SBSA operates across 17 African countries and 21 countries outside of Africa. It is the largest South African banking group ranked by assets and earnings and employs more than 40,000 people worldwide.

SBSA is currently undertaking an enterprise contact centre consolidation program, and Graham Technology's software will provide the bank's front-office contact centre with advanced contact management capabilities.

"We are delighted to be working with Standard Bank to help it meet the demands of its contact centre consolidation program," said Mike Hughes, managing director, Graham Technology. "Landing yet another large international customer is another great validation of our company's strength in the contact centre CRM market."

As part of a joint project team, Graham Technology and global IT services firm, Dimension Data, will roll out the solution in a phased approach, with delivery in the first quarter of 2007.

The deal also further cements the strong relationship between Graham Technology and Dimension Data in the South African market and adds impetus to the recent trend towards improving customer experience in the country.

"Dimension Data's in-depth understanding of the contact centre industry and the bank's business objectives ensures that we can assist SBSA to deploy the technology in a way that will help them realise their goals of improved service and efficiency," said Karen Geerkens, practice manager for contact centre application solutions at Dimension Data. "Our established project management office enables us to comfortably manage and deliver a programme of this complex nature."