In a ground breaking Managed Services deal, Emirates NBD, the leading bank in the region, offered a Letter of Intent (LOI) to Etisalat, a leader in Managed ICT services, to manage the Wide Area Network for its 400+ offsite ATM machines. Emirates NBD has the largest network in the country with 725+ ATMs, out of which 400+ are installed in offsite locations. Announced during GITEX 2010, in a formal signing ceremony by Mr. Ali Sajwani, Chief Information Officer, Emirates NBD handed over the LOI to Mr. Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President Business Solution from Etisalat, this is a significant Managed Services agreement signed in the region.
As per the agreement, Etisalat will provide holistic management of the MPLS links and routers for Emirates NBD country wide network of over 400 offsite ATM machines in a phased manner. Etisalat will provide 24x7 monitoring for the links & routers and onsite support through end-to-end network infrastructure management services, eventually resulting in improved network availability at reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the bank.
Commenting on the signing Mr. Ali Sajwani, from Emirates NBD said "We are excited about the Managed Services capabilities of ETISALAT and our agreement demonstrates the strength of our relationship with Etisalat. We are looking forward for the latest technologies and network services of ETISALAT to enable us to continuously improve the services to our customers."
Commenting on the landmark agreement, Mr. Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President Business Solutions at Etisalat said: "Outsourced managed services enable organizations to focus on their core competencies while reducing their total cost of IT ownership. Through this relationship Etisalat aims to bring great value to Emirates NBD, with our strong delivery capacity, a modern and reliable infrastructure and robust processes. This is indeed a transformational deal, in that reinforces our leadership in Managed ICT services.
Etisalat will offer a one stop solution for managing links and routers while also providing onsite support through its Managed WAN service. Scheduled in two phases, the first phase will have Etisalat upgrade the bank's existing legacy network on leased line and Frame Relay for 94 ATMS with an IPConnect Solution. In Phase two, Etisalat would move the remaining ATMs on IPConnect, to offer state of the art connectivity with proactive monitoring and problem resolution.
Etisalat will also provide a backup solution option to Emirates NBD through a totally separate technology using Etisalat's 3.5G wide coverage. This solution will provide Emirates NBD with improved resiliency and redundancy for their ATM operations continuity.
