Nationwide Building Society outsources IT infrastructure

Nationwide Building Society has outsourced its IT infrastructure to Capgemini for the next five years as part of its digital transformation.

The contract covers service integration, service desk and user services.

Nationwide will use Capgemini’s Intelligent Service Centre, which uses data and analytics to improve business processes over time, and My Workspace, which will provide a single platform for staff to access data and services via any device. This is part of the building society’s strategy to provide employees with new and flexible ways of working.

Finance firms need to re-engineer its underlying technology platforms to support modern technologies. Once this is achieved, the infrastructure will support the introduction of digital services in the back office for staff and at the front end for customers.

Nationwide CIO Debra Bailey said IT infrastructure services are vital as customers and staff change how they are services by the company.

“In the age of always-on connectivity and mobile banking, customers expect 24-hour access and value-added services from their financial institutions,” she said. “To keep and attract new customers, we are creating a world-class IT function that can better handle these changing demands.”

In recent years, Nationwide has become a leader in terms of adopting modern technology to transform its operations and customer interactions.

In 2008, Nationwide embarked on a £1bn project to transform its technology after years of under-investment, typical in the financial services sector. The project involved upgrading its datacentre, outsourcing IT for the first time and implementing Microsoft technology in the front office and SAP at the back.

The building society has since increased its adoption of digital technology. For example, it enabled mortgage consultants, planning managers and personal banking managers to meet customers via high-definition video links using Cisco technology. It also claimed to be the first high street finance firm to offer an Apple Watch app.

In September 2015, Nationwide announced it is using artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to reduce the complexity of back-end systems as it introduces more digital products.