CGI Group (Europe) Ltd., a subsidiary of CGI Group Inc., the largest Canadian IT services company, today announced the signing of a contract worth more than £10 million with If Skadeförsäkring AB (publ) (If), the Nordic-based insurance company.
Under the terms of the new contract, CGI will implement its new Web-enabled insurance solution, GIOS (Global Insurance Open Solution), across all of If's 86 offices in the Nordic Region. The first major If division to implement GIOS will be Commercial Lines in Sweden with Norway, Denmark and potentially Finland to follow. As well as managing the implementation process, CGI is also responsible for providing If with specialist consultancy and staff training.
Commenting on the partnership, Bo Ingemarson, CEO, If said, "As we moved into the 21st century, it became necessary to replace our legacy systems with one unified, Web-enabled solution which would be able to provide us with real flexibility. GIOS will simultaneously unify and simplify our entire administrative processes, for example, reducing the time spent handling claims settlements. We are now confident that we will be able to respond to the fast-moving challenges of our industry."
Under the first phase of the contract, CGI carried out a performance and scalability benchmark project. This demonstrated GIOS's capability at being able to easily manage If's 4,000+ users and over six million policies with more than 50 million insured objects in a demanding user environment.
Covering every aspect of the administration involved in all forms of insurance - including life and non-life - GIOS can easily be adapted to any market and is a multi-language, multi-currency solution. GIOS is capable of managing multiple distribution channels, business-to-business and business-to-client, in addition to maintaining products of multiple companies and supporting all forms of product distribution and servicing.
Ingemarson continued, "One of the primary reasons that we chose GIOS was the possibilities it created for a single Nordic solution. In addition to supporting multiple languages, GIOS can also account for the different local conditions, enabling us to implement a common flexible product across all the Nordic countries. This will greatly streamline our administrative processes, improving the services provided to our customers and ultimately reducing our infrastructure costs."
Gavin Chapman, managing director at CGI in Europe, commented, "This new contract highlights the need for a highly flexible component based solution like GIOS within the insurance market. GIOS is rapidly becoming the leader in its field which, supported by our specialist consultants and complementary services, really positions our customers to achieve competitive advantage both in the insurance market generally and also from a 'cost per policy' perspective. As part of our new partnership with If, we look forward to building a significant presence in the Nordic market."
About If
If P&C insurance is the result of the coordination of two of the largest Nordic-based insurance companies with operations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. If P&C has a leading position in the Nordic property and casualty insurance market. The new company has over 4,000 employees serving over 2.5 million customers. Annual gross premium income 2000 corresponds to 20.5 billion Swedish kronor (CDN $3.2 billion). Based on pro forma figures for 1999, the company's market share in the Nordic P&C insurance market is around 16%.
About CGI
CGI Group (Europe) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of CGI Group Inc. whose world headquarters are located in Montreal, Canada. 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 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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