Esat BT has signed a three-year contract valued at €8m to deploy a state-of-the-art network for AIB’s new banking platform, covering all of the bank’s branches and ATMs across Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK.
It is understood that Esat BT has been working with AIB over the past two years to develop the solution and the contract was awarded following a competitive tender process that included an extensive evaluation of the proposed technology.
The project will see the deployment of BT’s MPLS inter-networking technology to AIB’s 400 branches. This network will form the underlying infrastructure to support AIB’s new banking platform that will radically transform the branch IT systems.
Michael Baume, group chief information officer at the bank, said: “AIB selected Esat BT due to the capabilities they displayed combined with their innovation and professionalism. As a result AIB will be able to deliver a 21st-Century telecoms infrastructure with leading-edge capabilities to maximise value for its customers.”
BT MPLS is an applications-aware network that will enable branch staff to serve their customers more efficiently with rapid access to important customer and product information on demand.
Bill Murphy, chief executive officer of Esat BT, commented: “We are absolutely delighted to have been selected as a strategic technology partner to AIB. This is a prestigious win for us and a ringing endorsement not only of our technology but also of our capability to deliver a world-class solution for Ireland’s largest plc.”
The deal with Esat BT is the latest in a number of strategic IT projects unveiled by AIB in the past few months. In January, the bank selected IBM to roll out a major migration to the Linux platform as part of a software and services project that will see Tivoli, Data WebSphere, Rational and Lotus technology deployed to more than 12,500 of the bank’s employees. The deal will also see a number of mainframe improvements and some enhanced managed services support offerings.
By John Kennedy
