SSA & Company Announces New Insurance Product to Meet Growing Industry Demand

* Product uses Lean Six Sigma to help insurance companies reduce costs in 60-90
days while improving controls and transparency

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
SSA & Company, a global operations consulting firm, today announced the launch
of a new product to help insurance companies significantly improve margins while
increasing clarity and control over key risks. This new offering applies SSA &
Company`s proprietary Strategic Process Management (SPM) methodology to the
specific needs of insurance companies.

"The current financial turmoil has created a challenging environment for the
insurance industry," says Kaj Ahlmann, former CEO of Employers Reinsurance
Corporation (a division of General Electric), and current Advisory Board member
at SSA & Company. "Insurance companies need to focus on improving three keys
areas: underwriting, investments, and operations. Unfortunately, today`s
financial crisis has proven that many insurance companies have high-risk asset
portfolios, which can only be solved through long-term changes, not short-term
fixes. This, coupled with softening underwriting markets, means that the only
area where insurance companies can really make an immediate, significant and
lasting impact on company performance is in their operations. In short, the
industry is ripe for a product that improves efficiency and reduces operating
costs."

SSA & Company developed SPM in response to feedback and input from some of the
world`s leading CEOs and business thought leaders, including Jack Welch and Ram
Charan. Through these discussions, the firm identified that traditional process
improvement methodologies did not achieve results fast enough to meet the
demands of today`s economy. In addition, SSA & Company found that old-school
process methods often did not align project work with company strategy and
consumed too many resources. "We saw the need for a new generation of process
improvement," says David Niles, President of SSA & Company. "So we developed SPM
to address these issues. In essence, SPM applies methodologies such as Lean Six
Sigma in a way that delivers results in as little as 60-90 days and achieves an
ROI of 5-10x with limited upfront investment."

Through extensive work with numerous regional and global Life & Health and P&C
insurance companies, SSA & Company has tailored its SPM approach to help
insurance companies address key common problem areas such as:

* Burdensome overhead costs associated with multi-product business lines and
poorly integrated acquisitions
* Managing multiple operating and IT platforms
* Redundant and ineffectual outsourcing solutions
* Inaccurate billing and poor customer service
* Highly manual claims processes

"Having consulted for some of the world`s leading insurance companies, we found
that there had been little innovation in the way the insurance industry
addresses cost issues and margin pressure," says John Rodgers, Managing Director
of SSA & Company`s Financial Services Division. "SPM enables insurance companies
to realize cost reductions while priming their operations for the future and
ensures a return to sustainable growth in a very short timeframe."

SSA & Company has already utilized its new methodology to help a number of
insurance companies achieve significant results. For example, at an enterprise
level, SPM enabled one of the world`s largest insurance companies to achieve
more than $600 million (€437 million) in benefits over four years. Similarly, at
a project level, SSA & Company utilized SPM to help another leading global
multi-line insurance company reduce its policy cancellation cycle time by 50%.

"We`re very excited about bringing this product to the insurance industry," says
Niles. "Our deep roots in process improvement and our extensive insurance
experience are helping our clients identify crucial areas where costs can be
eliminated and resources better utilized. Not only is this enabling these
companies to achieve hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits, it is helping
them create stronger, more capable operations."

ABOUT SSA & COMPANY

SSA & Company, with its offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, helps leading
companies increase their margins, grow revenues and improve working capital
across multiple industry sectors including financial services, industrial
manufacturing, retail/consumer products, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, energy,
technology, and communications. Founded in 1994 by the progenitors of the Six
Sigma revolution at Motorola, the company developed the Six Sigma methodology,
teaching companies like GE, AlliedSignal, DuPont and AXA how to achieve a higher
level of quality, with substantially lower costs. Since then, SSA & Company has
helped hundreds of companies, both large and small, improve how they operate,
delivering billions of dollars of bottom-line benefits through higher margins,
revenue growth, and more efficient use of capital. Today, the company continues
to improve upon and evolve beyond its Lean Six Sigma legacy, developing the
approach into one of the most widely used and regarded management systems - a
way to transform businesses using analysis, rigor, and individual empowerment.

Cognito
Loretta Mock / Binna Kim, + 1 646 395 6300
SSAandCo@cognitomedia.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009