The Hindu Business Line : HCL Tech bags National Insurance contract

Software exporter HCL Technologies Ltd has pipped larger rivals, TCS and Wipro, to clinch a large CIS (core insurance solution) implementation deal from the public sector National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL).

Sources said HCL and TCS were short-listed in the price bids. However, HCL was awarded the contract in view of its lower bid price, sources said.

NICL has allocated close to Rs 400 crore for the roll-out of the CIS over two years. At least, Rs 200 crore is expected to be released in the first year.

The first phase of the roll-out, covering a fourth of the insurance company’s 965 offices, would be completed by July 2009, while the entire roll-out is expected to be completed by April 2010. Sources at HCL Tech confirmed the development, but details were not available. The outlay covers both software application and hardware for NICL’s offices in the country.

State-owned entities such as NIC are increasingly looking at deploying core insurance solutions to automate and standardise their processes which, in turn, reduces their costs and equips them to handle the competition from private sector players.

CIS compliance

Almost all the private sector companies are currently CIS-compliant. CIS allows for policy renewals from any branch office and enables faster claims settlements. CIS also allows subsequent upgradations with online payment of insurance premium, through the branch offices as well as through the bancassurance partners of NICL, the sources said.

Last year United India Insurance, another state-owned entity, deployed a core insurance solution in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard as part of a Rs 100-crore seven-year deal. Oriental Insurance Company Ltd has deployed ICICI subsidiary, 3i InfoTech’s CIS platform.

First large domestic win

The NIC deal is one of the first large wins for HCL Tech in the domestic market, where it has a limited exposure. Many large outsourcing deals are emerging from the domestic IT market in sectors such as Government, telecom, retail, banking and insurance as companies deploy technology to cut costs and take on competition.

Multinational companies such as IBM and Accenture dominated the Indian IT outsourcing market till recently. However, with the slowing growth from their overseas customers, large Indian IT exporters such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro have started chasing deals in the Indian market.

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