 2001 Castek Software Factory
Inc., a provider of enterprise-wide processing systems for financial
services, announced today that
COUNTRYSM Insurance & Financial Services (www.countryfinancial.com,
formerly Country Companies Insurance Group) has purchased a license
for Castek’s Insure3 policy administration system.
The license extends to COUNTRY strategic alliance partners MSI
Preferred Insurance Company, Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company,
and Middlesex Mutual Assurance Company which, combined, receive
more than $1 billion in property and casualty premiums annually.
The license was sold through IBM, which acted as a reseller, providing
synergies between its role as an IT solutions provider to COUNTRY
and a strategic business partner of Castek.
"This licensing agreement demonstrates the compelling flexibility
of Insure3," says Yung Wu, founder and CEO of
Castek. "Because of its broad reach and strategic alliance
partners, COUNTRY needed more than simple policy administration.
They will be able to use Insure3 as a single unifying
platform from which to handle all of their property and casualty
lines of business, across the different business and operating
models of the alliance. We’re very proud to have earned their
business."
COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services, headquartered in
Bloomington, Ill., serves more than 600,000 households throughout
the United States. It protects families, individuals, and businesses
from the unexpected and helps them achieve financial security.
COUNTRY offers a full range of insurance and financial products
and services from auto, home, and life insurance to investment-management
services and mutual funds.
"We chose Insure3 because of its flexibility,"
says Alan Reiss, COUNTRY vice president for information systems.
"Castek’s Product Configuration Tool (PCT) enables us to
define a product and make it ready for market quickly. New-product
innovation and configuration can be accomplished literally in
minutes. We’ll better serve our customers, capture new markets,
and gain a competitive advantage."
"Because Insure3 puts control of product innovation
and rollout back into the business user’s hands, IT is no longer
on the critical path," says Bruce Trost, COUNTRY vice president
of property/casualty operations. "Enabling mass-customization
to target markets allows us to take policy administration to a
whole new level.
About Castek
Castek Software Factory Inc. is the premier provider of Internet-age,
component-based software solutions. The company specializes in
the development of strategic, component-based business software
solutions to the financial services sector, with a specific focus
on the P&C insurance sector. Founded in 1990, Castek is recognized
as the pioneer and leading practitioner of component-based development.
For more information about Insure3 visit the company
web site at www.castek.com