IBM today announced a services agreement with LINA Korea, a Korean subsidiary of CIGNA , in which IBM will develop a new technology platform and system for the leading insurance telemarketing business in Korea. The project is an integral part of LINA Korea's strategy to improve its marketing and sales capabilities to support business growth.

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Under the agreement, IBM will provide an overall information technology (IT) solution including IBM hardware and software, as well as software support services for the development of the new telemarketing system based on an open industry standards and technology architecture. The project will encompass an enterprise-wide system upgrade, which will be adopted as the standard telemarketing system for other LINA offices in the Asia-Pacific region.

LINA call centers will cohere on this new system and will facilitate telemarketing representatives with flexible, resource-sharing abilities. As a result, business productivity will increase optimizing sales opportunities and improving customer service and satisfaction.

LINA Korea also aims to improve the efficiency of its IT resource management and expects the new applications can meet the demands of the ever-changing market environment.

"Once established, this telemarketing system will improve not only the efficiency of our electronic resources management, but also the company's productivity, service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as support the future growth of the company," said Andy B. Damrow, chief operating officer of LINA Korea. "What's more, this project shows our company's dedication to the fulfillment of our continuous and long-term investment for the Korean market, which is an important part of CIGNA's business worldwide. We will not spare investments, through the agreement with IBM, on strengthening our system for the satisfaction of our customers."

"We are privileged to be selected by LINA Korea as their strategic business innovation partner. We will strive to ensure the success of the project implementation," said Kim Won Jong, Global Technology Services, IBM Korea. "This project is significant as it exemplifies IBM's leadership position in the IT services industry, and this first telemarketing system implementation in the Korean industry will prove to be the catalyst to encourage other insurance companies to make strategic investment to improve the industry services."

IBM will provide software including IBM DB2 database management, WebSphere Application Server, Tivoli software for IT business service management, Lotus Sametime for collaborations, Datastage for data quality management and Rational development tools. The solution will run on IBM Power System p6 570 and Virtual Tape Library (VTL).

  The agreement was signed in December 2009.

  About LINA Korea/CIGNA:

As the affiliate company in Korea of CIGNA, USA, which boasts 210 years of history and tradition, LINA Korea was founded in 1987 and was Korea's first foreign life insurance company. Founded in 1972, CIGNA is a global life insurance group with headquarters in Philadelphia, USA and employs more than 24,000 employees in the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, and Europe. In 2008, CIGNA was honored by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), a national non-profit organization of large employers, the best employers for healthy lifestyles.

  About LINA Korea
  For more information on LINA Korea, visit www.lina.co.kr.

  About IBM
  For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com/services .



  Media Contact
  Myung-hee Son
  Media Relations, IBM Korea
  82-2-3781-4681
  mhson@kr.ibm.com

  Tara Sucato
  Media Relations, IBM U.S.
  917-472-3701
  tjsucato@us.ibm.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: tjsucato@us.ibm.com

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SOURCE: IBM