Seoul, Korea - In what is being called the largest deal of its kind for the financial services industry in Korea, Kyobo Life Insurance has contracted IBM to operate and manage its IT infrastructure.Under the terms of the 10-year agreement which has a total contract value of approximately 340 million U.S. dollars, IBM will provide IT strategy consulting services to help develop and advance Kyobo's IT vision and strategy. IBM will also manage the company's servers, storage systems, network and desktop computers and operate its data and disaster recovery centers. Additionally, IBM will provide IT skills development and IT management training services, called 'IT University', for Kyobo's employees.
Under IBM's on demand pricing model, IBM will charge Kyobo fees based on actual computer usage. By converting its IT spending from fixed cost to variable cost, this outsourcing decision could potentially result in significant IT management cost savings, while improving quality of IT services.
Kyobo Life selected IBM Korea from five local and international competitors.
"This contract with IBM will allow Kyobo to achieve global IT capabilities, capitalizing on IBM's extensive experiences with global financial companies," says Chang-Jae Shin, chief executive officer of Kyobo Life Insurance. "I also expect that Kyobo will be more able to focus on high-value development work for our customers, while saving on overall IT costs."
According to Hwi-Sung Lee, country general manager of IBM Korea, "IBM is dedicated to working with Kyobo Life Insurance to provide technology and business consulting services which deliver real business value. We aim to support Kyobo's vision of becoming a leading global insurance company by ensuring that it has robust IT and management systems which are able to quickly scale up or down in response to changing market conditions."
The Kyobo Life announcement is the second such deal for IBM Korea in the local financial services industry following a deal signed with Allianz Life Insurance Korea last year. IBM Korea was awarded the contract to manage Allianz Life Insurance Korea's IT infrastructure.
Source: IBM Corp.
