New alliance will save bank 400 million euro in costs; New focus on innovation around mobility, social networking, and cloud computing

MADRID, Dec. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Spanish savings bank "la Caixa" and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the establishment of a ten-year strategic services relationship. As part of the agreement, IBM and Serveis Informatics la Caixa, S.A. (Silk) will manage the infrastructure technology budget of "la Caixa" of more than 2 billion euro over ten years. 

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IBM, through Silk, will provide technology, operations, applications and infrastructure services to "la Caixa" and will manage its data processing centers, located in Cerdanyola del Valles and San Cugat (Barcelona).  The IBM-provided scope represents about half of this budget, while the remainder is directed to additional third-party service providers.

The new strategic alliance is expected to save 400 million euro for "la Caixa" over the term of the agreement.  The contract will provide "la Caixa" with access to new technologies and innovations to enhance its business development both in Spain and global markets and to position the bank as one of the leaders in utilizing new technologies in the financial sector such as mobility, social media and cloud computing.

"Working with one of the most recognized technology leaders in the world is very important to us," said Juan Maria Nin, "la Caixa" general manager. "This agreement allows us to offer better services to our clients and obtain competitive advantages in a sector in which innovation and new technologies are key to realizing growth."

The relationship also includes collaboration between the "la Caixa" Innovation Center in Barcelona and IBM´s research centers. The objective of the Center is to develop new innovations to enhance "la Caixa"'s business by providing the latest technologies, research capabilities and innovations in business processes for smarter banking, mobility, social media and cloud computing.

"For the last 50 years, IBM has been the privileged technology partner of 'la Caixa' and today the bank renewed its confidence in IBM," said Juan A. Zufiria, general manager of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel. "With this strategic alliance, we open up our capacity, experience and talent to 'la Caixa' to support their growth plans."

Today's announcement with "la Caixa" is another example of how IBM Global Services teams with its clients to solve business problems and help them capitalize on new opportunities.  Clients today are looking to IT service providers for more than just cost cutting.  Global clients need help finding ways to better leverage IT into their business to stimulate growth and prepare for the future.  By tightly weaving together business insights, and industry-leading software portfolio, world-class technology research and operations expertise, IBM is redefining what it means to design, deploy and deliver IT services on a global scale.  As a result, IBM Global Services clients achieve faster return on investment while freeing up resources to focus on innovative projects.

IBM External Relations:

Darcy Hansen 
IBM Media Relations 
917-472-3692 
M: 415-806-4139 
hansenda@us.ibm.com

La Caixa External Relations:

Maria Luisa Martinez Gistau
"la Caixa" - Directora Corporativa de Comunicacion y Relaciones Externas
marialuisa.martinez@lacaixa.es
Tel.: +34 93 404 65 06     |    Fax: +34 93 339 99 08
Av. Diagonal, 621, t.1, pl.12. 08028 - Barcelona

SOURCE IBM

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