DARMSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure software, today announced that Ping An Insurance of China will use its webMethods product suite to support its ambitious business expansion plans. Ping An will drive its 20-25% growth plans through offering full insurance, banking and asset management services to over 40 million customers in China. The new “one account” service, unique to China, offering one-stop-shopping of Ping An’s full range of financial products was launched in July and within two months 100,000 customers have subscribed to the program. Ping An is using Software AG’s webMethods product suite in developing the IT platform needed to support its multi-product, multi channel, business expansion strategy. The new IT infrastructure was recently recognized at IDC’s Innovation Awards as one of the top-10 innovative IT solutions in Asia Pacific.

“We’ve long recognized the business benefits of a more adaptive and flexible IT infrastructure, and therefore established an Integrated IT infrastructure to support our rapidly expanding businesses”, said Henry Ma, IT General Manager and Chief Architect of Ping An. “We are, in effect, re-using intellectual property. We can leverage what we have done for one business unit to fulfill requirements coming from another. The webMethods suite from Software AG delivers the visibility and control that allows us to manage a very granular, dynamic and fast-paced IT environment. “

Ping An’s customers across its multiple business units include 40 million life insurance contracts to over 10 million P&C insurance contracts. Car insurance policies alone grow by more than 30,000 contracts a day. The Integrated technology platform was founded to present one customer interface to this diverse base and to increase and mange the many cross-selling opportunities. Beginning in 2005, Ping An has worked to systematically streamline its business operations, using Software AG’s webMethods to integrate key enterprise systems, including its Customer Information File, which synchronizes client profile information between different applications across its various subsidiaries.

“Our executive board, including our Chairman and CEO, view IT as a strategic component of the whole business”, according to Henry Ma. “We are very much a digital business, utilizing the internet to expand rapidly and keep down overheads. However, it is a unique value proposition that we offer to our customers, full, comprehensive, cost-effective online financial services, available around the clock. In addition our IT platform is ready to support any M&A opportunities our expansion program demands”.

Ping An’s initial selection of webMethods was based upon its ability to deliver a highly reliable and proven business integration and process management platform within a comprehensive Service-Oriented Architecture. This allowed the company to meet a variety of system integration and process automation requirements with unprecedented speed, flexibility and efficiency as core components.

The success of Ping An’s business driven IT infrastructure was recognized at IDC’s Enterprise Innovation Awards 2008 presented at IDC’s Asia/Pacific CIO Summit. The awards pay tribute to the top 10 CIOs and their organizations that have used technology, IT projects and systems IT in innovative ways to derive the highest strategic value and yielded the greatest returns for their businesses, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth or improving relationships with customers.

“Ping An had the foresight to see how developments in the software industry could totally transform a business strategy”, said David Broadbent, Executive Board member and Chief Operating Officer, region East at Software AG. “The IT Department can support new business initiatives at a speed and scale, which will allow them to compete successfully in the market. It is very gratifying to see such innovative use of our products”, he added.

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Software AG is the world’s largest independent provider of Business Infrastructure Software. Our 4,000 global enterprise customers achieve business results faster by modernizing, integrating and automating their IT systems and processes. As a result, they rapidly build measurable business value and meet changing business demands. Based on our solutions, organizations are able to liberate and govern their data, systems, applications, processes and services – achieving new levels of business flexibility.

Our leading product portfolio includes solutions for high performance data management, developing and modernizing applications, enabling service-oriented architecture, and improving business processes. By combining our technology with industry expertise and best practices experience, our customers improve and differentiate their businesses – faster.

Software AG has almost 40 years of global IT experience and over 3,600 employees serving customers in 70 countries. The company is headquartered in Germany and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW). Software AG posted total revenues of €621 million in 2007.

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