Diligenta bags Rs 788 cr BPO contract

The country's largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) subsidiary Diligenta, a UK-based financial services authority-regulated, has won a business process outsourcing (BPO) contract worth £100 million (Rs 788 crore) from Sun Life Financial of Canada for a period of 10 years.

The services will support Sun Life Financial of Canada (SLF UK) operations and is expected to commence from May 2008. Diligenta has been working with SLF UK as preferred supplier since October 2007, Following a competitive tender which came towards the natural end of SLF UK's existing outsourcing agreement.

Diligenta will continue to run the operation in Basingstoke where SLF UK's Head Office is based.

"Diligenta and TCS will ensure that Sun Life Financial of Canada continues to receive market leading standards of customer service. This contract adds significantly to Diligenta's reputation as a leading player in the UK Life and Pensions outsourcing market," said Phiroz Vandrevala, chairman of Diligenta.

Janet Fuller, Chief Executive of SLF UK, explained, "We have successfully outsourced our customer services operations for over five years. In preparation for the natural end of our existing outsourcing agreement, we undertook a detailed and thorough review of the BPO market in the UK and selected Diligenta for its cost guarantees, risk transfer capability and its commitment to match or exceed our service requirements. We are pleased that Diligenta will continue to run the services from Basingstoke as we are very happy with the quality of people and services provided from the current site."

Diligenta, FSA regulated subsidiary of TCS, a leading global IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm. Since 2006, Diligenta has provided BPO services for the Pearl Group under a 12-year, £486 million contract to consolidate 11 financial and administrative systems onto a single platform.

Shares of TCS were last trading at Rs 863.05, down 0.02 per cent on the BSE.