CGI and a group of more than 70 Ontario-based credit unions today announced the signing of a five-year agreement according to which CGI will provide the credit unions with advanced client-server banking system services. This agreement is expected to generate revenue of approximately $50 million over five years, based on the participation of 70 credit unions. The state-of-the-art solution will allow the credit unions to provide their members with greater product consistency and to broaden services offered while reducing their costs and increasing the system's overall efficiency.
"We are pleased to make this enhanced system available to credit unions," said David Agnew, Executive Vice-President and Corporate Secretary at Credit Union Central of Ontario. "As a group, we are joining together to complete the strategic acquisition of a system that places credit unions at the forefront of our industry. With this technology in place, we believe this is the beginning of an important new era for Ontario credit unions."
François Chassé, CGI's Executive Vice-President, Technology Management Services, added that "CGI is pleased that it was selected by Ontario credit unions for its new banking services. We have the ability to provide Ontario credit unions with leading-edge technology and to serve their additional needs in areas such as facilities management and telecommunications network services. Based on our 25-year relationship, we understand credit union requirements and are delighted to renew our partnership to help them achieve their strategic direction."
CGI's NT®-based solution was developed using Prologic Corporation's Ovation® banking system and Probe® technology. Agnew added that the CGI solution was selected on the basis of an extensive comparative analysis of various leading products. "We chose CGI as a partner because its technology was more advanced and for its ability to deliver a total solution without relying on outside partners for complementary expertise," he said.
The system's more advanced architecture and infrastructure will better meet the needs of its credit union members. "One of its advantages is that it is engineered in such a way that other products may be linked to it rather than built into it," added Agnew. "Its extensive scalability will also allow our credit unions to leverage its architecture for as few as one or two workstations or for two hundred."
Following the signing of a master contract binding CGI and the credit union group until December 31, 2003, individual credit unions have begun signing their own service agreements with CGI.
The credit union group is comprised of financial service co-operatives in every part of Ontario. Together, they have assets of well over $5 billion and more than 500,000 members. Credit unions are community-based financial institutions, owned by their members and offering a full range of financial services.
CGI is the largest Canadian-owned independent information technology consulting firm with 4,000 professionals and a revenue run-rate of $500 million. The company's backlog is currently valued at $1.3 billion. It provides end-to-end IT services and business solutions to some 2,000 clients throughout Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. CGI's shares are listed on the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges under the GIB.A symbol.
For more information:
Ronald White
Public Affairs
CGI
(514) 841-3200
