City of Edinburgh Council awards seven year £186 million transformational ICT outsourcing & digital services contract to CGI

200 new jobs and 60 modern apprenticeships to be created

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LONDON and EDINBURGH, United Kingdom, Aug. 24, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) has been selected by the City of Edinburgh Council to provide transformational outsourced ICT services to enable the Council's introduction of integrated digital services. The contract, valued at £186 million, will facilitate the Council's digital channel shift, while at the same time, delivering anticipated efficiency and cost savings of £45 million over the seven year term.  As well as delivering cost savings, CGI is committing to the development of Edinburgh's economy with the creation of over 200 new jobs and more than 60 modern apprentices as well as investment in social enterprises and community groups. There are options to extend the contract, initially by five years, with further extension options after that period.

As well as delivering digital services for Edinburgh's citizens, encouraging them to carry out transactions online, the city's schools will also benefit from the modernisation of their ICT infrastructure, with an improvement of bandwidth speeds available to primary and secondary schools, providing students with greater access to online educational tools.   

CGI will also update ICT systems across all Council service areas and automate and integrate back-office processes with a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.  The new ERP system will integrate with citizen-facing digital platforms to enable cost reductions and increased capacity, while improving service quality, securing more effective and efficient citizen engagement. The digital self-service platform will be based on a specialist local government platform to enable multi-channel self-service to be integrated with back office systems.

"We are delighted to partner with the City of Edinburgh Council as we embark together on this journey to enable the digital transformation of public services throughout Edinburgh," said Steve Thorn, SVP CGI UK Public Sector. "This is an ambitious programme that will change the way citizens access and use public services and will introduce new ways of working for the Council's employees, ultimately making their jobs more productive and satisfying. This programme will pave the way to improve service delivery more cost effectively that will be a benchmark for other local authorities in the move to delivering digital public services."

"CGI has an established business hub in Edinburgh and we will be expanding to create more jobs to support our engagement with the City of Edinburgh Council and its public sector partners. These roles will cover a wide range of areas and responsibilities from experienced ICT, networking, digital and cyber security professionals, to the creation of over 60 modern apprentices to provide school leavers with the exciting opportunities of a career in ICT with CGI."

Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the City of Edinburgh Council's Finance and Resources Committee, said: "The Council is delighted to be entering into partnership with CGI.  In signing this contract we will transform the way we do business.

"People are at the heart of our organisation whether they are citizens, staff or working in the city's economy.  One of the exciting things CGI will do is to speed up our move to greater online capability giving residents and businesses greater flexibility to engage with the Council and carry out their transactions digitally.  This will make us a more efficient and effective organisation across our wide range of Council services."

As part of CGI's SME Accelerate programme, local small/medium enterprises (SMEs) will be included in CGI's supply chain and this will increase over the lifetime of the contract.  In order to support City of Edinburgh Council's aim to establish itself as leader in local government innovation and adoption of digital platforms to include all citizens and stakeholders, CGI will contribute to a jointly financed innovation fund, which will explore new ideas, and pilot new technology for the benefit of the Council and the citizens of Edinburgh. The innovation programme will provide opportunities for local SMEs to work with CGI to introduce digital and social media services as part of the Council's Digital by Desire strategy.

About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Approximately 68,000 professionals serve thousands of global clients from offices and delivery centers across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, leveraging a comprehensive portfolio of services, including high-end business and IT consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance, and infrastructure management, as well as a wide range of proprietary solutions. With annual revenue in excess of C$10 billion and an order backlog of approximately C$20 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Website: www.cgi.com.

CGI is supporting Team Scotland in the build up to the Commonwealth Games in Australia's Gold Coast in 2018 as official systems integration, BPS and IT outsourcing partner. The company is also reinforcing the artistic partnership of Scotland with Quebec, with sponsorship of Quebec@ Edinburgh 2015 at the Edinburgh Festivals.

Forward-looking statements
All statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. These statements and this information represent CGI's intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs, and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, of which many are beyond the control of the Company. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. These factors include but are not restricted to: the timing and size of new contracts; acquisitions and other corporate developments; the ability to attract and retain qualified members; market competition in the rapidly evolving IT industry; general economic and business conditions; foreign exchange and other risks identified in the press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"), in CGI's Annual Report, and in the Company's Annual Information Form filed with the Canadian securities authorities (filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com), in CGI's Annual Report on Form 40-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed on EDGAR at www.sec.gov), as well as assumptions regarding the foregoing. The words "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "foresee," "plan," and similar expressions and variations thereof, identify certain of such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. In particular, statements relating to future performance are forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or on this forward-looking information.

SOURCE CGI Group Inc.

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