One of NSBI's goals is “to establish Nova Scotia as a global center for financial services middle and back office operations by leveraging our technology talent with our insurance expertise,” says J.P. Robicheau, director of financial services and nearshore solutions for NSBI, “but we need insurance carriers to understand the outsourcing opportunities we have here.”

Insurance-focused vendors like CGI and Keane. Inc., an NTT Data Company, have operations in Halifax. They provide resources, agile method expertise, and system staging environments to North American carriers. According to Jay MacIsaac, senior vice president for CGI's Atlantic Canada, “The Halifax operation began as an application development and maintenance effort for Manulife.” As a result, “we have enormous depth in insurance knowledge and cover the spectrum for system related projects, from managers to developers. We crack the language, culture and insurance knowledge barrier and we're in the same time zone.”

Chris Donnelly, assistant vice president and chief regulatory counsel for Manulife, agrees. “We've continued to grow our resource commitment in Halifax largely due to the quality of staff there, and through our relationship with CGI,” he said. “The Halifax team is highly skilled and dedicated to the company. Our turnover is lower there than most places.”

Keane's Halifax Solution Center “provides our clients the ability to outsource in stages, so our clients don't need to go so far away initially,” says John Gillis, director of Canada delivery. “Carriers get used to operating in an outsourced solution. After a few years, they can choose to go offshore for greater savings.”

Keane also hosts Agile Centers of Excellence in Halifax. These are “the gurus of the agile project method,” says Gillis. “They provide training to companies new to distributed agile teams as well as the resources agile requires.”

CGI and Keane's Halifax operations are competitive with offshore rates. Gillis describes Keane's as “somewhere in-between the U.S. and offshore.” MacIsaac is quick to caution rate card comparisons and references the difference between senior resources in India vs. Halifax.

“We expect more from a senior for time on the job and insurance understanding,” MacIsaac says, “and we're skilled in multiple programming languages.” He also believes there is a difference in what an insurer is paying for. “With offshore you're typically renting a body; with nearshore you're buying an output,,” he says.

BF&M Limited is the holding company for a group of financial services companies based in Bermuda. John Wight, their CEO, found Nova Scotia accidentally. “In 2004 we needed a backup site to store data. A consultant recommended Nova Scotia. Since that time we've grown to 27 employees working from our Halifax office for system support and application development. Our people are highly motivated, understand insurance and hit the ground running.”

BF&M, CGI and Keane worked with NSBI to set up shop in Nova Scotia or to facilitate outsourcing deals. What started small for each company has grown because of the affordability, work ethic and culture of the resource pool. John Wight sums up the opportunity succinctly. “Whenever we need a technology resource we ask ourselves, 'what about Nova Scotia?'”