Alliance & Leicester inks network deal with BT

Alliance & Leicester has announced a deal with BT to implement a new telecommunications infrastructure.

The telco will bring together the bank's voice and data services onto a single, converged network. This will allow branches and call centres to communicate using voice over IP and enable employees to work in teams from disparate locations.

The bank's CTO, Darren McKenzie, said the network will also improve customer service - on the internet, via phone or in person - through faster processing of customer calls and quickly bringing customers into contact with the most appropriate staff members.

In addition the new infrastructure will provide a platform that can easily "take on all new technologies that customers expect", McKenzie told silicon.com.

BT will first take over the running of existing systems, on 1 December, while the implementation of the unified infrastructure will take place throughout 2007.