27th Aug 2014 08:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Business Machines Corp and Monitise PLC Wednesday said they have agreed a global digital commerce and resourcing alliance.
Monitise shares were Wednesday quoted up 11% at 47.00 pence.
In a statement, the companies said they will combine their mobile banking, payments and commerce technology to bring IBM sales and specialist resources to clients around the world with the full spectrum of advice, solution design and delivery of Monitise's Mobile Money services.
The news builds on an expanded, multi-year global alliance between the two companies in July to deliver cloud-based mobile commerce services to help financial services institutions embrace the mobile channel and better engage with customers.
"Monitise's technology will be enabled, hosted and sold as an IBM cloud-delivered solution worldwide in the business-to-business space. This in turn underpins Monitise's go-to-market strategic priorities as announced in March 2014, including its target for 200 million users using Mobile Money products and services developed by Monitise by 2018," the statement said.
As part of the collaboration, IBM's global go-to-market investment of resources and promotional initiatives, globally and in region, will pair with Monitise staff to pursue Mobile Money opportunities, according to the statement.
Commercial opportunities will initially be targeted at financial institutions, but IBM and Monitise said they will also address the needs of mobile network operators, retailers, among others.
As part of the agreement, teams from Monitise's UK development and integration business will be transferred into IBM. In turn, IBM will deliver services back to Monitise.
"The transfer, which involves UK employees representing a little over 20 percent of Monitise's global employee base, means Monitise technology talent will now be available for both Monitise and IBM customer projects and vice versa," the statement said.
All Monitise contracts and client relationships, intellectual property, commitments and delivery remain unchanged, according to the companies.
"The collaboration will substantially increase Monitise's ability to handle larger custom projects globally, in addition to implementing standardised solutions," the statement added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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