High price may cost Alltel zl.400 million PKO BP contract

The supervisory board of the biggest domestic retail bank, PKO BP, is reported to be against offering US software provider Alltel the contract for supplying the bank's new central information system. In August the bank's board of directors submitted the zl.400 million contract for approval, but the supervisory board has yet to agree to it, and according to an anonymous source quoted by Puls Biznesu, is unlikely to do so. Among the main weaknesses of the Alltel offer are believed to be the price demanded and the provider's lack of experience in Europe. Rejection of the Alltel offer may be good news for Softbank. The Warsaw-based software integrator is already a major provider of IT systems for PKO BP, and following the planned merger with Prokom it may be in a position to offer the bank its own solutions. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) M.K.