  |
||
|
Aon and Xchanging Announce Partnership with Initial 10-Year Service Contract Worth £230 Million
LONDON, 10 August 2006 – Aon Limited, a leading insurance broking and risk management specialist, and Xchanging, the business processing services company, have announced a partnership with an initial 10-year service contract, effective from 1 September 2006. The ground-breaking deal, involving the outsourcing of Aon’s Client Operations division (which handles current and legacy insurance claims administration and processing, as well as accounting and settlement for clients within Aon’s reinsurance division and its specialist and wholesale units), will transform and evolve the way Aon conducts its business in the London insurance market, allowing it to focus on its core areas of expertise and deliver differentiated levels of service to its clients. The initiative further demonstrates Aon’s and Xchanging’s status as leaders in London market reform. Cambridge Solutions Ltd, a leading offshore process and technology skills company, is the incumbent off-shore service provider to Aon UK for claims processing. Cambridge continues to be the exclusive supplier and will expand the offshore services it provides to the new Xchanging/Aon partnership. Cambridge’s portion of this contract amounts to £49 Million (Rs.4,339 Million) over the ten year period. As part of the agreement, more than 500 employees, based primarily in Romford, Leicester and Glasgow, will transfer from Aon to Xchanging. The partnership agreement is based on Xchanging’s unique Enterprise Partnership model* approach to the outsourcing, which is designed to handle complexity, minimise any disruption and to start-up with an ‘as is’ business as usual for Aon, while assuming the delivery risk and ensuring guaranteed savings to Aon. The partnership will also leverage the significant talents and capabilities of the transferring employees in order to create a platform to offer market-facing services to the London Market and the larger insurance industry. Commenting on the appointment of Xchanging David Mead, Group Operations Director, Aon Limited, said, "Our strategy at Aon is the realignment of our business more closely around our client needs and core areas of expertise. By partnering with Xchanging we will improve the overall client experience; delivering greater levels of service and efficiency, while offering our transferring employees the opportunity to work with Xchanging, a world-class business processing services company. "After an exhaustive selection process for the right partner we decided that Xchanging’s business servicing approach offered us the best proposition in terms of scope, ability and expertise. Together we look forward to the Partnership contributing to a fully integrated and optimised London Market that will benefit all parties. This move by Aon further reinforces our credentials as a leader and innovator in the London Market." Clive Buesnel, Executive Director at Xchanging, said of the deal, "Aon is a very important and exciting win for Xchanging. It’s a great partnership and a landmark for us, Aon and the industry. It optimises the value chain and as a result we will be able to transform the way business processing is done in the London market, thereby strengthening London’s competitiveness in an increasingly global insurance market. We are absolutely delighted to be providing processing services for yet another premier global brand, adding Aon to our portfolio of long-term partners who, like Aon, are all leaders in their industries." Satyen Patel, Executive Vice Chairman, Cambridge Solutions Ltd. said, "We consider this innovative partnership to be a ground-breaking one. It leverages the complementary strengths of each partner effectively and provides continuity to an established offshore-outsourcing relationship that Cambridge Solutions Ltd. enjoys with Aon UK. More importantly, Cambridge now looks forward to working with Xchanging to service the broader London Insurance Market.” - ENDS - For more information contact: About Aon This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Xchanging About Xchanging With over 200 customers worldwide who are leaders in insurance, financial services, manufacturing and retail, and over 4,000 employees, Xchanging operates in 14 countries and 50 regulatory regimes. Our achievements include the processing of Euro 90bn of insurance business for the London Insurance Market annually; the management of 450,000 insurance claims a year totalling Euro15bn; the processing of two million securities transactions a day with a value of Euro 2.5bn for Deutsche Bank, Sal. Oppenheim, Citibank and Sparda-Banken; the provision of human resources services to 1.25 million staff and their dependants; and supply contracts for Euro5.5bn of spend for BAE Systems, United Biscuits, Honeywell, Boots, Carlson Wagonlit and others. * Reference in the Release to Xchanging’s Xchanging is backed by General Atlantic LLC, a leading global private equity firm, providing capital for growth companies driven by information technology or intellectual property. Founded in 1980, General Atlantic manages approximately US$ 10 billion, investing between US$ 800 million and US$ 1 billion per year in growth, recapitalisation and buy-out opportunities worldwide. GA combines its global approach and long-term investment horizon to partner actively with management in building outstanding companies. Cambridge Solutions Ltd About Cambridge Solutions Ltd The Company employs over 3,600 professionals serving customers on four continents through over 80 locations worldwide. With offices in the USA, UK, India Singapore, and Australia, Cambridge serves Fortune 500 firms, insurance and financial services companies, and public entities around the world. The company’s BPO subsidiary was named one of the top three performing BPO companies by Global Services media and neoIT in 2006, and was recently ranked as the 28th leading outsourcing company in the world in the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP)’s “2006 Global Outsourcing 100” list, that appeared in a special advertising section in Fortune Magazine. The Company is listed on the major stock exchanges of India (BSE, NSE, MSE & ASE) under the ticker “CAMBRIDGE”. For more information, visit: www.cambridgeworldwide.com. |
||
|
