Skipton Building Society has embarked upon a three-year deal with a managed and hybrid cloud service provider, ANS Group.
The mutual claims its move makes it one of the first financial services brands to be ‘hybrid-ready’. This means the Skipton is able to benefit from a combination of the security and stability of its own on-site technology, with the almost unlimited scalability and flexibility of cloud computing. It argues this allows it to take new services to market faster than before and respond more efficiently to customer needs and business demands.
The service will also deliver cost savings to the business.
Duncan Ratcliffe, Head of IT at Skipton, said: “In such a fast paced industry flexibility and adaptability are absolutely critical in enabling us to keep innovating, and the hybrid platform strikes the right balance. This investment will allow us to react to market needs and demands, and deliver the new services that our customers want more quickly than ever before.
“The concept of hybridization mirrors the evolving demand in the financial services sector, where in order to remain competitive institutions need to be able to offer fast, scalable, automated processes on one hand, and security and reliability on the other.
“The cost-savings and increased efficiency will be significant, but most importantly, we can pass on tangible improvements through to our customers by way of improved applications and faster service delivery.”
Andy Barrow, chief technology officer at ANS, added: “In any market as competitive as financial services, innovation is key and this investment will enable Skipton to be in the strongest possible position to respond to fast-moving and evolving customer demands.
“We knew from the first instance that Skipton’s focus was on changing and improving business processes, so we designed an IT solution around those requirements, rather than presenting an ‘off the shelf’ package.
“Hybridization is ideal for businesses that need a bespoke solution to balance security and reliability with scalability and innovation.”