TORONTO, June 13, 2002 – Sun Life Assurance Company of
Canada and IBM Canada Ltd. have signed a Letter of Intent for IBM to manage a portion of
Sun Life Financial’s information technology (IT) infrastructure. The seven-year agreement
is estimated at approximately CDN $250 million and, subject to the completion of
successful negotiations, we would anticipate the execution of a definitive outsourcing
agreement in July 2002.
As part of the agreement, IBM intends to provide
operational services to support Sun Life Financial including: eServer zSeries and iSeries,
E-mail Services and Lotus Notes Applications, Network Security (Firewall and Intrusion
Detection Services), Web Hosting and Disaster Recovery. The outsourcing agreement would
also provide employment opportunities with IBM for approximately 120 Sun Life Financial
employees currently working in the outsourced IT areas.
“The past year has been an exciting one at Sun Life
Financial as we have evolved into one of the largest North American life insurance
organizations measured by market capitalization,” said John Wright, Executive
Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.
“We are integrating our infrastructures, business systems and operations with the
purpose of obtaining business and IT synergies. Outsourcing this range of services to IBM
is a sound and attractive integration strategy, and it will help us to better serve our
customer and business needs.”
“Outsourcing is an effective solution for many
companies looking to realize cost savings and provide better returns for their
shareholders. IBM’s vast resources, industry and research expertise, not only in Canada
but around the world, provide the depth and strategic leadership our customers need,”
said Rick Horton, Vice President, IBM Global Services, IBM Canada Ltd. “IBM is
delighted to be working with Sun Life Financial and further enhance our strong
relationship. “Having IBM integrate data centers and assume service responsibility
will allow Sun Life Financial to focus on business integration while at the same time
realize cost savings. Our solution will also allow the Sun Life Financial employees
joining IBM to continue to work in their current cities, while at the same time provide
new and challenging IT career paths.”
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial
services organization providing a diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection
products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Tracing its roots back to
1871, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide,
including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines,
Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2002, the Sun Life Financial
group of companies had total assets under management of CDN $357 billion.
Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX),
New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol “SLC”
About IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services is the world’s largest information
technology services provider, with approximately 150,000 professionals serving customers
in 160 countries and annual revenue of approximately $35 billion (2001). In Canada, there
are approximately 11,000 IGS employees providing Canadian businesses with the most
innovative IT services in the marketplace today. IBM Global Services integrates IBM’s
broad range of capabilities to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of
information technology. For more information, visit
www.ibm.com/services
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