After nearly four years, Indian software developers finally connect all branches of the Awash Insurance Company S.C (AIC) with one electronic system for eight million birr.
Twice AIC tried to deploy off-the-shelf software, according to Dejene Tsegaye, AIC director of management information systems (MIS), but both attempts failed due to expensive bids that subsequently failed the technical evaluation on the basis of product functionality.
AIC management decided the appointed company should make the necessary software locally, according to Tadesse Roba, AIC manager of corporate business development and marketing department. They hired Indian company Infosion Software Development Plc (ISD) in 2010, whose General Insurance Information System (GISS) software, Mithara, has now been in use by AIC for the past few weeks.
Infosionet’s developers, working on the project in Ethiopia since 2010, spent 20 months on development, launching a pilot trial on five branches in Addis Abeba, they include Finfine, Kolfe, Teklehaimanot, Sheger and Merkato branches.
According to Dejene, after the success of the pilot project, Infosionet installed software at AIC’s 33 branches and three contact offices. The offices such as finance, claims, underwriting, reinsurance, business development and marketing departments are now fully integrated under the new system.
The MIS department of the company completed the telecom subscriptions, network installation, configuration and tailored training to launch the network. The total cost incurred by the company now stands at eight million Birr, including software connectivity devices and servers.
Infosion, established in 2005, develops insurance, banking, and financial enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, eyeing markets in India, Singapore and Africa.
The Mithara software has four core modules: underwriting, claims, general ledger, reinsurance, and five supportive modules for customer management, intermediaries (agents and brokers) management, document management, work flow authorisation and system administration.
“The software is highly complicated and has features which can integrate with new and yet to be introduced technologies such as mobile system, ERP, and E- Commerce,” says Solomon Nekatibeb, operations manager of Somtec Trading Plc, the company that consulted on the project.
AIC, in business since 1995, has 120 million Br subscribed and 80 million Br paid-up capital, as of June 2014. It employs 380 people in its 33 branches, reporting 58.2 million Br net profit during the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
The new system was to be officially launched yesterday, Saturday November 15, 2014, as Fortune prepared to go to print.
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