Fireman's Fund has signed multi-million dollar outsourcing contracts that will see AT&T and IBM look after all the IT demands of the US-based property and casualty insurance company.
According to the terms of the first contract, which is said to be worth $42m, AT&T will design and manage Fireman’s Fund’s (FFIC) Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) with the aim of providing faster access to data on premiums, claims, insurance quotes and other critical customer information. It will also implement its Internet Protect, which offers a warning system to potential cyber-security breaches, and AT&T BusinessDirect, a customer support and network management web portal.
In a separate, $157m seven-year contract, IBM will automate the insurer’s key IT functions using its Universal Management Infrastructure and create a technology infrastructure that automatically draws computing power as needed from a shared pool of data center resources.
The new network will support FFIC’s mission-critical applications, expanding the company’s range of services both internally and externally. It will also be able to gain access to a common communications platform reaching 60 different FFIC office locations, which the insurance company hopes will lead to significant time, service and control efficiency.
Fireman’s Fund anticipate saving $33m in telecommunication costs with AT&T, and a further $88m by only paying IBM for the back-end computing power it uses.