UniCredit Group in Eastern Europe relies on updates CRM system for banks

UniCredit starts CRM project with update software AG in eight Eastern European countries

Vienna, October 27, 2011 +++ update software AG, the leading European producer of premium CRM solutions, which is headquartered in Vienna, will implement a CRM project in eight of its Eastern European subsidiary banks for the UniCredit Group. The international project of the UniCredit CEE Division will be implemented in the three areas Corporate and Investment Banking, Private Banking, and Small and Medium Enterprises. Before the end of 2011, the CRM system based on the update.seven CRM solution for the financial services industry is to be rolled out in Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia by the update partner L&P Solutions. The implementation in Serbia and Slovakia will follow in 2012, and the roll-out in the Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzogovina is planned for 2013. When the roll-out is completed, more than 5,000 users of the UniCredit Group in Eastern Europe will work with update’s CRM solution. The CRM project of the Central and Eastern European Division of UniCredit is part of a large sales efficiency initiative, in the course of which UniCredit will invest in its customer relationships in Central and Eastern Europe. The goal is to significantly increase customer satisfaction as well as effectiveness and efficiency in Sales.

For this large Eastern European CRM project, update software AG has already signed a basic contract with UGIS, the central IT service provider of the UniCredit group. The system will be implemented in the eight Eastern European UniCredit subsidiary banks by the Hungarian update partner L&P Solutions from Budapest. According to the demands of the first three countries Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia, a core template is currently being created on the basis of the update Financial Services CRM solution. This UniCredit core template will be adapted as necessary to local processes in later project phases and additional interfaces to local systems will be provided. UniCredit also selected update due to its good experiences with update’s existing best-practice CRM systems, which have been in use at UniCredit in Hungary and Slovenia for a while now. update also offers many functions that are important for financial institutions and in corporate banking, already pre-configured in its Financial Services standard solution. Besides the minimal need for adaptations, its flexibility was also an attractive feature of the update solution. Last but not least, multi-lingual and multi-currency capabilities distinguish update’s CRM solutions and ensure risk-free international roll-outs.

Gianfranco Bisagni, Director of CEE Corporate and Investment Banking for the UniCredit Bank Österreich, which functions as a sub-holding company of the UniCredit Group for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, says: “Customer-centered information and customer satisfaction are the main factors for sustainable results in the banking business. Thanks to the new CRM system, we can intensify our customer relationships across borders and offer our customers individual and up-to-date services. In regular surveys with more than 51,000 subjects, 9 of our 14 subsidiaries were rated as market leaders."

Norbert Künzl, who as Director of the “ Financial Services International” Competence Center at update is responsible for the project, regards this major international order as follows: “For more than 15 years update has been assisting the UniCredit Group in some countries in Central and Eastern Europe with the intensification of their customer relationships. We are proud to be able to help the largest banking group in the CEE region with the implementation of a program to increase its sales efficiency on an international level. This is perfectly in line with update’s strategic orientation, both in the Financial Services sector as well as in the CEE region.”

About update software AG
update software AG was established in Vienna in 1988. With more than 170,000 users in more than 1,500 companies, update is the leading European producer of premium CRM systems. update has subsidiaries in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the USA. update software AG is listed on the German stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main. With approximately 270 employees, update achieved sales of EUR 27.6 million in 2010.

update's customers in the Financial Services sector include Allianz Hungary, Bank Gutmann, Bawag P.S.K., Hauck & Aufhäuser, K&H Bank, LBS Nord, National-Bank AG, OVB, Raiffeisen Centrobank, Raiffeisen Switzerland, UnicreditBank Hungary, as well as the Hamburger Sparkasse and 130 other German savings banks. update maintains strategic partnerships with companies such as Atos, Hewlett-Packard, L&P Solutions, Sensix, Steria Mummert Consulting, and the update hosting partner IBM.

About UniCredit
UniCredit is a leading European bank that is strongly rooted in 22 countries. Our global network includes approximately 50 markets, with more than 9,500 branch offices and 160,000 employees (status as of June 30, 2011).

In Central and Eastern Europe, UniCredit has the world’s largest bank network, with more than 3,900 branch offices. The UniCredit Group is represented in Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, as well as in Turkey and the Ukraine.