A US insurer is handing over its entire electronic infrastructure to IBM and AT&T, giving it access to the latest technology while shedding tens of millions of dollars in upfront investment and long-term costs. Property and casualty insurer Fireman's Fund will pay IBM, the world's largest provider of computer services, $157 million for the seven-year contract to supply an automated data centre and 5,200 personal computers.
"This is not just another outsourcing contract," Fred Matteson, chief information officer at Fireman's Fund, said in an interview on Tuesday. "I'm trying to get more flexibility."
California-based Fireman's Fund, a unit of Germany's Allianz AG, said it planned to run its computer operations out of an IBM data center in Boulder, Colorado, and share capacity with a few hundred other IBM corporate customers.
"We are using capacity when we need it and not paying for it when we don't need it," Matteson said.
The network promised Fireman's Fund customer service representatives faster access to data on premiums, claims, insurance quotes and other key customer information, he said.
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