ING Canada and CGI today announced the signing of a five-year partnership agreement according to which CGI will provide consulting services to support ING Canada in further enhancing its competitive position in the Canadian insurance market.
"ING Canada was seeking an information technology partner with thorough knowledge of the property and casualty insurance industry," said Robert Proulx, Senior Vice-President - Technology and Systems with ING Canada. "We needed a firm with the ability to support us in our rapid growth and assist us in the development of insurance solutions over the coming years. We chose CGI."
Jean Brassard, CGI's President and COO, added that: "ING's decision was based on the fact that in addition to its expertise in insurance and information technology, CGI has a national presence and provides global business solutions that meet the end-to-end needs of its clients on a North American scale."
As part of the project, CGI experts will join ING teams in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, working with Halifax Insurance, Western Union Insurance and Le Groupe Commerce, to support architecture and systems development.
ING Canada is the country's second largest property and casualty insurance company and owns Bélair direct, Halifax Insurance, Le Groupe Commerce and Western Union Insurance. It recently announced the acquisition of general insurer Guardian Insurance Co. of Canada. ING Canada is part of ING Group, a global financial institution of Dutch origin which is active in the field of banking, insurance and asset management in some 60 countries, with over 80,000 employees.
ING seeks to provide a full range of integrated financial services to personal, corporate and institutional clients through a variety of distribution channels, giving them the freedom to choose the option which best suits their individual needs.
CGI is the largest end-to-end IT services provider to the property and casualty insurance industry in Canada and the third largest in North America. The business links established with ING over time, through Teleglobe's Insurance Systems group which CGI acquired in the fall of 1997, have helped pave the way for this partnership agreement.
With the acquisition of Bell Sygma, CGI will have more than 7,500 professionals compared with 4,500 currently, and a revenue-run rate of approximately $1.1 billion.The company's backlog is worth $6 billion. CGI's shares, which are listed on the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges under the GIB.A symbol, are included in The Toronto Stock Exchange's TSE 300 Composite and TSE 200 indexes.
For more information:
Ronald White
Public Affairs
CGI
(514) 841-3200
