John Hancock Life Insurance announced this week that it has signed a seven-year, US$166 million outsourcing agreement with CGI Group Inc., which will manage its mainframes and midrange equipment, as well as its data storage, recovery and document management services.

The contract builds on a $103.5 million outsourcing deal CGI signed last fall with Manulife Financial Corp., which merged with John Hancock in 2004. The John Hancock deal includes an option to extend the contract for three years and includes professional services for implementing new technology.

James M. Benson, president and CEO of John Hancock in Boston, said in a statement that the deal will "continue to lay the foundation for future growth."

John Hancock had signed an outsourcing contract with IBM in 2003 to manage its infrastructure support services department, which includes mainframes, servers, networks, desktops and its help desk.

A John Hancock spokesperson could not be reached for comment on the deal.