Nationwide overhauls IT in preparation for Portman purchase

Nationwide Building Society is overhauling its core IT infrastructure to respond to a changing business landscape and prepare for its planned merger with the Portman Building Society at the end of August.

The financial services firm has undertaken three new services with Unisys to improve efficiency and generate a 25 per cent increase in processing capability.

The initiatives include technology and support maintenance services for the building society’s Unisys ClearPath Dorado mainframes and associated peripherals, and a mainframe upgrade at Nationwide’s Swindon technology centre and its development and disaster recovery centre in Wellingborough.

The third service is implementation of a high-performance EMC disk storage system to support database-intensive applications and customer service requirements.

Nationwide has deployed the Unisys mainframes using pay-for-use features to increase processing capabilities by a minimum of 25 per cent and providing customers with faster access to online services.

Michael Humphreys, IT director, Nationwide Building Society, said: ‘Unisys services and technology have provided critical support for Nationwide’s demanding growth and customer service enhancement strategy for years.’

‘Nationwide anticipates that the upgraded ClearPath systems, enhanced storage and extended support Unisys provides will enable us to continue growth and accommodating an expanding customer base more effectively while lowering our IT costs over the long-term,’ he said.