Westpac NZ signs five-year agreement with IBM

Westpac New Zealand has signed a five-year agreement with IBM as part of an extensive services and technology contract that will see the bank migrating its IT systems to the latter’s data centre in Auckland.

According to Westpac, IBM’s private cloud capabilities will provide it with the ability to deploy online and mobile banking services faster, and across multiple devices and platforms.

Westpac's interim CIO Jason Millett said, "The platform provides a robust and advanced infrastructure enabling a seamless online banking experience across multiple devices. This supports our goal of being New Zealand's leading digital bank.”

"In addition, IBM's local and global expertise, commitment to work within our regulatory framework, deep knowledge of our business and industry, and responsive commercial models provide a market leading offering that can support our changing needs over time."

Westpac will also optimise its IT infrastructure by renewing IBM mainframe services, midrange and storage platforms besides migrating some services to IBM's data centre.

"Westpac's underlying IT systems must operate uninterrupted, be secure and be able to support future needs as customers increasingly engage on mobiles and tablet devices. Our relationship with Westpac New Zealand is one of our longest and closest, marked by a high degree of innovation and collaboration," said Rob Lee, IBM NZ MD.

IBM has prime responsibility for managing Westpac's key infrastructure services, under an agreement that was first signed in 2000. In 2013 Westpac became one of the first clients of IBM NZ's delivery centre at Unitec in Auckland, employing post-graduate and under-graduate computer science students.

IBM New Zealand launched its hybrid cloud in March to offer local customers greater visibility, transparency and control of data security and placement. This followed an announcement earlier in the year that IBM will invest $1.2billion globally into comprehensively expanding its cloud footprint.