Foresightgr Regulatory News (FSG)

29 Sep 2005 07:03

Focus Solutions Group PLC29 September 2005 29 September 2005 Focus Solutions Group plc ("Focus" or "the Group") Focus announces new contract with new mortgage network - Home of Choice Focus, a leading provider of customer management solutions to the financialservices market, has today announced a contract with an innovative new mortgagenetwork - Home of Choice ("HoC"). The five-year contract is worth £689,000, of which £460,000 is recognised inthis financial year. The contract includes the development of an online solutionto enable HoC to recruit, register and support new mortgage advisers for thenetwork. Focus was also commissioned to deliver a number of additionalapplications including a full sales support system for the provision of productinformation, management of the regulated sales cycle, and a complex commissionprocessing system. The new solution was built using Focus' MCA for Mortgagesapproach, with Focus' XML toolkit, "goal:technology", integrated with BEA'sWebLogic(TM) to provide the workflow framework. As a new start up organisation, speed of development and deployment were keycriteria to the success of the HoC business. The timescales for the project wereparticularly challenging and the first phase of the project was delivered to HoCwithin just six weeks. The online recruitment solution went live in July 2005and a substantial number of advisers have already been recruited and are tradingeffectively. Keith Baldwin, Chief Executive, Home of Choice commented: "Technology plays a key role in the development of our new mortgage network andwe see its application as a key differentiator in enabling us to recruitadvisers and support the sales process electronically. We selected Focus todevelop the new HoC solution based on a combination of their record of provendelivery in the mortgage marketplace, robust technology and industry knowledge." John Streets, Chief Executive Officer, Focus Solutions Group added; "Using our MCA for Mortgages approach we were able to reduce risk and rapidlydevelop and deploy a solution for HoC within very short timescales. Since thestart of mortgage regulation there has been a need across all mortgageorganisations to operate in a fully compliant manner in line with FSAguidelines. The new regime has caused great pressure on the market to ensureinternal systems and sales processes alike meet the regulator's requirements andFocus is well positioned to help companies fulfil these obligations." -END- Enquiries: Focus Solutions Group plc01926 468300 John Streets - Chief ExecutiveMartin Clements - Finance Director Seymour Pierce Limited0207 107 8000 Mark Percy/Jeremy Porter Notes to editors: About Focus Solutions Group plc Focus is a leading provider of customer management solutions for the financialservices industry. Focus' MCA (Multi-Channel Advice) approach, powered by goal:technology, delivers the life, pensions, mortgage and general insurance marketswith a single solution to enable effective electronic trading across multipledistribution channels, online or offline, achieving straight through electronictrading at a much reduced cost to the financial services industry. Focus has a blue chip customer base of financial services organisationsincluding Abbey for Intermediaries, Assurant Solutions, Barclays Bank PLC,Capital Home Loans Ltd, Home of Choice, Kensington Mortgages, Legal & General,Mortgages plc, Norwich Union, Paymentshield, Prudential, Scottish Equitable,Scottish Widows, Skandia UK Group, Standard Life and Zurich, as well as industryportals, including Assureweb, The Exchange, IFAengine, Trigold and Webline. For further information on Focus, please visit www.focus-solutions.co.uk. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange