As part of its four-year technology transformation program, Westpac has established additional levels of technology governance and management to ensure its systems never return to the "Alice in Wonderland" days of 2008/9 that followed the takeover of St George Bank.Chief information officer Bob McKinnon explained, during a CEDA lunch on Friday, that the bank had established an internal "centre of excellence for technology sourcing", which was responsible for doing deals with vendors and service providers - managing both the contract and the ongoing relationship.While the bank has worked with multiple partners (IBM being the largest, thanks to a five-year A$1 billion deal signed late last year), it has also introduced an operating model which sees the bank remain the design authority and service architect."This means that while others may provide the service we will decide how it looks," said McKinnon.He also revealed that the bank had just completed bringing its service desk back in-house to provide better control and transparency regarding systems' performance. Previously, McKinnon said, "Westpac was a spectator in the process" when something went wrong and "didn't even know how many things were being changed."It has now, with support from Telstra and IBM, created a National Operations Centre, which provides centralised oversight of Westpac's IT infrastructure. The bank has also thrown out IBM's system management tools and instead installed BMC's Remedy suite, to provide better vision of its systems.Westpac has also started to introduce what McKinnon described as "engagement plans for our strategically important relationships" which set out the "roles and bias of individuals involved in the relationships, strategic fit, the governance processes, the opportunities for us to catch a competitive advantage and for us to deliver value in return."McKinnon, who has recently had his strategic technology plan again approved by the bank's board, with only minimal changes, said: "We also have close interaction with the board. In fact, the Westpac board has a separate technology sub-committee.  I think this is something of a world first and a subject all of its own in terms of best practice technology developments."In a wide-ranging speech he acknowledged that: "When it came to it strategy, back in 2008 we were in Alice in Wonderland territory. As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice, 'If you don't know where you are going it doesn't matter which way you go'."Today, however, McKinnon said the bank had a "technology strategy that is aligned with the business strategy, through engagement with the board and the business."