IBM to manage IT for major insurer

IBM and QBE sign strategic partnership

IBM and QBE, one of the world’s international insurers and reinsurers, today announced a strategic agreement for IBM to manage the information technology (IT) infrastructure of QBE’s UK and Western European offices.

The partnership underpins a major change program at QBE and covers the development and maintenance of QBE’s IT support services including Helpdesk, Desktop, Data Centre, LAN, WAN and Disaster Recovery. IBM’s Portsmouth data centre will house the support for the business while virtualization of the server estate will reduce QBE’s carbon footprint and provide higher availability and scalability for business growth.

QBE is a leading specialist in the London and European commercial lines insurance business offering diversity to the broker community. In addition to the London market, QBE operates from seven UK-regional centres and has a presence in 15 European countries.

Kathy Lisson, Chief Operating Officer of QBE European Operations said, “The agreement with IBM underpins QBE’s European transformation of operational support services by delivering a scalable operations platform and raising the service levels for our global operating platforms, particularly in the area of disaster recovery. I am delighted that, after a rigorous tender process, we have appointed a world-leading partner of the caliber of IBM to work with us at QBE.”

Bruce Ross, General Manager, IBM Global Technology Services UK & Ireland said, “Proven IBM service management disciplines and tools will deliver much higher levels of system availability and vastly improve QBE’s business continuity infrastructure. IBM’s flexible solution will enable QBE to adjust to the fast-changing demands of a competitive market and help transform their IT.”

The contract was signed in September 2009.