Australian regional Bank of Queensland has signed a ten-year $250 million outsourcing contract with EDS covering IT infrastructure and back office processing.
Under the agreement, EDS will provide a range of business and IT services to support the bank's operations. These include upgrading its overall IT environment; launching a new Internet banking capability during the first half of this year; and managing back office credit card, loan and mortgage processing and call centre operations.
The deal is estimated to save the bank $52 million over the ten-year period.
Daivd Liddy, Bank of Queensland managing director David Liddy says: "This initiative will underpin our efforts to dramatically improve our efficiency, reduce our cost to income ratio and open 34 new branches around the State by August 2004."
Up to 220 Bank of Queensland employees will transfer to EDS, raising the vendor's workforce in Australia to approximately 7000. EDS has signed several large-scale outsourcing contracts with clients including the South Australian Government, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, Australian Taxation Office and Telstra. The Bank of Queensland is its first regional banking client.