Delta Lloyd, the sixth largest insurer in the Netherlands, turned to CGI in 2005 to manage its information technology and communications (ICT) environment for a period of five years. Thanks to the successful results of the partnership, the original contract was renewed three times, finally concluding in January 2016, with the client’s strategic objectives met and high client satisfaction scores achieved.

The challenge

Delta Lloyd’s direct writing division, OHRA, had a COBOL-based ICT environment that required ongoing maintenance and enhancement, including increased automation and the reduction of legacy systems, while OHRA prepared to transition to a more modern ICT environment. OHRA decided to outsource the management of its environment to CGI to achieve not only these objectives, but also to benefit from improved ICT processes while re-directing internal resources to focus more on core business processes. In addition, OHRA wanted to provide its ICT employees with more career opportunities.

The solution

OHRA chose CGI because of CGI’s existing long-term partnership with Delta Lloyd and its unique approach for transitioning OHRA employees to the CGI team, as well as managing the overall environment. CGI formed a team of CGI and OHRA employees and smoothly assumed responsibility for the environment, implementing effective processes. In addition, with other similar mainframe outsourcing contracts in operation, CGI was able to pull in other resources as needed to meet OHRA’s evolving business requirements.

The key strength of the OHRA contract and the reason for its continued renewal and 10+ year duration was the close collaboration between CGI and OHRA. CGI instituted processes that ensured daily contact between the CGI account manager and OHRA ICT manager to ensure issues were quickly identified and resolved and the right solutions were selected and implemented. 

CGI also provided monthly reports on key performance indicators (KPIs), potential bottlenecks and an overall summary of progress, along with end-of-project evaluations to review successes and lessons learned. This level of collaboration ensured consistent service excellence and high client satisfaction.

In addition, the CGI team took a highly proactive approach to maintenance, not waiting for incidents to occur, but instead working to identify and address potential issues in advance. The team also flexibly responded to the need to accommodate scope changes and work extended hours.

The results

CGI’s work led to the smooth phase-out of outdated legacy systems, which enabled OHRA to drastically reduce the size of its ICT staff and transition efficiently to a more modern ICT environment. The process and system enhancements proposed by the CGI team also led to significant cost savings and other benefits such as reduced customer inquiries to OHRA call centers. For example, in managing the phase-out of one particular system, the CGI proposed a phase-out solution that enabled OHRA to recover past due debts from customers in the amount of more than one million euros.

In addition, by transitioning OHRA employees to its team, CGI ensured valuable knowledge retention that led to a quick and seamless changeover of responsibilities and a highly knowledgeable and adept team. Special HR initiatives also were implemented to motivate the team, which resulted in consistently high productivity. For example, OHRA employees that transitioned to the CGI team were able to continue working in the same location, and CGI provided succession planning, ensuring that employees responsible for phased-out systems were given other career opportunities.

Results generated from the contract led to high client satisfaction scores, including a 9.5/10 for client commitment and a perfect score of 10 for availability, attitude, collaboration and management.

CGI continues to maintain a small team at OHRA on a time and materials basis and also is working with OHRA on the potential delivery of CGI software solutions to enhance its business.

“CGI delivered at a reasonable cost ongoing software improvements and incident resolution, so that we could focus on our core business goals.” Richard Sanders ICT Director, Delta Lloyd

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