Insurer broker Aon Limited has signed a ten year service contract with outsourcing specialists Xchanging. It starts 1 September 2006.
The deal, involving the outsourcing of Aon’s Client Operations division (which handles current and legacy insurance claims administration and processing, as well as accounting and settlement for clients within Aon’s reinsurance division and its specialist and wholesale units) will transform the way Aon conducts its business in the London insurance market. Aon says outsourcing to Xchanging willl allow it to focus on its core areas of expertise and deliver differentiated levels of service to its clients.
Cambridge Solutions Ltd, an offshore process and technology company, is the incumbent off-shore service provider to Aon UK for claims processing. Cambridge will continue to be the exclusive supplier, and will expand the offshore services it provides to the new Xchanging/Aon partnership.
As part of the agreement, more than 500 employees, based primarily in Romford, Leicester and Glasgow, will transfer from Aon to Xchanging.
The partnership agreement is based on what Xchanging calls its Enterprise Partnership model, which is designed to handle complexity, minimise any disruption and to start-up with an ‘as is’ business as usual for Aon, while assuming the delivery risk and ensuring guaranteed savings to Aon.
The partnership is also something of a lift-out, since XChanging promises that it will “leverage the significant talents and capabilities of the transferring employees in order to create a platform to offer market-facing services to the London Market and the larger insurance industry.”
David Mead, Group Operations Director, Aon Limited, says the deal reflects the desire at Aon to “realign” the business around client needs and core areas of expertise. “By partnering with Xchanging we will improve the overall client experience; delivering greater levels of service and efficiency, while offering our transferring employees the opportunity to work with Xchanging, a world-class business processing services company,” he says. “After an exhaustive selection process for the right partner we decided that Xchanging’s business servicing approach offered us the best proposition in terms of scope, ability and expertise. Together we look forward to the Partnership contributing to a fully integrated and optimised London Market that will benefit all parties. This move by Aon further reinforces our credentials as a leader and innovator in the London Market.”