Diligenta seals £486m deal with Pearl Group
Peterborough, April 25th, 2006
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) subsidiary Diligenta today announces that is has entered the UK Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Life Assurance market having secured a £486 million deal with Pearl, the Peterborough based closed fund group. Diligenta will provide BPO services over an initial 12 year period for Pearl Group Ltd in processing and administration.
Diligenta is a UK based, FSA regulated subsidiary of TCS, the world-leading information technology consulting, services, and business process outsourcing organisation. It will offer similar services to other life companies, presenting it with an opportunity for significant future growth as BPO becomes increasingly prevalent in the UK Life Assurance industry.
David Power, Diligenta's CEO commented, "We are delighted Pearl has chosen Diligenta. Diligenta is in a great position as it combines an in-depth knowledge of UK Life Assurance with the proven IT and delivery capability of one of the world's top IT service, consulting and BPO firms, TCS."
Over the course of the 12 year deal, Diligenta will leverage TCS' IT expertise and consolidate 11 financial and administrative systems onto a single platform.
Jonathan Moss, Managing Director Life Services in Pearl Group, said, "This is a start of a new chapter in Pearl's history and is good news all around for customers, shareholders and staff. The new arrangements provide certainty over a major portion of the cost base well into the future. This is very important protection for policyholders because over the long term the unit cost per policy will be maintained at competitive levels".
Moss added: "We went through a rigorous process to select Diligenta and are delighted that they will build a UK centre of Excellence in Peterborough. The transfer process has been smooth and we look forward to working together."
"Given the groundbreaking deal with Pearl, TCS is now a serious player in the insurance BPO space, said Catherine Schmitt, senior analyst at research firm Celent. "The launch of Diligenta highlights TCS's ability to deliver core back office services to the industry using local skill sets, which is key for the European markets. Diligenta places TCS firmly on the list of BPO providers to be considered for large complex insurance BPO deals',
"TCS has created the Diligenta centre of excellence around the Pearl Group operation in Peterborough," said Anders Maehre, Datamonitor. "This initial deal sees TCS enter the UK Life Assurance BPO market with the single biggest outsourcing contract of its kind. Diligenta's business proposition of predominantly onshore operational capability combined with TCS' global transformational expertise aims to attract further open and closed book business."
With circa one thousand staff, the Peterborough office will be a centre of excellence providing the foundation for the company's development and expansion.
David Power concluded, "Winning the Pearl deal immediately gives Diligenta a major market share in the UK. Our aim is to grow the business and expand in this developing UK market to become the market leader within 3 years."
About Diligenta
Diligenta is a UK based, FSA regulated subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the world leading IT consulting, services and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organisation. Diligenta has been created by TCS to specialise in providing BPO services to the UK Life Assurance Industry. Diligenta is creating a 'utility model' in BPO, providing its customers with cost-effective yet flexible transformational solutions driving real business value.
About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is the world leading information technology consulting, services, business process outsourcing and engineering services organisation that envisioned and pioneered the adoption of the flexible global business practices that today enable companies to operate more efficiently and produce more value. TCS achieved this by creating and perfecting a unique method of global deployment and delivery of high quality, high value services and products in IT consulting and business process outsourcing. Known as the "Global Delivery Model," this strategic services delivery concept has reshaped the IT services industry.
More than 95% of TCS customers reward the company's reliability, passion, creativity, and unique ability to handle the broadest range of their IT needs by continually extending and deepening their partnerships with TCS. With over 50,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants located in 34 countries, TCS is uniquely positioned to deliver its flexible world class services seamlessly to any location. TCS reported consolidated revenues of $2.24 billion (U.S.) in the fiscal year 2004-2005. The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information: www.tcs.com
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