Commonwealth Bank management have heralded AU$64 million in IT savings as a major contributor to the company's strong first half financial results.
In earnings reports filed to the Australian Stock Exchange, CBA said it spent AU$439 million on technology in the six months to December 2006. This was down from AU$502 million listed for December 2005, according to the documents.
The Bank credited the technology savings as funding more investment in frontline retail staff. The Bank has added 800 new retail staff since June 2006.
The bank also reduced its spend on IT contractors and consultants by AU$23 million over the period.
"Good progress on strategic growth initiatives" had been made in the first half, according to the documents, including a new shared services approach to enterprise IT.
Major technology achievements during this time included the rollout of CommBiz, the bank's new business banking site.
The bank also made good progress on an infrastructure upgrade, improving its credit card platform, and had trained 319 more staff in CommWay. CommWay is a staff toolkit for common tasks based on the Six Sigma methodology.
Technology at the CBA is headed by chief information officer Michael Harte.
