IBM Signs 10-Year IT Outsourcing Agreement With Kurmanchal Bank in India

IBM announced that it has signed a 10-year information technology (IT) outsourcing agreement with Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank Ltd, one of the leading urban co-operative banks in the state of Uttarakhand in India. As part of the agreement, IBM will remotely host and manage the IT infrastructure, manage the disaster recovery site and provide the networking infrastructure for the bank. This will help the bank focus on its aggressive expansion plans while reducing its capital expenditure on IT by as much as 60%.

Signed in 1Q 2009, this agreement is first-of-a-kind for IBM in Uttarakhand and follows its success with other co-operative banks in different parts of the country. IBM is aggressively increasing its focus on the small and medium businesses in India.

Established 25 years ago, Kurmanchal Bank plans to expand its banking network from 17 existing branches to nearly 35 over the next two years. As part of its expansion strategy it also acquired another co-operative bank last year. The bank is now looking at rolling out core-banking solution along with offerings like Internet banking, mobile banking and ATM facilities to its customers. The end-to-end managed services provided by IBM will greatly reduce the burden of upfront capital expenditure for the bank as the agreement allows it to spend in an operational expenditure model over a 10-year period.

"Customer-friendly approach, product innovation and rapid technology adoption have been some of the core strengths of the bank," said Mr. Manoj Sah, CEO, Kurmanchal Bank. "We are delighted with our partnership with IBM, the world's leading IT services company. We believe their technology expertise and focus on delivering cost-efficient solutions will help us achieve our growth strategy and higher levels of customer satisfaction."

Nipun Mehrotra, Vice President and General Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM India/South Asia, remarked, "With businesses across India sharpening their focus on cost-efficiency in these challenging times, IBM has once again proved its partnership value for small and mid-sized customers. We are excited about our relationship with Kurmanchal Bank to offer managed services that will help them reduce their upfront IT expenditure. The fact that the bank decided to enter into a 10-year long agreement further reiterates the trust clients -- big or small -- put in IBM's capabilities."

Through this agreement, IBM will host and manage Kurmanchal Bank's entire IT infrastructure from its data center in Bangalore as well as providing backup and replication services to the bank's Disaster Recovery site in Nainital.

About Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank

Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank is a licensed urban co-operative bank having 17 branches in the state of Uttarakhand. The bank which completed 25 years of operations in 2008 has over 150,000 customers with Rs 414.85 crore in deposits as of December 2008. In 2007, the Bank acquired the ailing Doon Valley Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd and despite absorbing the inherent losses, offered a healthy 20% dividend payout.