Wincor Nixdorf International is the majority stakeholder in a joint venture company created for outsourced IT operations with two of Germany’s largest savings banks – Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) and Sparkasse Bremen – according to a news release. The new company, Wincor Nixdorf Portavis GmbH, which will be based in Hamburg, Germany, is expected to open Oct. 1.

Wincor Nixdor Portavis is expected to employ 130 people from Haspa, Sparkasse Bremen and Wincor Nixdorf International.

The company’s business model includes a services portfolio, based on the expertise of the partners, which will be used to serve third-party customers. The services portfolio is designed to enhance existing offers from other IT service providers in the savings bank arena. And the partners plan to offer their scope of services to other financial institutions.

Wincor Nixdorf Portavis will be responsible for the operation of clients, servers and self-service systems, as well as the delivery of onsite services that include IMAC/R (install, move, add, change, remove) activities.

“Our aim is for Wincor Nixdorf Portavis to become a leading provider of IT services to financial institutions in Germany,” said Stefan Auerbach, a member of Wincor Nixdorf’s executive board. “In this way we remain true to our concept, namely to be an integrated partner to our customers in the banking and retail sectors.”

The merger of the two savings banks’ IT units, and the operation of those merged units under the management of an IT services provider as a joint venture that serves a third-party market, is unique in Germany and represents a completely new business model.

The units that have been outsourced to the new company include IT infrastructures — covering networks, IT workstations and telecommunications systems.

For Wincor Nixdorf, the new outsourcing contract confirms its strategic change process from a system supplier to a partner that supports all processes within bank branches and retail outlets.