 "IT major Wipro bags £500 million, 10-year deal with UK's Phoenix Group")
Information Technology (IT) services major Wipro on Wednesday announced that it had won a £500 million (around ₹5,500 crore), 10-year strategic deal with Phoenix Group, the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business. This will be one of the biggest publicly announced deals for Wipro since 2020.
As part of this transformational initiative, a number of Phoenix employees will transition to Wipro. The exact number was not disclosed.
The project is designed to deliver life and pension business administration for the ReAssure business and accelerate Phoenix Group’s operational transformation.
Andy Briggs, Phoenix Group’s chief executive officer (CEO) said: “Wipro's expertise in technology and service makes them ideally placed to help us deliver outstanding service and value for our ReAssure customers on their journey to and through retirement.” Under the terms of the deal, Wipro’s existing FCA-regulated entity, Wipro Financial Outsourcing Services Limited (WFOSL), will deliver comprehensive life and pension administration services to Phoenix’s ReAssure customers.
These services will encompass policy administration, claims processing, customer service support, data management and reporting, compliance and regulatory support.
“This engagement with Phoenix Group marks an important milestone in the evolution of our work with financial institutions in UK,” said Omkar Nisal, CEO, Europe, Wipro Limited and non-executive chairman, WFOSL.
Wipro will also strengthen its UK presence by establishing additional technology and operational service hubs. These hubs will be supported by a team of experts from both Phoenix Group and Wipro.
They will work collaboratively to further enhance customer experience.
more than 8 million existing Phoenix policies will be on BaNCS and TCS Diligenta will continue through their new business capabilities to play a critical role in delivering the long-term growth and customer ambitions of Phoenix,” said the statement from Phoenix Group.
Nagendra Bandaru, managing partner and global head —technology services — Wipro, said, “This strategic engagement with Phoenix Group reflects our commitment to leveraging our deep transformation expertise around process and technology — including Cloud, data, and AI — to drive increased operational agility for clients in the financial services sector. We are thrilled to partner with Phoenix Group at this critical juncture of their transformation journey and support them as they look to navigate an ever-evolving digital landscape.”
As part of the engagement, Wipro will assume management of the core policy administration ALPHA platform, modernising it with AI, automation, Cloud, and digital transformation technologies. This modernisation initiative will ensure the platform is future-ready, enhancing efficiency, and delivering superior customer experiences for Phoenix Group policyholders.
Wipro will also strengthen its UK presence by establishing additional technology and operational service hubs.
These hubs will be supported by a team of experts from both Phoenix Group and Wipro. They will work collaboratively to further enhance customer experience.
Contours of the deal
>Wipro to deliver comprehensive life and pension administration services to Phoenix Group’s ReAssure customers
>Services to include policy administration, claims processing, customer service support, among others
>Firm to modernise Phoenix’s core policy admin platform, making it future-ready
>Some Phoenix employees will transition to Wipro; exact number undisclosed