Cathay Pacific Signs Outsourcing Agreement With IBM

Cathay Pacific Airways — Hong Kong's largest carrier — and IBM recently signed two multi-year outsourcing agreements whereby IBM will provide application support and maintenance services and application development services as part of Cathay Pacific's plans to change its IT operating model and tap into external service providers to deliver key services and solutions.

Cathay Pacific will leverage IBM's application support and maintenance services to manage over 80% of its applications portfolio, enabling Cathay Pacific to migrate its internal resources to focus on higher value activities. IBM is also included in Cathay Pacific's panel of providers for providing application development services.

Both services will be backed by IBM Global Business Services consultants specialized in the travel and transportation industry, and IBM development resources through the company's Shenzhen Global Delivery Center and the Center of Excellence for the Aviation Industry — collectively they can provide Cathay Pacific with IBM application development and management services to support all stages of the application development life cycle.

According to Tomasz Smaczny, a director and the chief information officer of Cathay Pacific partnering with IBM is consistent with the carrier's strategy of leveraging the external market to assist in delivering solutions that support delivery of world-class service to its customers. He added that they looked forward to a long-term relationship with IBM and being able to capitalize on IBM's capabilities across technology and business processes.