BT Signs On For Nationwide Network Revamp

BT is extending its existing relationship with Nationwide after signing a new contract to upgrade the building society’s entire network infrastructure.

The six-year contract will connect Nationwide’s entire UK retail banking operations, spanning around 700 branches across the country, as well its head office, regional administration centres and contact centres.

Thanks to a significant boost in both bandwidth and speed, the new network will be able to support applications and services, such as online and mobile banking, that are available to more than 15 million Nationwide customers and 17,000 employees.

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“The deal allows us to refresh and upgrade the technology we provide Nationwide to make sure that we are supporting them to be a leading digital bank,” Ashish Gupta, BT’s UK president of corporate and global banking & financial markets told TechWeekEurope.

“The benefits of using a service provider like BT is that we bring capabilities not just in terms of networking technology…but also knowledge of what we’ve done with each of the banks that can benefit the others.”

Gupta believes that both Nationwide customers and employees will see the benefits of the upgrades, as greater reliability and bandwidth help the former, and an improvement in internal communications help the latter.

“We think we’ve got the depth of infrastructure and the skills set that mean we can help all of our customers, not just the banking sector, transform to the digital economy.”

Nationwide says that the move is a key part of its ongoing digital transformation strategy, as the upgraded infrastructure will help it to introduce the latest customer-facing and back office technologies.

“For our customers, that means innovation not only in compelling new offers but also in the way that we deliver them,” said Debra Bailey, Nationwide’s chief information officer.

“Our latest investment with BT provides us with a great network platform to support our digital banking strategy. It gives us the agility to innovate as well as the reliability and security to confidently deliver our digital services.”

“A reliable network infrastructure with ‘always on’ service levels is a core component of our digital transformation strategy and will help ensure that we continue to offer market leading customer satisfaction.”

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