Abbey National picks up data centre award

Abbey National's Life division has won the Compass 1998 award for the fastest rate of improvement in a UK data centre. The personal financial service halved its costs twice in the last two years.

Compass, an IT operations consultant, assessed 342 IT installations before making its choice. Previous winners include Barclays, Ford, KLM and Safeway. Only Compass' own clients are eligible for the award.

Simon Scarrott, head of consultancy at Compass, said that the performance criteria were varied. "We assess hard data such as use of resources, efficiency in the manufacturing cycle, the quality of contracts and procurement habits," he said. "Compass has developed software modelling tools that map out a company's relative effectiveness, using this data."

Compass also visits the firms and assesses the level of service offered - in particular its responsiveness, functionality and availability.

"We are trying to assess who is ahead of the market," said Scarrott.