CaixaBank Signs Strategic Alliance with IBM for IT Services Infrastructure Management

• New alliance will save bank 400 million euro in costs in 10 years.
• New focus on innovation around mobility, social networking, and cloud computing.

CaixaBank and IBM  (NYSE: IBM) today announced  the establishment of a ten-year strategic services relationship, with IBM to become the bank's technology partner. Under this relationship, IBM and Serveis Informatics la Caixa, S.A. (Silk) will manage the infrastructure technology budget of CaixaBank of more than 2 billion euro over ten years. 

IBM, through Silk, will provide technology, operations, applications and infrastructure services to CaixaBank and will manage its data processing centers, located in Cerdanyola del Vallés and San Cugat (Barcelona).  The IBM-provided scope represents about half of this budget, while the remainder is directed to additional third-party service providers.

The new strategic alliance will save 400 million euro for CaixaBank over the term of the agreement, enabling an increase of higher business volumes and boosting projects around mobility, social networking and cloud computing. The contract will provide CaixaBank with easy access to new technologies and innovations available to the financial services industry to enhance its business development both in Spain and global markets and to position the bank as one of the leaders in integrating technology in the financial sector.

"Working with one of the most recognized technology leaders in the world is very important to us," said Juan María Nin, "la Caixa" and CaixaBank CEO. "This agreement allows us to offer better services to our clients and obtain competitive advantages in a sector in which innovation and new technologies are key to realizing growth."

 
The relationship also includes collaboration between the "la Caixa" IBM Innovation Center in Barcelona and IBMŽs research centers.  The objective of the Center is to develop new innovations to increase CaixaBank's business by accessing the latest technologies, research capabilities and innovations in business processes for smarter banking, mobility, social media and cloud computing.

"For the last 50 years IBM has been the privileged technology partner of "la Caixa" and today the bank renewed its confidence in IBM," said Juan A. Zufiría, general manager of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel. "With this strategic alliance, we open up our capacity, experience and talent to "la Caixa" to support their growth plans."

Today's announcement with CaixaBank is another example of how IBM Global Services teams with its clients to solve business problems and help them capitalize on new opportunities.  Clients today are looking to IT service providers for more than just cost cutting.  Global clients need help finding ways to better leverage IT into their business to stimulate growth and prepare for the future.  By tightly weaving together business insights, and industry-leading software portfolio, world-class technology research and operations expertise, IBM is redefining what it means to design, deploy and deliver IT services on a global scale.  As a result, IBM Global Services clients achieve faster return on investment while freeing up resources to focus on innovative projects.