Insurance firm Pearl Group has finalised the £486m deal
to outsource its processing and administration to a UK-based
subsidiary of Indian IT services company Tata Consultancy
Services.
The 12-year contract is the biggest business process outsourcing
agreement in the UK life assurance market.
It will involve the transfer of 950 of Pearl’s 1,100 staff to
Diligenta, a UK subsidiary set up by TCS to run the contract. On
taking over the administration of the business, Diligenta will
embark on a project to consolidate Pearl’s 11 administrative and
financial systems onto a single platform.
Jonathan Moss, Pearl Group’s managing director of life services,
said, “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.”
Diligenta is expected to use the contract as a springboard to
expand into the UK onshore outsourcing market.