Financial services giant transforms application delivery through HCL

Netherlands-based financial services firm Aegon has signed an agreement with Indian supplier HCL to support its aim of being digital-first for its 29 million customers.

The five-year deal will see HCL support Aegon’s digital transformation through application services, which includes building and managing an ecosystem of suppliers.

Ecosystems of software suppliers, including fintechs and insurtechs, are increasingly important for large financial services firms as they attempt to keep up with digital developments in the sector. This involves working with many small companies.

“Our business strategy is centred on digital-first, which is paramount to our ability to drive service innovation, attract new customers and drive efficiencies,” said Anke Schlichting, CTO at Aegon. “As a result, it is crucial that we continue to accelerate time to market and have a vendor ecosystem that gives us access to the best capabilities the industry has to offer.”

The deal aims to improve application lifecycle management and automation for Aegon, which HCL has already worked with for 14 years to deliver IT services.

Schlichting added: “We have established a strong relationship with HCL over the years and its intimate knowledge of our business is an important pillar underlying our partnership. HCL’s in-depth understanding of the vendor ecosystem and significant experience being part of multi-vendor environments for other major global organisations were the key deciding factors.”

HCL has announced a string of European deals with financial services firms in recent months. For example, Barclays Bank recently expanded its relationship with the firm and Deutsche Bank said it was working with HCL to replace manual and paper-intensive cheque-processing methods with an automated system in the cloud.