Harleysville Insurance's New Personal Lines Policy Administration System Drives Increased...

Harleysville Insurance's New Personal Lines Policy Administration System Drives Increased Quote Activity and New Business Submissions

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa.--(Business Wire)--
As Harleysville Insurance was preparing to launch its new personal
lines policy administration system--accessHarleysville//PL(SM)--Ted
Majewski, senior vice president of personal lines, remarked: "This
system provides agents with an ease-of-doing-business solution that
demonstrates our company's commitment to personal lines. And since it
was designed by agents, for agents, it also provides them with a
clear-cut reason to choose Harleysville over other carriers."

After the successful introduction of accessHarleysville//PL in
Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and
Virginia, agents are embracing the new Web-based system--as
demonstrated by increased quote activity and new business submissions
from each of those states.

"More than 55 percent of our business is written in the six states
where accessHarleysville//PL has been launched," observes Sean Tief,
vice president of personal lines products and systems. "With the
improved ease of use experienced by our agents in those states, quote
activity and new business submissions have increased substantially
since the introduction of the new system."

Tief notes that accessHarleysville//PL will be introduced in
Maryland this month, and that the system will be available in most of
the remaining states where Harleysville writes personal lines business
by the end of this year.

"While the initial launch of the system focuses on auto and
homeowners business, agents soon will be able to use
accessHarleysville//PL to submit other personal lines of business to
us--which is an important competitive advantage," he adds. Those
remaining lines of business include dwelling fire, personal blanket
excess liability (umbrella) and Shipmate, Harleysville's pleasure boat
insurance product.

"In addition to providing agents with an ease-of-doing-business
solution, we recognize the importance of the comparative rating
services available to agents," explains Akhil Tripathi, senior vice
president and chief information officer. "To address these various
choices, Harleysville also is building connectivity between the
comparative rating vendors and accessHarleysville//PL."

Nearly 200 agents participated in the design process prior to the
"pilot launch" of the new system, which has helped to produce an
"easy-to-use, feature-rich product," says Tief. "Agents are finding
our systems and work flows to be simple and intuitive, whether they're
entering new business or making in-force changes."

While the pilot rollout for accessHarleysville//PL included large,
on-site training meetings, training for subsequent state launches has
been streamlined. "Our agents told us the system was so intuitive that
face-to-face training was largely unnecessary, so we now use Webinars
and online training tools instead," Tripathi notes.

As Harleysville continues to roll out the accessHarleysville//PL
system, Tripathi explains that the company is simultaneously launching
its new accessHarleysville//CL(SM) system for commercial lines. The
new commercial lines system currently is available for new business in
Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin. Access to both new systems will be extended to most
Harleysville agents by the end of 2008.

Harleysville Insurance is a leading regional provider of insurance
products and services for small and mid-sized businesses, as well as
for individuals, and ranks among the top 60 U.S. property/casualty
insurance groups based on net written premiums. Harleysville was
listed recently as #23 in the InformationWeek 500, the publication's
annual listing of the most innovative information technology
organizations in the U.S., and was the highest-ranked property and
casualty insurer on the 2007 list. Harleysville Mutual Insurance
Company owns 52 percent of Harleysville Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HGIC), a
publicly traded holding company for nine regional property/casualty
insurance companies collectively rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best
Company. Harleysville Group is a member of the NASDAQ Global Select
Market, which represents the top third of all NASDAQ-listed companies
and has the highest initial listing standards of any exchange in the
world based on financial and liquidity requirements. Harleysville
Insurance--which distributes its products exclusively through
independent insurance agencies and reflects that commitment to its
agency force by being a Trusted Choice(R) company partner--currently
operates in 32 eastern and midwestern states. Further information can
be found on the company's Web site at www.harleysvillegroup.com.

Harleysville Insurance
Randy Buckwalter, 215-256-5288
Cell: 267-718-3766
rbuckwalter@harleysvillegroup.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008