BUSINESS: Zurich Financial Outsources Application Development

"We're getting a very, very flexible framework, where we can redeploy our skills and resources almost to any needs we want," said Michael Paravicini, Zurich Financial Services' chief information technology officer. "Secondly, it's about productivity."

Zurich Financial Services, one of the world's largest insurers, has signed seven-year, $1.3 billion outsourcing agreement with Computer Sciences Corp. to hand off new application development and the management of more than 4,000 existing applications.

ZFS's server infrastructure will continue to be managed in-house, but the deal, signed late last month, will transfer about 1,600 of the Zurich-based company's 5,000 IT employees to El Segundo, California-based CSC. About 650 of the employees being transferred are U.S.-based, ZFS said.

U.S. employees and personnel in the U.K. and Switzerland are expected to transfer to CSC in the fourth quarter, and employees in Germany are expected to make the transition during the second half of 2005.

Copyright: By ECT News Syndication Desk