Capita Life & Pensions has closed a deal with Steria for the outsourcing of its IT application development and support services as part of an effort to reduce costs and cut the time involved in processing customer claims.

The insurance group said that the five-year agreement, due to start in early 2010, is also aimed at reducing some of the risk of maintaining life and pensions policy administration.

Steria will be in charge of improving the reliability and stability of the IT applications at Capita Life & Pensions, which expects ultimately to reduce the cost per policy for clients by achieving better customer service standards.

"Our overall objective was to manage our IT expenditure so that we could offer our clients the most cost-effective service possible," said Craig Rodgerson, IT director at Capita Life & Pensions.