Civica Universal Pensions Manager has the X-Factor after topping Professional Pensions’ 2010 product ratings

Civica’s flagship pension product tops poll of 500 administrators

January 18, 2011, London – Civica’s Universal Pensions Manager (UPM) pensions administration system has achieved the top-rated pensions management product in Professional Pensions magazine’s 2010 administrator survey conducted late last year.

Provided by Civica (www.civica.co.uk) - a market leader in specialist systems and outsourcing services - UPM was easily rated ahead of seven competitor products, with all responses based on feedback from a range of industry administrators surveyed.

The product scored a remarkable six ‘excellent’ ratings and three ‘very good’ out of the nine different judging criteria.

Professional Pensions’ final report stated that:

“Not only does UPM system exceed the evaluating mean in seven criteria, it rakes in six ‘excellent’ ratings. What’s more all six hit the square on ‘excellent’. These trophy-snatching features Civica’s UPM is delighting its clients with are: ‘data accuracy’, ‘flexibility’, ‘overall’, ‘reliable’, ‘technical support’ and ‘technology.”

The ratings - which no competitor came close to matching - validate Civica’s continued development of UPM for corporate users over the years. The product gives in-house pensions management teams far greater control, flexibility and productivity in running any category of corporate pension scheme.

Conducted by analysts Incisive Strategy on behalf of Professional Pensions magazine, the survey was based on responses from over 500 pension scheme administrators that are managing 400-plus corporate schemes.¹ The pension products were evaluated by users on key criteria of: data accuracy, flexibility, good customer service, innovation, overall, reliable, technical support, technology, and value for money.

Simon Downing, Civica chief executive, said: “Professional Pensions’ survey is fantastic validation of the excellent service capabilities and reduced costs that users are achieving with UPM. We are especially pleased that every one of those five star ratings is based on actual customer experience – UPM really does have the ‘X-factor.’

“In the online era, all organisations know they have to provide the best service and individual reporting for pension scheme members. UPM gives administrators the functionality and flexibility they need to achieve this.”

Meeting companies’ budgetary, resourcing and scale constraints, Civica’s UPM can be provided as an in-house or managed service, for 24/7 performance running on a resilient, scalable software platform for optimal performance administration and reporting. In addition, Civica’s UPM automates workflows and document management and integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. This provides users with immediate access to system data and eradicates low-level paper-based administrative tasks. Administrators are able to provide more flexible service innovations such as individual online account access for their members.

-ENDS-

¹ About Professional Pensions magazine’s administration 2010 survey.Of the sample, nearly a quarter of respondents managed schemes with up to 5,000 members, seven per cent ran schemes with over 20,000 users, with the same number running 5,001-10,000-member schemes and another 20 per cent operating small schemes with no more than 100 members.

About Civica PensionsCivica provides award-winning software solutions to the pensions market, used by some of the UK’s leading organisations with individual schemes under administration reaching upwards of 40,000 members and fund values of over £1.5 billion. The group offers a complete process management solution to improve the administration of pension schemes in the private and public sectors.

About CivicaCivica Group Limited (www.civica.co.uk) is a market leader in specialist systems and outsourcing services that help organisations to improve service delivery and efficiency, with specialist expertise in local government, pensions, social housing, education, healthcare, enforcement and other regulated markets. The group supplies more than 1,800 customers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, including 94 per cent of the UK’s local authorities.