Phoenix Group, who took over a large proportion of Standard Life, has confirmed an “enlarged partnership” with leading technology and service provider TCS.

The company said that the partnership will “bring together the strengths of Standard Life Assurance Limited, Phoenix and TCS” and “enable further digital and technology capabilities to be developed”.

The company did not disclose information about any job cuts but did say that a number of Standard Life Assurance employees will transfer to TCS by the end of the transformation.

However, the BBC reported that when pressed on the issue, a spokeswoman said the reduction in payroll could be “around the mid-hundreds” over the next three years, while the company will try to minimise compulsory redundancies.

Discussing the investment in automation, Susan McInnes, CEO of Standard Life Assurance, said: “Working in partnership with TCS will support our growth strategy in the workplace market and bring benefits to workplace clients and scheme members. It will accelerate our ability to innovate and efficiently evolve our proposition in the future, whilst continuing to deliver excellent customer service.”