The Hartford’s Data Outsouring Reported to Affect 400 Conn. Jobs

Nearly 400 Connecticut jobs are being affected as The Hartford Financial Services Group outsources data services.

The Hartford has signed a five-year contract with IBM, which will support and maintain systems and data center equipment used to run them. The contract covers databases, applications, storage, backup and recovery.

About 110 employees of The Hartford’s data center in Hartford will lose their jobs and some 280 others will be offered positions with IBM under the outsourcing contract.

IBM will start formal interviews right away to select about 280 people it wants from The Hartford, and those who are chosen will become IBM employees April 1, company spokeswoman Shannon Lapierre said Tuesday.

The people IBM selects will work on The Hartford’s account and remain in the insurer’s local offices. Some of the other roughly 110 employees who aren’t picked by IBM may get other positions with The Hartford.

“The Hartford worked very hard to minimize job impact” on employees and the local economy, Lapierre said.

The Hartford currently has nearly 13,000 employees in Connecticut.

Although 390 workers are affected by the IBM contract, The Hartford plans to keep about 100 other local data center employees, who will continue to do project and problem management.

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Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com