The Bank of India is one of the first in India to establish fully-computerized branches and ATMs in Mumbai - twenty years ago. But 1,868 of its rural branches were not part of its core banking system, which put its rural clients at a disadvantage.
-- Kalyansundar turned to VSATs to overcome the bank's connectivity problems.
-- They started one of the largest solar-powered initiatives in the country.
"With 70 percent of the country's population living in rural areas and with the kind of economic growth they have seen, it became imperative that they were provided similar types of services. Moreover, with new Government schemes like the New Pension Scheme and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, rural customers needed better facilities," says P.A. Kalyanasundar, general manager, Bank of India.
The immediate challenge before Kalyanasundar was a problem that plagues many businesses operating in rural India: connectivity. "The infrastructure at the datacenter was already available. The challenge was in providing infrastructure and last mile connectivity at these branches," says Kalyanasundar.
Given India's spread-out geography and poor Internet penetration, Kalyansundar turned to VSATs to overcome the bank's connectivity problems. What was harder was getting electricity to these branches which typically suffer from prolonged power-cuts. Using generators to run the servers and VSATs would have been expensive so Kalyansundar's team chose to use the sun. They started one of the largest solar-powered initiatives in the country.
The next step was training users in rural branches to use core banking applications. The skills of these workers needed upgrading, which the bank is tackling with ongoing training.
The project which will cost the bank Rs 175 crore (US$37.7 million) over five years went live in May 2009. "With all 3,000-plus branches now on a uniform system, we integrated them to the various payment systems like foreign inward remittances, RTGS/NEFT, SWIFT, electronic clearing services, etcetera. Today, all inward and outward remittances happen in a seamless manner via straight through processing," says Kalyansundar.
The benefits have begun to show with rural areas bringing in low cost deposits. Plus, Kalyansundar adds, the government has chosen the Bank of India as the trustee bank for its New Pension Scheme and the beneficiaries expected to have banking arrangements with them. The project achieved ROI in seven months.