NAB chooses SAP, Siebel

The National Australia Bank has become the first of the major Australian financial institutions to buy SAP's R/3 enterprise resource planning suite, and has also formed a "strategic alliance" with Siebel Systems for its customer relationship management solutions.

The NAB will use the SAP implementation as part of a project to restructure itself from a geographic, product-based structure to become a global customer-centric company.

"SAP will enable the National to globally integrate our information infrastructure to facilitate our new customer-centric business model and our aggressive transition into the 'dot.com' marketplace," said Kuldeep Kishore, NAB's integrated systems implementation program director.

The Siebel link will help the bank extend its existing program of "tailored financial solutions", also as part of its new global push.

"This software solution means our customers will have a 'seamless experience' when they deal with the National no matter what channel they use and no matter where they are in the world," said Glenn Barnes, executive GM of business and personal financial services at NAB.