Bank One Hiring 600Bank One Hiring 600

Bank One Corp. plans to hire 600 IT professionals in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, over the next three months as it ramps up customer-service and E-commerce initiatives. Specifically, Bank One wants systems and client-server engineers, development-systems architects, and Web developers. New hires will also be tasked with maintaining the company's existing technology.

Unifying customer-information systems, which had become more unruly as Bank One grew through acquisitions, has been a huge issue for the bank holding company, says Jim Eckenrode, an analyst with Tower Group. Then there's the unification of clicks and mortar. Banks throughout North America, says Eckenrode, are realizing that "the branches aren't going away and the Internet can't be a standalone business for them."