Diligenta secures a landmark open-book deal for Friends Provident International (FPI)

Deal demonstrates Diligenta’s capability to support open-book and international Life and Pensions markets.

London | Mumbai, August 19, 2014: Diligenta, a leading Life and Pensions BPO provider in the UK and a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, today announced that it has secured a new multi-million pound, multi-year contract with Friends Life Management Services Limited (Friends Life) for its International operation.

Under the terms of this deal, Diligenta will configure and implement TCS BaNCS, a globally acclaimed core platform, to support the international operations of Friends Life - Friends Provident International. The solution for Friends Provident International will be built to leverage functional richness of the TCS BaNCS platform. This will provide multi-geography, multi-time zone and multi-currency capability, which will help Friends Provident International deliver seamless service for customers across markets in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. This innovative platform will also support the growth strategy of Friends Provident International by introducing new products at faster pace.

Phiroz Vandrevala, Managing Director & Vice Chairman of Diligenta and Director, TCS said “This is a landmark deal for Diligenta, which demonstrates our capability to support new business for the international life insurance, savings and investments market. We look forward to developing this long-term partnership with Friends Provident International to help transform their international operations.”

John Van Der Wielen, CEO International at Friends Life, said “This new deal will enable us to streamline our systems, improve services to our customers and put us in a strong position to continue growing new business. We are delighted to be embarking on this partnership with Diligenta, given its proven track record with its unique platform capability and expertise in the Life and Investments market.“

Suresh Menon, CEO Diligenta said “Diligenta’s track record of successfully migrating over 6 million Life and Pensions policies on to our industry-leading, platform solution TCS BaNCS, contributed directly to this win. We are proud that FPI has chosen to partner with Diligenta and we will work together to help support their growth strategy.”

About Diligenta
Diligenta, TCS’ UK FCA regulated subsidiary was established in 2005 to specialise in the provision of business process outsourcing (BPO) services for the UK Life & Pensions industry and currently administers circa 6.5 million live policies on behalf of its clients. In 2006, Diligenta secured its first £486 million deal with the Phoenix Group (formerly known as the Pearl Group). Since then, Diligenta has secured a number of new clients in the Life and Pensions sector, including a 15 year deal with Friends Life worth $2.2 billion (£1.37 million) which commenced March 2012 to support its UK-based closed and open book operations. To date, Diligenta has successfully accomplished the migration of over 6 million live and out of force policies onto its unique, industry-leading, platform capability, TCS BaNCS. For more information, visit us at www.diligenta.co.uk

About Friends Life
Friends Life provides pensions, investments and insurance for over five million customers. Our key business lines are corporate benefits, protection and retirement income. Friends Life is the brand name of the Friends Life Group plc.

Our heritage dates back to 1810, with Friends Provident being founded in 1832 to help alleviate the hardship of Quaker families facing misfortune. Other brands in the Friends Life Group include:

Friends Provident International, which provides life assurance, savings and investment products to Asia the Middle East and other selected markets.
fpb AG, a wholly owned distribution partner in Germany.
Lombard, a Luxembourg-based company which specialises in the use of life assurance as a wealth management solution for high net-worth investors.
Sesame Bankhall Group, which was formed in 2009, combining an IFA network, support service provider and mortgage club, to create a large distributor of professional support services to financial advisers.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™,recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 285,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $11.6 billion for year ended March 31, 2013 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

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