Progressive’s New Policy Management Application Based on Microsoft Software Helps Empower 28,000 Employees and 30,000 Agencies

New solution, utilizing Microsoft SQL Server 2005, provides the company’s agents and employees with streamlined and efficient access to policy data.

ORLANDO, Fla.— Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, one of the largest insurers of private automobiles in the United States, today announced it built its new policy management application on Microsoft® software to help its more than 28,000 employees and 30,000 agencies manage insurance policies from creation to reissuance. The announcement was made during the 2007 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Orlando, Fla.

The solution, built on Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) and developed utilizing Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework, integrates seamlessly with existing Progressive applications that support new policy creation, endorsements and reinstatements.

“By speeding service to its customers from quoting all the way through to policy issuance on a modern platform, Progressive again shows why it is among the world’s leaders in innovation,” said Bill Hartnett, U.S. insurance industry solutions director at Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased that Progressive has chosen Microsoft to work with on these breakthrough initiatives.”

Progressive’s vast network of agents will access the new policy management application through Web-based access supported by Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The application enables real-time policy processing and interaction with thousands of independent sales contractors, enabling greater employee and partner satisfaction in sales and service processes, which translates into enhanced customer satisfaction.

Progressive needed to replace a nearly 30-year-old mainframe-based policy management application that is central to its operations. The company also needed an infrastructure that was connected and adaptable to the evolving needs of its internal business partners.

Built upon the Microsoft technology platform, the new policy management application delivers a flexible solution that can respond rapidly to changes in business demand, product design and customer needs. It controls transaction workflow, and manages data exchange with more than 100 separate systems across the enterprise. The new architecture creates new competitive advantages for policy and product development and customer-service experiences for Progressive.

Progressive’s new policy management application includes a number of innovative database elements. The PolicyOps database is at the foundation of the solution, hosting all of the company’s insurance policies and supporting the policy management application. The solution also includes an instrumentation database to temporarily store application performance data for analysts to use for monitoring and tuning the policy management application.

“The new policy management application is absolutely essential to our operations and integral to providing superior customer experiences,” said Mark Stehlik, IT director at Progressive Insurance. “As we prepared to replace our 30-year-old mainframe-based application, we looked to Microsoft to help us build our new solution on a solid foundation that would carry us into the future.”

For further information, a case study detailing Progressive’s new policy management application built on Microsoft software can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=201522.