Skipton Building Society has cut its IT costs by £3m a year
by moving its main data processing systems to Windows Datacentre
technology.
The building society said the move to Microsoft technology,
supported by Unisys ES7000 servers, has halved its data processing
costs and reduced overall operating costs by 6%. The project,
managed by Unisys Technology Consulting Services, took one year to
complete.
Part of the cost savings came from consolidating 70 existing
systems, which were supported by a mainframe. Skipton's data
processing systems manage the society's mortgage clients and the
savings of one million customers.
"We have managed to fit 20 man-years of work into 12 months," said
John Goodfellow, Skipton's chief executive. Our experience proves
that Microsoft and Unisys work well together to provide
mission-critical systems quickly, cheaply and effectively."
Although large IT projects at the high street banks have tended to
grab the headlines, UK building societies have recently achieved
some impressive cost savings through careful investment in
technology.
Britannia Building Society, for instance, has boasted it will save
£100m by 2009, following a three-year overhaul of its IT systems.
The £50m business transformation programme will involve 40 projects
and the introduction of 12 new systems, including customer
relationship management, imaging and workflow.
Meanwhile, Nationwide aims to save £400,000 a year through a
centralised management system.
