Correspondence-handling solution streamlines mail delivery and reduces errors

Glasgow, U.K. – September 29, 2009 – Sword Ciboodle, provider of customer-oriented business software and services, today announced that it has successfully rolled out a correspondence-handling project for BGL Group in only 15 weeks.

With over two million customers, and a workforce of more than 2,000 people, BGL Group is one of the largest personal lines insurance brokers in the UK. In addition to its own brands, including Budget, Bennetts and comparethemarket.com, BGL Group's affinity arm, Junction, enables established brands such as the Post Office, M&S Money, RAC and HSBC to offer insurance products to their customers.

The company is working with Sword Ciboodle to transform its business systems to provide a more agile platform that will support its rapid growth and enable it to respond to a dynamic marketplace.

Prior to the project, all mailed correspondence, including thousands of policy-supporting documents, policy enquires and requests, arrived at BGL Group's sorting office in Peterborough. The mail was sorted according to location, sent by van to the company's various locations across the UK, and then resorted for final delivery, usually meaning that mail only arrived at its intended destination up to two days after arriving at the sorting office. Multiple requests meant that mail often had to be re-routed, adding yet more days to the time to complete.

“We had been looking at options for improving our mail delivery for some time, but our close working relationship with Sword Ciboodle meant we felt comfortable approaching them with this challenge,” said Sean Melia, Associate Director, Program Delivery, BGL Group. “Such is their close business alignment with us, they were immediately able to understand the requirement and put in place the framework for a system that would solve the problem.”

After only 15 weeks, Sword Ciboodle rolled out a correspondence handling solution that significantly improved the entire process. When mail now arrives in the central sorting office, it is immediately converted to electronic format using high-speed document scanners. The scanning software integrates with the Sword Ciboodle platform, which identifies each document based on key information, such as policy number, customer details and so on, and establishes the relevant recipients, as well as the workflows and processes that need to be initiated as a result. The solution is integrated with the company's mainframe to match documents with policy information.

The software delivers PDF versions of the correspondences to the relevant staff and assigns the required work items to the BGL Group's legacy CRM system for completion, providing a level of automation and integration that was previously impossible. Sword Ciboodle will eventually replace the front end legacy system entirely, when its main project is rolled out.

In addition, Sword Ciboodle's reporting features are applied to the scanned correspondence solution, allowing real-time dashboard reporting so management can review reports on the content and status of mailed correspondence. In addition, the Sword Ciboodle system is also being used to route inbound email enquiries, which can be treated in exactly the same way as mailed correspondence.

As a result, the BGL Group's mail delivery process has improved from taking a number of days to reach recipients to less than an hour, with the added benefit of having many processes started automatically. Errors are greatly reduced, and can also be resolved at the click of a button, no longer requiring a manual redelivery.

“We were delighted to see the project go live and start delivering results in only 15 weeks,” said Melia. “It is a testament to Sword Ciboodle's unique approach to working with its customers that they were able to make this happen, and we are now looking forward to the subsequent rollout of our main project.”

“This is a great example of how Sword Ciboodle can deliver rapid value, both through the close alignment we have with our customers and our range of out-of-the-box features,” said Kenny Bain, CEO, Sword Ciboodle EMEA. “The fact that we could easily slot our pre-built case-handling capabilities into this solution was a key factor in our ability to deliver so quickly.”

About Sword Ciboodle

Sword Ciboodle helps improve the way large organisations interact with their customers. The combination of award-winning, process-managed CRM software and specialist consulting and delivery services help Sword Ciboodle's clients achieve higher revenues from their customers and reduce operational costs. Sword Ciboodle is consistently recognised by industry analysts as one of the world's leading customer-centric technology providers. For more information, please visit www.sword-ciboodle.com.

About Sword Group

Sword Group delivers high value business applications to the world's largest companies globally.

With operations in 37 countries, Sword today employs over 2000 people and in fiscal year ending December 2007 generated $263m in consolidated revenue.

An international leader in the delivery of Business Process Improvement solutions, Sword's skills, infrastructure and experience help our customers across regulated industries optimise performance, increase efficiencies and maximise return on investment.

With flexible delivery options, including On Demand and On Premises, combined with our extensive industry expertise, Sword provides comprehensive support to customers across insurance & healthcare, energy, banking & finance, telecoms, utilities, engineering & construction and government.

For more information, please visit www.sword-group.com.

The BGL Group

The BGL Group was founded in 1992 and has grown to become one of the UK's largest personal lines insurance intermediaries.

Brands within the BGL Group include BUDGET car, van and home insurance, Bennetts bike insurance and carbon-neutral motor insurance, ibuyeco. Junction, BGL Group's affinity business, works with brands like Post Office®, HSBC, M&S Money, RAC and Auto Trader to offer insurance products to their customers. The Group also offers a wide range of supplementary products including breakdown cover and legal protection.

The BGL Group has more than 2.3 million customers and more than £600 million GWP. It operates major contact centre operations (Fusion) in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland, Peterlee in the UK, and Cape Town, South Africa. The Group currently employs more than 2,150 people with its head office in Peterborough. 2008 saw the Group enjoy its 11th consecutive year of record profits.

In October 2008 the Group was ranked 175th in the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 of Britain's 250 biggest mid-market private companies by latest sales – higher than Manchester United Football Club, McLaren racing cars and Harvey Nichols department stores..

In 2007 the Group won the coveted title of Large Business of the Year in the regional Business Awards 2007 hosted by the Evening Telegraph, Peterborough. The Group's affinity business, Junction, won Marketing Campaign of the Year 2007 at the Insurance Times awards.

BISL Ltd, part of the BGL Group, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered Address: Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, PE2 6YS. Registered in England no 3231094