UK life company Friends Provident has entered a £1 million outsourcing contract with CMG to help ease an IT skills shortage.
Under the agreement, Friends Provident will farm out business analysis and software development across a range of internal IT projects. CMG won the contract in a competitive tender against 14 other technology companies.
David Cooke, IT service centre manager at Friends Provident, says the company has experienced difficulties in recruiting appropriately skilled analysis and development staff for its IT department.
"Added to an increased workload, the staff shortage would have resulted in the IT department not being able to fulfil its existing project commitments" he says. "So, for the first time it has been necessary for us to bring in the help of external IT partners."
Software development is currently being performed by Friends Provident's in-house team of over 200 developers, and some future projects will also be outsourced to its Indian-based IT partner Wipro Technologies.
CMG Admiral will be responsible for business analysis and consultancy across various projects. These assignments include supporting the ongoing demutualisation process at Friends Provident; launching products more quickly; and enhancing its stakeholder pensions offering. CMG Admiral will also work on a project to reduce Friends Provident's back office costs.