Ceylinco Life first in sector to deploy SAP Investment and Finance Module

The Ceylinco Life team that executed the SAP project with the company’s management

• Says integration enhances policyholder earnings and reduces risk

Ceylinco Life has become the first life insurer in Sri Lanka to implement the SAP S/4 HANA Investment and Finance Module for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to enhance returns earned for its policyholders while reducing risk.

SAP integrated investment management module allows Ceylinco Life to manage its diverse investments in a seamless and efficient manner, while cutting down on repetitive and manual operations, the company said.

The system provides a holistic view of overall portfolio positions, performance and risk exposures, providing management with timely and relevant insights to fine tune investment strategy swiftly, while managing risks proactively. It also integrates the company’s investment management system with its custodian Standard Chartered Bank.

The integration of the investment management system with Standard Chartered Bank has enabled straight-through-processing (STP) of deal settlements and position reconciliation which proved invaluable during the recent lockdown, enabling unabated and uninterrupted investment transactions without the need for wet signatures or delivery of physical documents, Sri Lanka’s life insurance frontrunner said. 

“Our 17 consecutive years of market leadership is built on being the thought, process and product leader in the life insurance sector of Sri Lanka, and this latest development helps us to better serve our policyholders by reassuring them that their premiums are invested and managed in an optimum manner to meet their financial protection and retirement planning needs,” Ceylinco Life Managing Director Thushara Ranasinghe said.

The SAP S/4 HANA Finance Module essentially enables smoother and efficient accounting processes and facilitates efficient management decisions. Some of its benefits include seamless integration of the SAP General Ledger with other systems including the core insurance system and the Financial Asset Management Module (FAM) which enables on-demand reporting of the financial results of the company with improved accuracy and efficiency; simplification of regulatory reporting and insurance fund reporting; assistance with accurate investments in insurance funds; efficient management of inventory and fixed assets; generation of accurate and cost efficient information; and enhanced visibility and control in the supplier management process.

The implementation of the module has also resulted in a reduction of usage of paper, complementing the ‘Go Green’ concept of Ceylinco Life to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. 

Ceylinco Life said the changing regulatory, economic and competitive landscapes, along with increases in business volumes and complexity necessitated a shift to a state-of-the-art integrated solution such as SAP.

SAP S/4 HANA is a full in-memory solution and provides a higher speed of processing power, dashboards and analytical capabilities. Another key feature that warranted the shift is that it enables the Company to build and manage a single platform of information.

SAP stands for Systems Analysis Program Development. SAP Societas Europaea (SAP SE) is a German multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, it has regional offices in 130 countries, over 440,000 customers in 180 countries, and more than 21,000 partner companies, globally.

Sri Lanka’s leading life insurer for more than half of the 32 years it has been in existence, Ceylinco Life was ranked the Most Valuable Life Insurance Brand in Sri Lanka by Brand Finance this year and declared the ‘Peoples Life Insurance Service Provider of the Year’ for the 14th consecutive year at the 2020 SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards. 

The company was ranked among the 10 ‘Most Admired Companies’ in the country by the International Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka in 2019 and in the same year was named the Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka for the sixth consecutive year by World Finance, and ranked sixth overall in the Business Today ranking of the country’s top 30 companies.

Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and is acknowledged as a benchmark in the local insurance sector for innovation, product research and development, customer service, professional development and corporate social responsibility.