National Australia Bank has signed its first global licensing deal with software giant Microsoft, but CIO Adam Bennett is still shying away from suggestions the bank will move to the new Windows 7 operating system any time soon.

“Our primary investment for the coming year is Nextgen (the core systems revamp). That’s where we will put the bulk of resources and attention. But things can’t wait on the other side, and we are looking at that.

“We recently signed an enterprise agreement with Microsoft that covers us globally which is a great step forward – that is the first time we have had multi geography agreement.”

Bennett, who has been in the role for just over four months, has recently completed a review of NAB’s IT operations, and is now running the ruler over the IT shops of the bank’s recent acquisitions Aviva, Challenger Mortgage and JB Were in Australia and in the US. TierOne Bank which it bought earlier this week for $45 million.

Bennett is now working out how best to integrate the IT operations of these acquisitions with NAB’s, but for the present seems to have ruled out any wholesale outsourcing of operations.

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