ANZ has broken its outsourcing drought, with the bank announcing yesterday that it was finalising a software testing and management deal with IT services company Capgemini that will see 110 staff in Melbourne and 250 permanent employees based at its Bangalore facility shift to a new employer. The terms of the deal, which is initially for five years, have not been revealed, nor has the bank released any forecasts regarding potential cost savings.By streamlining testing, the bank clearly hopes to be able to concentrate its remaining IT team's attention on the transformation outlined in its 2017 technology roadmap, which underpins its "super regional" growth strategy. Capgemini already provides testing services for two of Australia's other major banksDeepak Nangia, Capgemini's managing director for business development and marketing, said the deal makes ANZ Capgemini's largest testing client in Australia.  In complex software development programs as much as 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the project effort can be taken up with testing, according to technology analysts Ovum.Capgemini will be responsible for the testing and software management of around 800 ANZ applications and 280 projects. ANZ, which spends around A$1.7 billion a year on technology, said it has dealt with 40 separate testing service providers in the past.Ovum principal analyst Jens Butler said ANZ was known for running a very lean IT operation but this had impacted on its ability to deliver projects quickly. By streamlining and offloading all testing to Capgemini the bank might be able to speed projects along and also keep tighter control over costs, he said.In a statement, ANZ said the deal would deliver operational flexibility and help accelerate the technology transformation required to deliver its "super regional" strategy.ANZ described the outsourcing as a "hybrid technology delivery model". The statement also referred to the bank working with "best-in-class technology vendors". This plural suggests that the deal with Capgemini could be the first in a series of outsourcing deals, even if the bank prefers to describe them as "hybrid" models.For many years, ANZ has made a virtue of its minimal use of outsourcing, emphasising that its two decades-old operations centre in Bangalore and its more recent operations hub in Manila are subsidiaries of the bank and are staffed by ANZ employees.When she first joined the bank, a little over two years ago, Anne Weatherston, ANZ's chief information officer, was very open about the fact that she was no fan of outsourcing, but her position seems to have shifted as the bank (in common with the industry) seeks cost savings. While the bank has pledged that all permanent employees affected by the initiative will be offered a role with Capgemini by the end of the year, it has been silent on the fate of IT contractors working in the area.