Abbey gets a £25m per year BT habit

NEWS Abbey National has awarded BT a £125m five-year contract to upgrade to IP VPN and other communications technology. The mortgage bank said the aim is to cut costs but also enable better customer-facing operations, for example using CRM software over the upgraded network. BT's IP VPN platform, BT Transform, uses Cisco hardware for Gigabit Ethernet over fibre and draws on 150 points of presence across the UK. BT said the deal - which pulls together IP infrastructure, convergence, LANs, WANs and outsourcing - should help it expands its market share in this next-generation market beyond its current 17 per cent. Yasmin Jetha, Abbey National IT and infrastructure director, said the IP VPN technology should allow future developments without having to overhaul network infrastructure each time. The contract is an expansion of an existing Abbey-BT relationship. Abbey National has had a few notable technology tie-ups in recent years. Customers have been able to bank via interactive digital TV, and users of Orange mobile phones at some locations have been able to buy pay-as-you-go top-ups from ATMs. However, the company is also remembered for its internet banking site crashing on its first day.