In line with the Group’s strategy to consolidate its market leading position and to continue expansion into general insurance in continental Europe, Software Solutions Partners (SSP) announces details of an exclusive partnership with specialist general insurance software developer, Koukia Pty Ltd. As part of the initial 10 year agreement SSP has acquired the European distribution rights to market and develop the Koukia general insurance solution. The core product developer, Koukia Pty Ltd, is a subsidiary of Wesfarmers, one of Australia's largest and most respected public companies. Members of Koukia’s development team originally developed Polisy, the world's first on-line, real-time general insurance application and Insure/90, the market leading general insurance system of the 1980's and 1990's. SSP has an established reputation for bringing newly acquired software products to market and will develop and enhance the system further for the UK and European markets. The system, which will become part of the SSP insure product family, will be marketed as SSP insure J across Europe. SSP insure J is a component-based general administration system, which consists of several independent pure J2EE open standard packaged components. These include Customer Management, Policy Administration (including Underwriting and Rating), Claims Management, Financial Account Management, Reinsurance and Product Development. The system is used by Wesfarmers Insurance Division in Australia. Commenting on the new partnership David Rasche, Executive Chairman, SSP said, “The acquisition of the European distribution rights to market the Koukia system will broaden our insurer product offering at a time when insurers are increasingly looking to improve their efficiency by replacing existing insurance components or complete systems. Insurers do not want to replace a legacy with a legacy - SSP insure J encompasses the latest IBM service-oriented architecture and J2EE technology platform, and delivers high levels of specialist functionality, process flexibility and modern ease of connectivity. By using new technology we expect lower running costs than existing systems in the marketplace, and insurers can open their systems up to partners and consumers to allow self-service and process transparency.” Commenting on the new partnership Campbell Johnston, Managing Director, Koukia Pty Ltd commented, “We are delighted to be involved in a partnership with such a progressive UK company as SSP. We expect SSP insure J to be a resounding success in Europe and look forward to a long-term collaboration.”