Zurich Financial Services extends CSC outsourcing deal

The £200m contract will include the provision of IT desktop services to the insurer's businesses in Europe and the US

CSC will play an important role in standardising Zurich's IT

Insurance group Zurich Financial Services has extended its outsourcing deal with supplier CSC with a new six-year agreement adding the provision of desktop services.

Under the extension, valued at $399m (£202m), CSC will cover the group’s IT operations in the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The outsourcer will now support Zurich’s global service desk, local on-site support, software packaging and distribution to approximately 51,000 users, as well as the provision of a globally standardised desktop service environment.

The deal is an extension of the two companies’ existing relationship, which began in 2004 with a seven-year agreement with included application development and support services.

“CSC already provides support for the development and maintenance of our application software and our expanded relationship will allow us to provide a more integrated holistic solution for both our desktop service environment and application support needs,” said Zurich’s chief information technology officer Michael Paravicini.