11.02.08

Barbican Syndicate 1955 was ready to start underwriting by the middle of December, 2007 for the 2008 Underwriting year, using the services of Wildnet and their partner Xchanging. The syndicate is led by David Reeves and Mark Harrington with a £75m stamp capacity. The IT project, which took only six weeks to implement, saw the syndicate start trading with a complete risk recording and enquiry system in place utilising Xchanging’s Iris system, plus a full front office including intranet, document management and workflow.

“With an incredibly tight deadline, Barbican needed to get up and running for the 2008 Underwriting year”, commented Mark Birrell, Chief Executive of Wildnet Group. “Our strategic partnership with Xchanging and the use of innovative project planning allowed us to split delivery into phases containing logical business modules. This addressed the direct needs of Barbican over the first few weeks of operation, and ensured we were able to accommodate the extremely tight schedule.”

Birrell added: “Using advanced software including Microsoft SharePoint and K2 BPM, combined with our decades of experience in both Lloyd’s underwriting and broking, meant that we could hit the road running and deliver the first phase of a very ambitious programme on time and on budget. “

The solution will deliver enhanced management information and control to back office processes, such as underwriting analysis, peer review, financial reporting and claims management, as well as increased efficiency through reduced duplication of effort and greater control over all stages of a process.”

Roger Townsend, Executive Director at Xchanging said: “We are delighted that our partnership with Wildnet has allowed Barbican to enjoy the immediate benefits of Iris’s rich functionality and ease of implementation.”
David Reeves, CEO of Barbican Insurance Group said: “We needed service providers that understood the nature of our business and could deliver the right solutions to a very aggressive timetable. We were delighted with the performance of both Wildnet and Xchanging, both in having the industry expertise to know what we were trying to achieve and in hitting all the deadlines.

Barbican will continue to develop its systems over the next two to three years with IRIS at the core. We aim to develop the management information aspects to the highest possible level for a business of our size in the marketplace.”

Notes to Editors

Wildnet was founded nearly ten years ago to provide front office solutions and consultancy services to the insurance and reinsurance industries. Utilising decades of industry experience, as both brokers and underwriters, Wildnet brings a unique industry understanding that aims to solve business problems either by providing consulting services, applying the right transactional and processing systems, or creating customised solutions. They have also built over 25 web based processing platforms, and provided a range of systems to insurers, reinsurers, brokers and Managing General Agents.

Xchanging is a fast-growing international, pure-play business process outsourcing company providing complex industry specific processing to the banking and insurance industries such as securities processing and commercial insurance premiums and claims processing. We also provide procurement, finance and accounting, and human resources services to customers across industries. www.xchanging.com

Barbican Insurance Group trades as Syndicate 1955 at Lloyd's, with Whittington Capital Management as its managing agent.