Contract Win

Focus Solutions Group PLC 17 September 2001 17 September 2001 Focus signs contract with insurance giant Scottish Widows Focus Solutions Group plc ('Focus' and 'The Company'), the leading provider of software solutions to reduce the costs of transacting business electronically in the financial services industry, announces today that Scottish Widows has selected Focus' 'goal:technology' to enable electronic processing and transacting of life and pensions applications. Scottish Widows, now part of the Lloyds TSB Group, which includes Cheltenham & Gloucester, will initially use goal:technology to collect transactions electronically from IFA channels via service providers. Ian Lockhart, head of E-Commerce at Scottish Widows, said: 'Scottish Widows is constantly looking to increase the speed of bringing new products to market and to reduce the costs of acquiring new business. goal: technology from Focus will play a key part in helping us achieve this, particularly in the IFA community.' John Streets, Chief Executive of Focus Solutions Group plc, said: 'Winning such a major life and pensions player as Scottish Widows is a milestone for Focus. With 7 of the top 10 major players in this market using Focus's goal:technology for acquiring new business electronically, the life and pensions industry now has a real opportunity to significantly reduce the £ 6bn a year it currently spends on acquiring and processing new business.' -ends- Enquiries: Focus Solutions Group 01926 468 300 John Streets Claire Forrest Citigate Dewe Rogerson 020 7638 9571 Chris Barrie Sara Batchelor Notes to editors: 1. Focus Solutions Group is a leading provider of software solutions to reduce the costs of transacting business electronically in the financial services industry. The Company's products support the sale and delivery of financial products electronically via existing sales channels such as the independent financial adviser (IFA) market place and direct sales. Focus' XML-based toolkit is called 'goal:technology'. This enables 'intelligent' electronic proposals, which replace traditional paper-based application forms, to be constructed quickly and efficiently by the insurance companies and completed easily by the end user. It will allow the life, pensions, savings and investment market to move away from the costly paper-based sales process to electronic trading. 2. Following this announcement, Focus has sold 'goal:technology' to two-thirds of the UK's leading life and pensions companies including Royal & Sun Alliance, Norwich Union Life, Legal & General, Skandia, ZIFA, Aegon, Standard Life, Scottish Provident, NPI and Friends Provident. Focus has to date also partnered with three of the UK's leading internet service providers specialising in financial products, providing software to enable e-commerce transactions; Assuresoft, The Exchange FS, and Synaptic Systems. In May and June this year respectively, Focus announced a licensing agreement with MPO Inc for a new server based version of 'goal: technology' to be used in the North American market and a major licensing agreement with Spotlight Interactive, a leading South African software supplier, to sell 'goal:technology' to South African insurers. Focus has also recently launched a 'goal:technology' solution to capture mortgage applications on-line for the mortgage market.