Press Release

Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 Jun 2007

Desjardins Contact Centers Take Initial Step for Certification to the COPC-2000® CSP Standard

Williamsville, NY –Fédération des Caisses populaires Desjardins du Québec (Desjardins) has engaged Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. (COPC Inc.) to perform COPC® Baseline Assessments at two of its Québec locations – Service de gestion Desjardins des prêts étudiants (Student Loan Center) in Gaspé and their Centre conseil et référence téléphonique (Call Reference Center) in Lévis. The assessments are the first step toward certification to the COPC-2000® CSP Standard.

The COPC-2000® CSP Standard, the first and only certification process designed specifically for the needs of contact centers, provides a world-class benchmark of productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness for customer contact operations that ensures contact center excellence worldwide.

Desjardins is Canada's largest financial cooperative group. It is the sixth largest financial institution in Canada and the largest private employer in Québec. Its service centers offer members and branches a broad range of financial services, technical support and telemarketing.

Having already completed re-certification to the COPC-2000® CSP Standard of Centre de contacts des Services AccésD – its inbound/outbound customer service, technical support, and sales center for Internet and phone banking customers – Desjardins continues its commitment to provide its members with high quality service with its recent initiative at the Gaspé and Lévis centers. In addition to improved customer service, the organization anticipates increased revenue, reduced costs and process and productivity improvements as a result of the COPC® Certification Process.

About COPC Inc.

Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. (COPC Inc.) is the world’s leading authority on operations management and performance improvement for buyers and providers of customer contact center and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. The COPC® Performance Management System includes operational certification programs, operational management training, Six Sigma in Contact Centers, performance improvement consulting, and vendor sourcing and management services.

Since 1996, COPC Inc. has helped organizations in more than 50 countries drive results averaging two to five times Return on Investment (ROI) with a payback of less than one year. These results are achieved by leveraging the COPC® Family of Standards, the industry’s first performance management and certification system which, today, remains the most rigorous and only high performance set of global best practices and performance metrics that simultaneously increase customer satisfaction and profitability.

Global clients include Accenture, Apple, BT Group, Bertelsmann Arvato, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cable & Wireless, Citigroup, Convergys, Genpact, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, NTT, Sony, Telefónica, and Wipro. For additional information, visit www.copc.com.

About Desjardins Group

Desjardins Group is the largest integrated cooperative financial group in Canada, with overall assets of more than $135 billion. It is comprised of a network of caisses, credit unions and business centres in Quebec and Ontario, and some twenty subsidiary companies in insurance, securities brokerage, venture capital and asset management, operating across the country. Drawing on the expertise of its 40,000 employees and the commitment of 7,020 elected officers, Desjardins offers its 5.8 million individual and corporate members and clients a full range of financial products and services. Leading-edge virtual access methods complement its vast physical distribution network. For more information contact www.desjardins.com.