SA Eagle signs further three-year outsource contract with BTN

Local insurance giant SA Eagle has extended its outsourcing agreement with Bytes Technology Networks (BTN) for a further three years, in a deal worth approximately R35 million.

SA Eagle is a member of the Zurich financial services group and operates in both the domestic and commercial short-term insurance market. The company works almost exclusively through brokers and has a network of offices throughout SA as well as subsidiary companies in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The original outsourcing contract commenced in 1998 and was focused on management of SA Eagle`s WAN and LAN facilities. The engagements were based on a three-year term with the provision being made that the two parties could extend the deal should the relationship work out to be a beneficial one.

Says Keith Newnham, SAE IT manager production services: "Based on the success of the initial contract we signed with BTN, the renewal of the outsource arrangement was a logical move for us. The original agreement was to just handle the LAN and WAN but with time and by the nature of an outsource agreement, the original brief to BTN has changed dramatically."

BTN deployed Centennial at SA Eagle as an asset management and tracking tool, thus further extending the two companies` relationship and providing the company with a single view of all of the IT infrastructure, software and assets within the company. Newnham adds that the outsource is structured such that management and service delivery ownership is retained internally, with BTN providing the required skills and resources to effect service delivery. It`s a partnership that works because of BTN`s willingness to work alongside other SA Eagle support partners.

Mark Neille, General Manager IT, states that he sees the BTN team as an extension of his own team as opposed to the traditional model, which is designed to take over his own team. One of the key benefits to Neille is that with BTN handling the day to day running of the IT network and services, his team is freed up to be able to focus on business requirements and to react to changes within both the overall business and IT environments.

Says Patrick Hastings, Regional Director of BTN Gauteng: "Our goal with all of our clients is to move through the value chain from being a box dropping reseller to be a trusted advisor. The relationship with SA Eagle is a prime example of exactly that, as our service to the customer has evolved extensively over the last three years to reflect not only the changing needs of the client but also the length and breadth of our service delivery.

"The SA Eagle partnership is a prime example of how an IT company can also learn from its clients and internalise that which it learns through trial and error back into its own business model. The extension of the partnership between our two companies is a real testimony to us and we are proud to be associated with a company of the calibre of SA Eagle."

The new agreement will run through to July 2007.