IBM has won a contract to provide Allied Irish Bank (AIB) with software and managed services including its Lotus iNotes browser-based collaboration and messaging product, which will be rolled out to 12,500 bank staff over the coming year.
The deployment of the Lotus iNotes product will consolidate AIB's current multi-mail environment - which previously included three different vendor solutions - and provide branch staff with access to e-mail accounts.
Under an extended enterprise software and service deal, IBM will also implement its WebSphere middleware on AIB's mainframe and distributed platforms, enabling the bank to integrate its IT infrastructure and applications, and aggregate the bank's software licensing requirements, over a range of platforms, for the coming three years.
Kevin Marley, of AIB's cost management and procurement services group, says the new agreement with IBM "provides flexibility to AIB to support current and future software needs for both mainframe and distributed systems, whilst reducing the total cost of ownership to the bank".