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Spanish multinational bank Banco Santander reached a $700 million five-year global technology agreement with IBM to deepen its business transformation efforts, per a press release.
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IBM said the deal will enable Santander to accelerate its move toward an open and modern IT environment, while also providing annual savings on the bank’s IT spend.
The agreement is significant for the bank, allowing it to bring improved solutions in three key areas of focus:
- Santander will be able to meet its strategic goal of building an advanced IT architecture. IBM’s solutions and know-how will support Santander in its move toward a multicloud environment: IBM will collaborate with the bank’s Cloud Competence Center to define processes and methodologies that can accelerate its transformation. Further, by using technologies such as IBM API Connect and IBM DevOps, Santander can take control of its application programming interface (API) lifecycle, as well as build and deploy new applications with speed.
- IBM’s technologies will allow Santander to enhance its services. By using IBM Watson, for instance, the bank will take advantage of AI capabilities to improve customer experience and branch advisors expertise, as two examples.
- The deal will help Santander conform with high commercial security and regulatory standards as it progresses with its transformation. By using IBM Security tools in areas such as incident response and mobile applications, the bank will ensure greater security for its operations and clients.
Santander’s agreement with IBM will help it realize the benefits of digital capabilities and technology in its business transformation. Many traditional banks still operate legacy systems, making it painful and expensive to maintain and change their IT architecture, while the lack of modern technologies to analyze customer data makes it difficult to meet the changing demands of their clients.
Optimizing data analysis is also vital for reporting purposes and ensuring regulatory compliance. Santander appears to be employing a holistic approach to its transformation that will allow it to move to a modern IT environment to make its operations more efficient and adaptable, support its regulatory work, and help it deliver innovative solutions to its customers.
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Source: Business Insider – edigalaki@businessinsider.com (Eleni Digalaki)