PETALING JAYA, Malaysia, Sept. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that DynaFront Systems Berhad has selected IBM PureSystems to develop and launch a new cloud-based service for its clients. By adopting IBM's smarter computing approach, DynaFront will be able to help its insurance clients to reach new markets and offer more affordable, tailored and comprehensive insurance policies to customers.

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Today, consumers look for and purchase insurance in entirely new ways. Face-to-face meetings are being replaced with online research and discussion. Insurance firms are focusing more on using new technologies to capture this market change, drive growth and competitive differentiation. The steps required to achieve those goals are more complex than ever. DynaFront realized that in order to tap on this opportunity they need to provide a flexible infrastructure and charging model, which would enable insurance companies to offer their products via the web.

The new cloud-ready PureSystems platform makes it easier, faster and much more cost effective for DynaFront to improve its interaction with clients, helping them to deepen their knowledge about consumer search and purchase decisions, deploy new services tailored to specific client needs and deliver them via new channels such as web and mobile. The virtualized IBM hardware resources help DynaFront speed up service design and help insurers offer attractive pay-as-you-go pricing options. The PureSystems infrastructure is expected to support more than four million insurance users in the first year of deployment and reduce integration complexity by 50 percent. With this simplicity, DynaFront can expect to launch new products in days, instead of months and address new market demands as they arise. DynaFront's new approach also enables life insurance companies to offer innovative products online via cloud-secured services.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, DynaFront selected IBM PureFlex System over other offers as the platform to launch its new service. Serving the growing Asia-Pacific insurance industry, DynaFront offers local and multinational insurance companies flexible, high-performing IT solutions.

Malaysia's insurance sector is on a solid growth path based on the new regulatory reform introduced at the end of 2010, as well as on other favorable trends such as rising life expectancy and a growing need for pension and health provision beyond that provided by the state. According to Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), the Malaysian economy is expected to grow by between 5 and 6 percent in 2012 with the services and manufacturing sectors spearheading expansion. With these developments, coupled with the low insurance penetration rate in the country, the industry is forecast to achieve a growth of between 7 and 10 percent this year.

"South East Asia is attractive to insurers because of its population growing affluence. While the markets are under-penetrated, our clients focus on cost reduction and improved efficiencies while trying to offer innovative ways to reach new clients," said Mr. Chan Eng Lim, Chairman and CEO of DynaFront. "We selected the IBM platform to launch our new offering because we recognized the game-changing role PureFlex System can play not only in how we run our back office, but also in how it enables the industry to build relationships with its customers."

Under the agreement signed earlier this year, IBM provided DynaFront with an integrated solution featuring PureFlex System platform and flexible financing from IBM Global Financing. DynaFront is also integrating its DynaFront PrecentiaLife application, a comprehensive and integrated life insurance administration system, and will use PureFlex as the platform to integrate their application with the IBM WebSphere Application Server and the IBM DB2 information management software. This software will serve as the backbone to PrecentiaLife, providing an internet based application server and a state-of-the-art database for the management of the insurance policy information. IBM DB2 software leverages different storage devices to lower costs while delivering timely query response time with multi-temperature storage groupings.

"IBM has a proven track record in bringing together its broad range of capabilities -- services, consulting, hardware, software and research -- to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of smarter computing," said Ramanathan Sathiamutty, Managing Director, IBM Malaysia. "IBM PureSystems represents an important advance in the new era of computing. By tightening the connections between hardware and software, and adding unmatched software know-how, PureSystems solutions are designed to help clients like DynaFront free up time and money to focus on innovation."

PureSystems, the result of $2 billion in research, development and acquisitions over four years, has been designed to help change the economics of IT and help organizations meet skills shortages by reducing IT costs and complexity so they can put more resources towards innovation and growth. With PureSystems, IBM has taken the unprecedented step of completely integrating all of the technology components - virtualized servers, storage, networking and cloud management software - needed to enable a customer to turn on a private cloud system within minutes. In addition, the highly scalable PureSystems cloud is delivered with built-in security.

For IBM Business Partners, PureSystems creates a new opportunity to help clients solve the complexity of enterprise IT, reduce costs and encourage innovation. From resellers to distributors and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), more than 700 Business Partners are supporting IBM PureSystems. PureSystems currently run tens of thousands of existing ISV applications across four operating environments including Windows, Linux, AIX, and IBM i operating system. Additionally, Business Partners have created more than 160 new solutions and applications that are optimized to run on PureSystems. These patterns of expertise, which span 20 industries, can be accessed through the IBM PureSystems Centre. They include leading solutions from some of the world's largest ISVs, including ERP systems and applications for the banking, marketing, healthcare and energy industries

DynaFront Systems Berhad specializes in life insurance applications, including development and deployment of complete and comprehensive insurance software ranging from front-end sales to back-end administrative systems. DynaFront is built on one theme - to guarantee cost effective and quality delivery through innovative solution to enable our partner to excel. It believes in upholding integrity to provide only the best services to all well-deserved clients. This is based on the belief that only through these qualities and cost-effective solutions will the company be able to gain trust from clients and continue to grow. In time to come, DynaFront seeks to be the household name in the insurance industry in the South Pacific Region. More information: http://www.dynafront.com.

For more information on IBM PureSystems: www.ibm.com/press/pure.

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All other company, product or service names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of others. Statements concerning IBM's future development plans and schedules are made for planning purposes only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice. Reseller prices may vary.

    Media Contact(s)
    IBM Malaysia Media Relations IBM Global Communications
    Nadiah Syed Nahar            Chris Rubsamen
    IBM Malaysia                 IBM Systems and Technology Group
    +603 23013754                (914) 766-4280
    nadiahsn@my.ibm.com          rubsamen@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM