IBM has signed a four-year agreement with Italian banking company BPER Banca Group to help expedite the latter’s transition into a truly digital business.
The agreement will expand the Italian bank’s hybrid cloud strategy of modernising its technology infrastructure and applications. This is expected to be executed by combining the security, reliability, and scalability of IBM Cloud for Financial Services to help meet the compliance needs of the heavily regulated sector with the resiliency of Red Hat OpenShift and IBM z16, claimed IBM.
The tech firm said that the highly secured hybrid cloud environment will enable BPER Banca Group to handle mission critical data, workflows, and services across various platforms to enhance operational efficiency and bring in innovation.
BPER Banca Group deputy general manager and chief operating officer Elvio Sonnino said: “Innovation and digitalisation are two of the main priorities on which BPER Banca is focusing.
“The banking sector is undergoing rapid transformation and the benefits and potentials that emerge today from the dynamics of technological innovation are very wide.
“The collaboration with IBM will allow us to carry out an important technological upgrade, to achieve greater synergy of processes and to expand the offer of quality omnichannel services, to respond even more effectively to the ever-increasing needs of customers “.
IBM Consulting is said to have closely worked with the Italian banking group and gave the know-how and capabilities for designing the modernisation strategy to underpin the latter’s strategic growth plan for 2022-2025.
BPER Banca Group is transforming its business model in order to brace up for a digital future apart from focusing on ESG and the integration of its recent acquisition of Italian banking rival Banca Carige.
IBM Consulting will now render additional services and deep skills to help in modernisation and management of BPER Banca Group’s core banking systems and applications in an open, secured manner to enable compliance with industry regulations.
Besides, to address the requirements of digitally savvy customers, artificial intelligence (AI) powered software capabilities will be employed to build customised digital services across various channels in a fast and secured manner, said IBM.
IBM Italy general manager Stefano Rebattoni said: “IBM will support BPER Banca as it accelerates its strategic growth path with open, secured technologies to both modernise and innovate – helping the business to deliver faster, seamless, and compliant digital banking experiences.
“The modernisation strategy will combine an expanded hybrid cloud approach with new software capabilities boosted by artificial intelligence, built and managed with IBM’s deep industry expertise to help BPER Banca achieve its transformation goals and improve customer experience.”