London - Microsoft and Unisys have today announced that Skipton Building Society has successfully moved its entire multi-platform core processing infrastructure to a Microsoft Windows environment. The result is improved usability, improved customer service and a £3 million fall in IT costs per annum, equivalent to five basis points (0.05 per cent) on the borrowing cost of a mortgage.
Working with Unisys Technology Consulting Services (TCS), the Society has created a cost-effective and more flexible replacement for its core-processing systems. The new infrastructure is capable of running multiple processes and workloads as well as managing the society's multi-billion pound core processing tasks.
"We have managed to fit 20 man-years of work into 12 months. People said we couldn't achieve it," says John Goodfellow, Skipton's chief executive. "And in moving to a Unisys on Microsoft mainframe server environment we have reduced our data processing costs by 50 percent and our overall operating costs by approximately six percent. Our experience proves that Microsoft and Unisys work well together to provide mission-critical systems, quickly, cheaply and effectively."
Skipton's data-processing system manages the Society's mortgage clients as well as the collective savings and administration business of its retail and white-label banking clients, an overall total of one million customers and £26 billion under the management of its mission-critical systems.
Improving user experience and customer service was a priority for the Society. "The introduction of an end-to-end Windows solution allows us to train users in a much shorter period. It used to take three months before a new operator was ready to speak to customers and it now takes two days," explains David Cutter, Skipton's operations director.
By choosing an infrastructure based on Microsoft technology and the latest Unisys ES7000 servers, Skipton has been able to consolidate 70 older systems and their associated cost-management overhead in a matter of months while providing a reliable and secure business continuity solution. This delivers a tested 180-second failover recovery of Skipton's 85 branches.
"This project demonstrates the fact that a large organisation like Skipton, with over three million hits on its databases per day, can use Windows in a mission-critical environment without compromising scalability or security," says Steve Rawsthorn, vice president of Marketing, Unisys Systems & Technology EMEA. "Skipton Building Society has been a Unisys customer for almost 100 years and so we had an in-depth understanding of how a commodity foundation would make the IT operation more scalable and reliable."
"Skipton needed reduced cost of ownership and a platform that allows it to grow and respond to change, quickly and easily," explains Andrew Voysey, head of financial services sales at Microsoft. "Lead by the Board, Skipton has now radically improved its cost structure, increased the agility of its business and made another leap to better serve its members."
