IBM and DSK Bank announced that they have completed the migration of DSK’s banking operations to IBM’s datacenters as part of a long-term IT services agreement to manage the IBM Cloud infrastructure that supports bank’s operations in Bulgaria. DSK has selected private cloud capabilities to transform its core banking platform and develop new services for its more than three-million individual and business clients. This is the latest example of how cloud and traditional IT are converging in the enterprise and how financial institutions enable innovation by consuming IT in an “as-a-service” model.
DSK Bank, founded in 1951 as the State Savings Bank, is the biggest Bulgarian bank in terms of assets and branches, and the bank of choice for almost all Bulgarian families. This project will support its objectives to serve equally well different generations and clients – from millennials demanding new mobile and Internet banking services, to small and big enterprises requiring flexibility, security and availability, and through the elderly generation who need to access bank’s services even in the most remote locations.
“As a result of working with IBM, we expect to generate up to 20 percent in annual recurring savings,” said Nikolay Shalamanov, Head of Directorate Operative Maintenance of IT systems, DSK Bank, OTP Group. “We are already feeling the benefits of the new way of working – according to our daily statistics bank’s most critical applications, DSK Direct for e-banking and DSK Smart for mobile payments – are running faster by 10 to 15 percent.”
DSK Bank has been a long-term IBM client. This agreement takes the relationship between the two companies to next level as IBM Cloud portfolio offers highly secure deployment options that can help banks like DSK develop new client experiences for diverse customer sets, enable effective collaboration and improve speed to market – all while increasing IT efficiency.
“Adopting this innovative IBM Cloud model will set the bank to benefit from future cognitive technologies,” said Igor Pravica, Country Leader, IBM Bulgaria. “Our approach is based on the highest security standards and it will ensure an enterprise that is secure, scalable and can handle mission-critical workloads efficiently.”
As part of the agreement IBM will run the complete IT infrastructure, supporting DSK Bank’s core banking environment. IBM will also provide fully managed services for mainframe, servers, storage, end-user computing, help desk as well as software support. DSK Bank will now rely on the best of breed data center services from IBM Tier III Datacenters based in Vienna, Austria. This will create greater flexibility, performance, economy and resilience the bank requires to support its growth objectives. The solution is fully aligned with European Union’s regulations for free movement of data and leverages IBM’s long standing experience in the financial services sector.
“With this strategic shift we will assist DSK Bank in accelerating time to market, addressing and improving customer service,” said Michael Paier, General Manager, IBM South East Europe. “DSK Bank will be able to evolve its services with new capabilities that leverage IBM’s investments in cloud, as well as analytics and security.”
