CW+ Premium Content/CW Nordics

IBM’s €473m managed services contract with Nordea reflects an increasing trend among Nordic banks to outsource more of their IT. Increasing competition from tech-led organisations is forcing banks to tap the skills and resources of IT service providers. Nordea’s rival financial groups Swedbank and Handelsbanken are also moving in the same direction, driven by a lack of in-house capability and the huge costs associated with implementing IT-projects with internal teams. At its core, the multi-year agreement reached between Nordea and IBM in January will outsource the bulk of the bank’s IBM Z mainframe operations in five countries. This deal deepens a relationship that dates back to 2003. For Nordea, the expanded alliance with IBM ensures the bank will have access to the most advanced technologies such as AI and customer-service robotics. It will, for example, support Nordea’s focus on cognitive technology and robotics. This has seen the bank invest in automated and interactive virtual customer service solutions such as Nora and ...