Laurentian Bank of Canada announced last week it has begun turning over its IT operations to CGI as part of a $300-million outsourcing agreement between the bank and CGI.
Under the agreement signed on June 4 Laurentian Bank delegates the development and management of its information technology services to CGI for the next ten years while the Bank will continue to oversee all aspects of systems architecture, technological orientations, information security and projects as well as services agreement management.
The agreement covers services such as project development, application maintenance and evolution, production management, operations support, network management, technology deployment, and technical support and automated banking machine network.
In the context of the reform of the banking and financial services sectors, Laurentian Bank said it wants to maintain its technological lead. Technology also gives the Laurentian Bank the ability to develop value-added products, such as banking and financial packages and dedicated Web sites, that are tailored to the needs of the clients of its business lines and subsidiaries, the bank said.
The Laurentian Bank said it has taken care to do business with an established company that provides advantageous working conditions and unmatched career and personal development opportunities to its employees. Nearly 150 persons currently working in information technology services will be offered positions with CGI. Through its team of information technology veterans, the Laurentian Bank will continue to oversee all aspects of systems architecture, technological orientations, information security and projects and service agreement management.
Laurentian Bank already outsources various activities, including data processing and operation of its telecommunications network. These outsourcing agreements will remain in effect.
The agreement includes the issuing of 1,118,210 shares of CGI to Laurentian Bank, under which the Bank is entitled to subscribe, until June 12, 2006, at a price of $8.877 a share.
Laurentian Bank can be reached at http://www.laurentianbank.com. CGI’s head office is in Montreal and can be reached at http://www.cgi.ca.