Commbank to invest additional $200m in ICT

The Commonwealth Bank will redirect up to $200 million in expenditure towards ICT as it moves toward a new focus on customer service.

In announcing the bank’s new customer-service focus, CEO Ralph Norris said in a statement that CommBank now viewed ICT as organisation-wide resource capable of ensuring consistency of delivery and achieving efficiency gains.

Norris said former PNC and Citibank staffer, Michael Harte, would commence as the bank’s new CIO in April.

With Harte onboard and the additional ICT funding, improving customer service, business banking performance, applying smart technology and working toward greater collaboration across the business would become the bank’s new areas of strategic priority, Norris said.

The bank also planned to introduce a new internet-based business banking service – CommBiz – and deploy CommSee, the bank’s CRM system, across all of its service platforms for business customers.

Business services would also be made available in many of its retail branches.