CGI Group [Europe] Limited, a subsidiary of CGI Group Inc., has signed an outsourcing contract in the United Kingdom worth more than CDN$119 million with financial services company, Sun Life Financial.
Under the terms of the contract - which is initially for a seven year period - CGI will run and support all the IT infrastructure including mainframe, midrange, UNIX and NT systems and around 2,000 desktops for Sun Life Financial's UK insurance operations. Additionally, CGI will take on responsibility for supporting voice and data telecommunications for the company's UK branch network of more than 50 offices. Also, 41 employees will be transferred from Sun Life Financial to CGI and will remain at their current location in the company's Basingstoke, England head office where CGI has taken a commercial lease.
Commenting on the agreement, Peter Hanby, UK finance and services director, Sun Life Financial, says, "One of our key corporate objectives in the UK is to reduce administration costs by some 50 per cent and we believe that this contract will significantly contribute towards that target. We evaluated several outsourcing options with a number of major IT services companies within the UK and found that CGI more closely satisfied each of our evaluation criteria. These included cost reduction objectives, flexibility, risk management, and 'cultural fit'. In addition to increasing the cost efficiency of our IT support functions, this outsourcing deal will broaden career development opportunities for our IT staff."
Luc Pinard, executive vice-president and general manager, International at CGI says, "This is an excellent win for CGI, providing a good infrastructure to support our fast growing IT services business across Europe. Combined with other recent global wins, our new partnership with Sun Life Financial will help CGI to realise its objective to provide its full end-to-end IT offering in Europe. This new contract also demonstrates our strong commitment to the financial services market and complements our solutions and service offerings that we bring to the insurance market in particular."
About Sun Life Financial
Tracing its roots back to 1871, Sun Life Financial has grown to become a leading international provider of financial services with total assets under management of $345 billion at September 30, 2000.
The Sun Life Financial group of companies provide a wide range of savings, retirement, pension, and life and health insurance products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, Bermuda and Chile.
About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI is the largest independent Canadian information technology consulting firm and the fifth largest in North America, based on its headcount of close to 10,000 professionals. CGI's order backlog totals approximately CDN$7.0 billion and its revenue stands at CDN$1.4 billion. CGI provides end-to-end IT services and business solutions to 2,500 clients in Canada, United States and more than 20 countries around the world. CGI's shares are listed on the New York Exchange (GIB), as well as on the Toronto Stock Exchange (GIB.A). They are included in the Toronto Stock Exchange's TSE 100 index as well as the S&P/TSE Canadian Information Technology index. Web site: www.cgi.ca.
All statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements represent CGI Group Inc.'s intentions, plans, expectations, and beliefs, and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, of which many are beyond the control of the Company. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements.
These factors include and are not restricted to the timing and size of contracts, acquisitions and other corporate developments, the ability to attract and retain qualified employees, market competition in the rapidly-evolving information technology industry, general economic and business conditions, and other risks identified in Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) in CGI Group Inc.'s annual report or Form 40F filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission and the Company's Annual Information Form filed with Canadian securities commissions. All of the risk factors included in these filed documents are included here by reference. CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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NORTH AMERICAN PRESS ENQUIRIES:
Eileen Murphy
CGI
Director, media relations
Tel: (514) 841-3430
E-mail: eileen.murphy@cgi.ca
UK PRESS ENQUIRIES:
Louisa Constable/Lisa Carter
Portfolio Communications Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7240 6959
E-mail: louisa.constable@portfoliocomms.com
lisa.carter@portfoliocomms.com
