The Canadian outsourcing market showed no indication of slowing down on Tuesday as IBM Canada Ltd. announced it has inked a $200-million, eight-year deal with the National Bank Financial, a subsidiary of the National Bank of Canada, to manage its IT operations.
Under the deal, IBM said it would design, build and operate processes and IT operation services; manage the bank’s application suite; and improve response times at customer service centres while introducing Web-based offerings and workflow tools.
In addition, 115 National Bank Financial employees will now join IBM’s outsourcing teams in Montreal and Toronto.
The National Bank provides trading and custody services to approximately 80 independent financial services firms. The company said the deal would enable its brokerage business to respond to market changes and better meet its customer needs.
The two companies have a long-standing relationship. IBM Canada and the National Bank of Canada signed a 10-year, US$700 million outsourcing deal back in December 2001. Under that deal, IBM agreed to manage the bank’s IT infrastructure, including its Web environment and call centres. IBM has been providing IT services to the bank since 1994 and pre-existing contracts extend their relationship through to 2011.
IBM Canada is online at www.ibm.ca.
