Allianz Insurance has become the first insurance company in the UK to receive top accreditation for IT project delivery.

The firm's IT division belied recent industry surveys - which showed an around ten per cent project success rate - by placing an emphasis on customer service and on-cost completion, obtained through organisation-specific processes.

"We see the best way to meet our commitments to the business is by having tried and tested practices; we have changed the culture in IT from informal 'best endeavours' activity to providing a professional service based on fully integrated processes used both across the UK and in our India subsidiary; the results of this approach have been transformational." Gary Mason, head of systems development at Allianz Insurance, commented.

The Software Engineering Institute awarded Allianz's Capability Maturity Model integrated (CMMi) certification level five.

Stephen Fletcher, independent SEI/CMMi qualified assessor, said that Allianz Insurance was on its way to becoming a "world class" organisation.

"The quality of implementation is exceptional," he added.