Insurance firm Pearl Group has outsourced its processing and administration to Indian IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in a deal worth £486m over 12 years.
Under the agreement, TCS will establish a subsidiary company to employ about 950 of Pearl’s 1,100 staff, with the remainder retained by Pearl to work in its life and pensions business.
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Phiroz Vandrevala, global head of corporate affairs at TCS, said the firm plans to take over Pearl’s Peterborough office and establish a business process outsourcing centre of excellence for the UK, initially managing four million insurance policies.
Samad Masood, an analyst with IT research firm Ovum, said the Pearl deal was the largest example to date of an offshore outsourcing provider taking on “onshore” staff, and it illustrated the high level of acceptance of Indian IT services companies among UK employers.
