The contract, which initially runs for five years, was awarded following an exhaustive competitive tender process that lasted around nine months, according to Océ UK business services director David Lowe.
He said that the team had won the contract based on their deep understanding of Aegon’s business model, which led them to develop a solution that automates a previously manual print management service to improve the insurer’s business processes.
Aegon had been managing their print in-house with the level of automation limited to using envelope opening machines. Lowe said that Aegon had joined a number of financial institutions looking to cut costs and demonstrate efficiency in their mailing and print processes.
The joint Océ and TIS platform uses the latter’s eFlow Digital Mailroom system, which recognises the content of the mail documents and remembers different document templates after initial processing to reduce processing time and extend the capabilities of the system.
The firm will use four industrial-strength scanners and five dedicated fax lines for inbound mail, OCR intelligence to classify documents for prioritisation, while HR documents will be managed with no human interaction.
TIS UK managing director Barry Richards said: "This complex, automated processing lets Aegon efficiently offer an extremely wide range of sophisticated financial and insurance services to a virtually unlimited amount of customers."
Six Océ staff will work in Aegon’s print room at its head office in Edinburgh, producing immediate print needed by the client, including powerpoints and materials for meetings and presentations.
Lowe said approximately 55 staff were working on the project altogether, the remainder of which will be based at Océ’s Livingston facility, 15 miles west of Edinburgh.
The Océ team will re-engineer Aegon’s print system based on information taken from the company’s IT data, including redesigning the mail format and outbound print services. Océ has reconfigured the delivery system so that all mail arrives at the centralised Livingston location, where it is scanned and sorted through recognition codes.
Lowe said he was impressed with the time and effort TIS had invested in the bid process, adding that they had formed a strong partnership as a result of the contract.
He added: "The quality of the work that TIS has done with us through this particular project and the relationship between the two teams has made us keen to look at replicating this platform for other financial services customers who might be using similar processes to Aegon.
"Thanks to the excellent reference case at Aegon, we see a great opportunity for joint TIS-Océ business, across the UK as well as elsewhere in Europe and across the globe."
