(4 July 2006 – Australia) Commonwealth Bank of Australia has extended its IT agreement with EDS Australia.The deal, which covers the mainframe and midrange component of CBA’s information technology and telecommunications agreement, is worth US$350 million over six years to EDS.
CBA also awarded a three year managed mobile voice services contract to Optus.
Both deals were the result of competitive tender, CBA said, and a shift to multi-source service relationships.
“The new arrangements will deliver more efficient operations, significant service improvements and cost savings across the enterprise,” CBA chief information officer Michael Harte said.
He said CBA and EDS were committed to a new service oriented relationship with both parties working towards improving service and cutting expenses.
“We have taken back the control through better governance and have set more meaningful business and customer service standards,” Harte said.
He said the bank had made a “meaningful departure” from the previous arrangement with EDS.
“It will fundamentally change the nature of our relationship, stepping away from pure contract management to a joint relationship focused on a service oriented approach,” Harte said.
The bank also announced it would invest in a “state of the art, green field” data centre in Sydney’s western suburbs.
“This investment provides scope to grow, to adopt new best practices and deploy internal and external processing resources in an open and contestable manner,” Harte said.