http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/26bankone.html

Bank One to hire 600 tech workers

November 26, 2001

Bank One Corp. said it plans to hire 600 information technology professionals—300 each in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio—over the next three months in an effort to improve customer service.

The nation’s sixth-largest bank holding company will focus its hiring on applications and project management, ranging from systems and client server engineers to Web developers and development systems architects.

“We are creating best-in-class technology to serve our customers,” said Austin Adams, who became Bank One’s chief information officer in March, joining Chairman Jamie Dimon’s executive management team. “It is essential to continue to invest in people and technology, even in challenging economic times. In fact, we have an unparalleled opportunity to attract high-performing technology people so we can handle a greater proportion of our technology needs in-house.”

Bank One, which spends approximately $2 billion on technology annually, has hired several other key executives this year, including James Ditmore, formerly chief information officer of Ameritrade, and Maureen Osborne, formerly chief information officer of Heller Financial.

Bank One is accelerating projects that focus on customer relationships, including:

± Expanding and upgrading the company’s main customer information and deposit platform, called Bank One’s Best. As deposit systems are integrated into a single platform, more than 8 million customers will have a seamless level of service in Bank One locations across the company, regardless of where in the world the customer is located. The company plans to integrate three major systems into Bank One’s Best in 2002 after converting two in 2001.

± Unifying customer information systems to provide a comprehensive national view of customer and product relationships.

± Developing internal expertise to maintain the company’s technology and to design, build and launch new service features and enhancements, including ramping up e-commerce initiatives.

-- Everything (will@be.alright), November 26, 2001