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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Olivetti Strikes Computer Deal With Citibank

Olivetti North America will supply a new generation of branch-office computers to the nation’s largest bank.

The Liberty Lake-based subsidiary of Ing. C. Olivetti S.p.A. will begin pilot installations at Citibank branches within the next few months, said spokesman Leonard Selvaggio.

Full-scale rollout should begin by the fourth quarter, he said, with completion within a year.

Selvaggio said Citibank, headquartered in New York City, has about 450 branches nationwide.

ISC Systems Corp., which Olivetti purchased in 1989, installed the current generation of equipment in Citibank offices in the late 1980s, he said. The new system will incorporate the Italian parent company’s hardware with software based on Microsoft Windows NT.

Citibank announced last month it was adopting Windows NT for all its operations, Selvaggio noted. “This is in keeping with where they’re going bank-wide.”

He said Olivetti, with more than 450 Spokane employees, has an in-house support group dedicated to Citibank.

President Ted DeMerritt said everything but some peripheral equipment like printers will be replaced during the changeover.

The value of the Citibank contract will not be known until the total system configuration has been determined, he said.

Despite the ongoing relationship between the two companies, DeMerritt said Olivetti was not alone in bidding for the Citibank contract.

“They went through a very significant competitive analysis so we’re doubly pleased,” he said.