Sword Group announced today the appointment of Steve Westley as business unit director for the newly formed health business unit. This new unit will capitalise on Sword Intech’s innovative Open Health+ policy administration solution to provide the backbone of their business process outsourcing (BPO) service. In addition this new unit will benefit from Sword’s vast experience in providing innovative solutions to the insurance industry.

This new business unit is FSA approved for policy administration and supporting the full end-to-end insurance process. Having Open Health+ as the technical platform proved invaluable in gaining this approval. With its proven audit capabilities, control mechanisms, security, flexibility and resilience, this new business unit was able to demonstrate that treating customers fairly was at the heart of everything they do. Steve Westley brings with him a wealth of experience in establishing and running BPO operations, particularly in the healthcare arena. In previous roles, he was instrumental in setting up and operating successful BPO operations for several leading UK and International health insurance companies. Steve has also recently been appointed to the executive committee of the Association of Medical Expenses Insurers (AMEI).

Steve commented: “I’m excited to be part of this new venture with SWORD. This is a new area of the market for Sword and I’m delighted that the response from the market has been so encouraging. Using Sword’s new £30m technology centre in Cwmbran and Open Health+ has enabled us to provide a truly exceptional service to our customers and their clients.

Tony Holland the COO of Sword is equally enthused about the prospects, “The healthcare market is one of the fastest growing business economies worldwide. With the total spend available set to rise from $4,000bn in 2005 to $14,000bn in 2020, the need for increased efficiencies and stringent controls over costs couldn’t be greater. This new business unit is well positioned to capitalise on this demand, with a truly world-class solution.”

Tony went on to say “I’m delighted that Steve’s accepted the challenge of not only setting up a new venture from scratch, but also of becoming FSA approved. It comes therefore as no surprise that in the short time that the business unit has been operating, Steve and his team have already developed a significant book of business in excess of £10m and an equally strong pipeline.”