Asia PR News

SEOUL, March 30 /MediaNet International-AsiaNet/ –

In the largest deal of its kind for the financial services industry in
Korea, KYOBO Life Insurance (KYOBO) has contracted IBM to operate and manage
its IT infrastructure.

Under the terms of the 10-year agreement which has a total contract value
of approximately 340 million US dollars, IBM will provide IT strategy
consulting services to help develop and advance KYOBO’s IT vision and strategy.
IBM will also manage the company’s servers, storage systems, network and
desktop computers and operate its data and disaster recovery centers.
Additionally, IBM will provide IT skills development and IT management training
services, called ‘IT University’, for KYOBO’s employees.

This outsourcing agreement will provide a reliable and flexible IT
infrastructure and a skilled workforce to support KYOBO’s long term vision of
being the leading insurance company in Korea and its goal of expanding into
north east Asian markets.

KYOBO will be charged fees based on actual computer usage, under IBM’s on
demand pricing model, providing the company with an IT system which is
responsive, flexible and cost-efficient. By converting its IT spending from
fixed cost to variable cost, this outsourcing decision will potentially result
in significant IT management cost savings, while improving quality of IT
services.

KYOBO Life selected IBM Korea from five local and international competitors.

Chang-Jae Shin, Chief Executive Officer of KYOBO Life Insurance said, "this
contract with IBM will allow KYOBO to achieve global IT capabilities,
capitalizing on IBM’s extensive experiences with global financial companies. I
also expect that KYOBO will be more able to focus on high-value development
work for our customers, while saving on overall IT costs."

Hwi-Sung Lee, Country General Manager of IBM Korea said, "IBM is dedicated
to working with KYOBO Life Insurance to provide technology and business
consulting services which deliver real business value. We aim to support
KYOBO’s vision of becoming a leading global insurance company by ensuring that
it has robust IT and management systems which are able to quickly scale up or
down in response to changing market conditions."

The KYOBO Life announcement is the second such deal for IBM Korea in the
local Financial Services industry following a deal signed with Allianz Life
Insurance Korea last year. IBM Korea was awarded the contract to manage Allianz
Life Insurance Korea’s IT infrastructure.

About KYOBO Life Insurance
Founded in 1958, KYOBO Life Insurance is one of the leading life insurance
companies in Korea. Under the mission of ‘promotion of national education and
creation of domestic capital’, KYOBO has developed distinguished life insurance
services including life insurance, pension, health/disability, retirement and
education insurance, a world first.

KYOBO is known for its business ethics and high customer satisfaction
levels. KYOBO has been awarded the ‘Customer Satisfaction Management Grand
Prize’ by the Korea Management Association for last five consecutive years. It
was also recently ranked as one of the ‘top 30 admired companies in Korea’ by
Korea’s leading daily newspaper, Dong-a Ilbo.

About IBM
IBM has extensive skills and experience in the insurance industry attained
through several decades of relationships with leading insurers. With more than
15,000 employees globally dedicated to Insurance, IBM is the largest combined
IT and business infrastructure and services organization serving the insurance
industry. Clients in Asia Pacific include Allianz Life Insurance Korea, Taikang
Life, Cathay Life Insurance and Mitsui Life.

IBM is also the world’s largest information technology services and
consulting provider. Some 190,000 professionals in more than 160 countries help
clients integrate information technology with business value — from the
business transformation and industry expertise of IBM Business Consulting
Services to hosting, infrastructure, technology design and training services.
IBM services business delivers integrated, flexible and resilient processes
across companies and through business partners, enabling clients to save money
and transform their businesses to be more competitive. For more information,
visit www.ibm.com/services.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Simone Consigliere
Communications
Information Technology Services, Global Services, Asia Pacific
Tel : +65 6418-1298 (DID); +65 9841-8341 (Mobile);
e-mail : consigli@sg.ibm.com

SOURCE: IBM