The Hindu Business Line : Wipro finalising land purchase in Coimbatore

Without elaborating further on the proposed centre, he said, "It is still early. But once the land is finalised, we should be operative within 18 to 24 months from that date. The size would, however, depend on the number of customers. There is no dearth for talent pool," he added.

Earlier, addressing some key customers of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, the Wipro Chairman recalled how banks were leveraging on IT to make smart banking a reality.

"The future of banking is highly dependent on technology," he said.

Sharing his thoughts on emerging drivers for technology adoption by banks, he said until recently, a major chunk of the investment was largely focused on computerising the in-house applications such as book-keeping and material planning. But now, the focus has shifted to the actual user interface with the customer.

"ATMs and Internet banking have shown the way to developing customer intimacy, but when we compare this with North America and Europe, which has over 2.5 lakh ATMs each and Japan with over 1.5 lakh ATMs, India with its low number has a long way to go. Internet banking is a potential area but only a beginning has been made and it is still a fraction of what we can use," he said.

Emphasising the need for achieving product innovation and leadership, he conceded that the industry had started to look at multiple channels for alternate revenue streams. "Banks would necessarily have to integrate multi-channel platforms using IT," he said and pointed out that this would present real time uniform customer data across branches.

According to him, the use of technology would help bring down cost structures leading to competitive pricing of the banks offerings. Conceding that some of these applications would require complex IT systems and infrastructure, which could be difficult for the banks to build and sustain, he said that IT solutions providers could offer comprehensive solutions for strengthening business needs.

"Security and integrity of data is very important and the reliability of technology can impact the strength of customer relationship," Mr Premji said.

Speaking to the medical fraternity at the GKNM Hospital, he expressed his keenness to customise the hospital information systems package to suit the requirements of medium level hospitals.

He hinted that this software package would, in all probability, be developed out of the proposed development centre in the city.