Staying on top

Storebrand Bank has a vision to be the ‘smart choice for the modern customer’ . That’s why when it was restructuring, it wanted a partner that fully understood the business side of running its securities trading applications.

The company chose Tieto to provide Securities as a Service solution that will leave it free to concentrate on its core business.

Benny Glærum, head of trading at Storebrand Bank, says: “Under previous agreements with other suppliers, we found it took a long time for them to fix mistakes when systems were updated. We wanted a company that would respond much faster. And we wanted a company we could rely on to take complete responsibility for updates and system maintenance.”

By signing up to the SaaS deal, Storebrand Bank has handed over to Tieto responsibility for maintaining and operating the company’s capital markets software, helping Storebrand free up internal resources and reduce risk.

An understanding partner

Storebrand Bank chose Tieto because it wanted a partner that really understands the business side of running its application software. “We turned to Tieto because we wanted a proactive partner that could respond quickly to our needs,” Glærum explains. The single point of contact (SPOC) approach that Tieto delivers with this service simplifies everything for us and helps us to focus on serving our customers better.”

He adds: “It has the competence to actively maintain the system rather than waiting until something goes wrong, which should mean less downtime – something that’s essential for an operation like ours.”

The contract builds on a long-standing working relationship between the two companies. “We enjoy good dialogue,” Glærum says. ”Tieto understands our business culture and knows exactly what the business is and what we need to be successful.”

Strong credentials

Central to this relationship is the green sourcing facility pioneered by Tieto. Maria Kumle, Tieto’s customer manager for Storebrand, says: “We’re using a carbon-neutral centre in Sweden to actually run the services. This is important for Storebrand as its policy is to be carbon-neutral at all times, so it is keen to work with partners who share the same ethos.”

Tieto already provides software for nearly all broker-dealers in Norway. “With Tieto taking full responsibility for the software, Storebrand Bank can be safe in the knowledge that it is always running the latest version while we ensure that all applications running in the background are well maintained,” Kumle says. “Tieto’s SaaS solution ensures pain-free upgrades, database maintenance and connectivity, as we guarantee all these aspects through the SaaS agreement.”