Does Citigroup's success boil down to its IT savvy?

Vikram Pandit has bitten off a huge challenge. He has emphatically rejected calls to spin out various parts of the sprawling Citigroup empire. Thus he has assumed a huge challenge to better stitch the empire together. In the end, it likely will come down to the bank's information technology savvy. How else can you do it? Pandit has shown a penchant for reaching out to others. Over at FierceFinance, we've noted that Citigroup has sought advice from Hewlett-Packard, which similarly rejected calls not too long ago to spin out its PC business, as reported by the Financial Times. Much of the talks have been on IT issues. Pandit also has sought advice from ex-Citigroup CEO John Reed, who's a big proponent of the idea that IT can make it all work. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out from a systems point of view. The clock is ticking. 

For more on HP and Citigroup:
- here's the Financial Times article

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