2.8 As SBS did not complete the business transformation programme to plan, it is employing more staff than expected at this stage in the contract. At the end of 2002, SBS was employing some 2,000 people in NS&I's operations. NS&I remains SBS's largest Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)9 account, of its kind, in the UK, but it has only redeployed 650 former NS&I staff when its original bid was based on the assumption that it would now be employing 1,200 such staff on third party business. Both NS&I and SBS told us they were disappointed with this out-turn, but SBS is continuing to seek re-deployment opportunities for NS&I staff.
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9 Outsourcing of an organisation's business functions such as personnel or IT to a contractor.