Not Fantastic News for Cedar Rapids

I feel terrible for all of the 882 Cedar Rapids employees that are directly impacted by the news below. I interviewed with Transamerica during the job search of 2016. I really have zero idea as to whether or not I would have been impacted by this news, had I been hired by them. When I read this news, I said a prayer to God, thanking him for making me not be their choice for that role! Here is the full story:

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Tata to take over policy administration for Transamerica  

	Transamerica's North Campus in Cedar Rapids, which will be the location of Tata Consultancy Services' new operating hub.

Transamerica plans to transfer administration of its insurance and annuity business lines to Tata Consultancy Services in a move that will affect about 882 Cedar Rapids employees.

The move will enable Transamerica to enhance its digital capabilities and modernize its service platform to customers, the company said. It will shift as many as 2,200 Transamerica employees to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) nationally, and bring a new TCS North American insurance hub for business operations to Cedar Rapids.

Worth about $2 billion in revenue, the third-party administration agreement was an outgrowth of the One Transamerica initiative to streamline operations and increase cost efficiency at the company. It will initially generate about $70 million in annual savings, according to company officials. The cost savings are expected to grow over time to $100 million.

TCS will offer employment to Transamerica employees in Cedar Rapids; Baltimore, Maryland; Little Rock, Arkansas; Plano, Texas; and St. Petersburg, Florida. Most will continue to work in existing Transamerica facilities.

In Cedar Rapids, TCS will create a new operating hub in the Transamerica North Campus off Edgewood Road, Transamerica spokesman Kyle Frette said. It is an older facility that the company had planned to vacate as part of plans to consolidate its Cedar Rapids operations at its Transamerica Financial Park on C Street SW.

About 882 of the 3,080 employees of Aegon Asset Management (AAM) and Transamerica in Cedar Rapids will be offered positions by TCS, Mr. Frette said. The transition is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2018, and will reduce the local employment of AAM and Transamerica to 2,198.

Employees to be offered TCS employment will be in functional areas of "customer service, claims and all the different areas that support the policy, from the sale to the claim," Mr. Frette said.

TCS, headquartered in Mumbai, India, is part of Tata Group. Mr. Frette said the company was selected for the partnership after a "rigorous and very careful" search, and that TCS' extensive experience in insurance was a major consideration.

"Every decision was made with our customers at the forefront of our considerations," Mr. Frette said.

In a press release, TCS' Suresh Muthuswami said, "This agreement marks TCS' entry into a highly specialized U.S. insurance third-party administration marketplace and will establish TCS BaNCS as a formidable digital platform for the U.S. insurance industry, following its stellar global track record over the past decade."

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I hope each of the 882 employees come through this with a job.