Manulife USA Ups CSC Pact

Building on a long-standing relationship, Manulife USA (Boston) awarded a seven-year, $80 million applications outsourcing contract to CSC Corp. (Austin, TX). CSC will provide management and production support for its VANTAGE-ONE enterprise life insurance and annuity administration engine and PerformancePlus distribution management system. The contract builds on existing outsourcing services.

In combination with a contract signed last year for the AWD workflow piece, the present agreement completes "the cornerstone of our core e-commerce, workflow annuity processing system," says Mark Rizza, CIO of Manulife USA's annuity division. "We signed a long-term deal to get core record-keeping systems in place for stability purposes and so that we can improve on our infrastructure in total."

From CSC's perspective, the contract is "an affirmation of when you find the right mix of people and the ability to deliver," according to Jon Taute, global account executive. Though the roots of the relationship go back 15 years, since Rizza's assumed responsibility in February 2000, "he has been...taking it to a next generation," Taute says.