HP and Yorkshire Building Society boost agility

HP Enterprise Services UK has established a Shared Services Alliance with Yorkshire Building Society (the Yorkshire) to enable U.K. financial services institutions to become more agile, more customer-centric and better able to manage their costs.

Built on HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Virtual Private Cloud, the new Shared Services Alliance will enable building societies and banks to respond rapidly to changing market conditions while driving down IT expenses. HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Virtual Private Cloud, part of the HP Converged Cloud portfolio, will provide Shared Services Alliance customers a world-class cloud services platform with data center, service management, application development and client support, while the Yorkshire will contribute its core application software, industry expertise, regulatory compliance and financial services knowledge.

The Yorkshire is the U.K.’s second largest building society, with assets of more than $45 billion, and a pioneer in providing shared IT services for the building society sector.

“The flexibility to meet ever-changing market needs and customer expectations presents major challenges for any organization, but especially financial institutions,” said David Henderson, general manager, Group Change, and chief information officer, Yorkshire Building Society. “Although the Yorkshire is already a successful provider of IT services through our Yorkshire Key Services subsidiary, this cloud-based Shared Services Alliance will offer a new way of working for the U.K. financial services market by moving away from a capital model to a service model, reducing costs and time to market.”

HP, supported by the Yorkshire, will deliver fully hosted core applications for retail finance services, enabling U.K. banks and building societies to be more competitive in a complex market. Services will include a complete mortgages and savings solution, regulatory reporting, business intelligence and business process outsourcing. HP will develop the software and services to meet the needs of its Shared Services Alliance customers.
“Becoming more customer-centric whilst driving down operating costs is no longer a choice for retail financial services institutions—it’s essential to survival,” said Jeremy Suddards, vice president, Financial Services Industry, HP Enterprise Services, UK&I. “The key to success is to leverage the latest technology—like HP Enterprise Cloud Services—that delivers real value and the ability to adapt rapidly to change”