Banner secures five-year, seven-figure BPO deal

Banner Managed Communication (BMC) has secured a multimillion-pound five-year deal with a leading insurance provider.

The deal with travel insurance specialist Allianz Global Assistance UK (AGA) encompasses print management, multi-channel marketing communications, policy pack fulfilment and BMC’s Hybrid Mail office document service.

“This is a great win for us,” said BMC managing director Catherine Burke.

“We’re well aware how competitive the outsourcing market is, especially for a brand of AGA’s stature, so it speaks volumes for BMC’s proposition and credentials that we’ve been awarded this contract.”

Prior to the contract, BMC was one of AGA’s ad-hoc suppliers.

“We did sporadic work for them, but it’s only now that they have underscored that bringing all of their requirements together under one collective agreement makes sense,” added Burke.

As part of the contract, a number of Allianz transferred to BMC under TUPE regulations.

“Moving to BMC for these key services will ensure that we have access to levels of expertise, technology and innovation that simply aren’t achievable from a smaller in-house print and fulfilment facility,” said AGA marketing manager Simon Kirby.

“High-quality print and fulfilment services are critical to our business and I’m certain this new model will deliver what’s required to support our future ambitions.”

The contract, which was secured by BMC in a competitive tender process, went live last month. While the precise value of the deal was undisclosed, it’s understood to be worth seven figures across its five-year duration.

“Of course it helped that we had a previous relationship with AGA, but they were particularly pleased with the level of innovation we demonstrated, particularly around Hybrid Mail,” said Burke.

The AGA contract represents a new contract win, separate from BMC’s contract with AGA commercial and retail insurance parent Allianz UK that has been in place since 2007.

This latest win follows April’s £2m, two-year deal with credit finance firm Provident Financial.

The AGA contract will be serviced from BMC’s Guildford production facility, which recently benefited from a £1.5m investment in its digital print capabilities, which included a brace of Xerox iGen 150s.