IBM and Italian bank, Banca Carige, have officially launched Dock, a $500M U.S. joint venture, to bring innovative technologies including AI, big data, analytics and cognitive tools to improve the competitiveness of Carige's more than 500 branches and over 1 million clients.

As one of the leading Italian banking groups, with more than 500 years of tradition, this partnership, which was signed in this year's first quarter, gives Banca Carige the ability to respond to new business needs by facilitating the simplification of their IT environment while also creating a path to digital transformation that will help drive client experience excellence under a single bank model.

IBM Services will deliver a solution involving all sectors of the banking group and provides for the introduction of innovative technologies with the aim of improving the commercial competitiveness of the Bank. And though Dock will initially focus on driving innovation and competitiveness for Banca Carige, it has also put the gears in motion to lead the region's banking sector towards a future full of new professional skills and opportunities such as digital banking and Cloud storage.

"The partnership with IBM represents an important turning point and a new starting point for Banca Carige as we will be able to take advantage of IBM's capacity for developing new technologies," said Paolo Fiorentino, the bank's CEO. "With increasing energy we will be able to concentrate on our traditional commercial banking activity and, thanks to an international partner of the highest standing, achieve high standards of business process efficiency, at the forefront of the banking sector."

The planned solutions will lead to:

• Cost reductions, through digital transformation of the Bank's technological infrastructure - with the evolution towards a "hybrid IT" model and a progressive migration of workloads in cloud environments;
• Transformation towards a "new generation bank", agile in responding to the client, creative and open to innovative collaborations in the sector;
• Development and offering of innovative services through the automation of branch processes, also with the extensive use of robotics and the evolution of the skills of its operators as financial advisors;
• Laser focus on business continuity, operations security and compliance with the regulatory environment.

"With this new alliance, a path is born that leads the banking sector towards a future full of new professional skills and opportunities offered today by innovation and technological progress," said Enrico Cereda, President and CEO of IBM Italy. "IBM Italia is proud to accompany one of the country's oldest financial institutions along the path of digital transformation."

Dock currently employees 173 people, 133 of whom come from Carige and 40 from IBM, and the road to new hires which will benefit the territory is being opened through collaborations with universities and local institutions.