CIGNA Provides Peace-of-mind for APAC Customers by Ensuring Business Continuity and Resilience with IBM

HONG KONG .- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that global health service company, CIGNA Worldwide Life Insurance Company Limited (NYSE: CI), has implemented an IBM high availability business resiliency services solution to ensure business continuity in the event of disasters or other incidents that could cause costly business disruption and downtime.

Delivered out of the new, world-class IBM Resilience Center in Fo Tan, the solution comprising IBM managed resiliency services and a high availability solution running on an IBM System i server helps CIGNA manage and protect its mission-critical applications. With the new solution, CIGNA has shortened its Recovery Time Objective (RTO) significantly by over 70 times.

“As a company dedicated to caring for people’s health and well-being, we aim to provide our customers with peace of mind. Ensuring business continuity through our regional IT hub in Hong Kong is key to our ability to meet that aim across eight markets in Asia Pacific,” said Hans Evers, Vice President, IT and Customer Service Operation, Global LA & H, CIGNA International Corporation. “IBM provides us with a high availability back-up system that ensures that we can deliver 24x7 customer service. It also supports growth in our direct-to-consumer strategy which relies increasingly on the Internet and direct TV for communications and services that customers expect around the clock access to.”

In line with CIGNA’s global focus on improving its infrastructure to provide enhanced customer service, CIGNA engaged IBM to provide a high availability business resiliency solution which included sourcing of hardware, implementation, facility management and ongoing support through IBM’s resiliency center and team of experts. The implementation of the solution was completed in May.

“IT plays a critical role in our ability to deliver our service to customers, but we’re in the insurance business, not in IT,” said Mr. Evers. “We have a clear strategy to go to best in breed and we have been partnering with IBM since 1997 to leverage their deep experience and understanding of the insurance industry.”

Leveraging the subscription-based approach offered through IBM managed resiliency services, CIGNA is able to turn upfront capital investment in the high availability solution into ongoing operational expenses, improving near-term return on investment while achieving immediate continuity and resiliency.

“In today’s volatile environment, business continuity is a mandatory requirement,” said Tony Fung, Executive, Global Technology Services, IBM China/Hong Kong Limited. “Being CIGNA’s long-standing partner, we understand their business and IT needs and are delighted to operate a resiliency solution for CIGNA that best fulfils their aim of providing peace of mind to their customers. We are committed to delivering value to meet their business objectives for today and tomorrow.”

With over 40 years of global BCRS experience and more than 15 years of presence in Hong Kong, IBM’s proven and tested BCRS solution encompasses planning, protection and recovery for business continuity to help ensure business uptime. IBM BCRS have been widely adopted by companies in Hong Kong, including leaders in the financial services, insurance and manufacturing sectors.