The Hindu Business Line : Waste no call

Bank customers sometimes get called unnecessarily. But when they do need to connect, the right person at the bank is out of reach. Misys says its software can help banks serve clients without wasteful moves either way.

HOW often have bank customers received calls offering them a gold credit card from X bank, when they are already premium customers of the bank holding a gold credit card?

Even more frequently, bank customers wonder what sort of IT systems are at the back-end when they call a customer care centre and get clueless call centre executives, despite an extensive grilling by an interactive voice response (IVR) system before they got to speak to a person at the other end.

Surely, regardless of the channel through which a customer comes in, his status should be reflected in how he is treated?

UK-based banking software and services major Misys says its India development centre is working to prevent just such bloomers by building its flagship product, Equation, using J2EE and a layered approach.

According to Vibhakar Bhushan, Development Director, India, Retail banking, Misys banking systems, the company is building a business rules engine that lets banks state a business rule whereby a single independent data point can influence the way a process runs or an account is treated.

"The system will be fully configurable by a bank, without requiring customisation at every stage and in every business situation." According to Bhushan, when senior citizens were offered higher deposit rates, banks across the country had to scramble to get their IT systems to automatically credit a greater interest amount based on the data point: age.

Increasingly banks are having to integrate their information processing with an ever increasing number of channels.

For instance, a bank may not be offering all its services through the Internet. As part of a business initiative, if a bank decides to offer loan applications online, it need not run to the vendor for a customisation any more.

The bank can just set up a link between the loan account and the Internet, says Bhushan, enabled by the business rules layer. For instance if a US Bank, Nat West offered home loans through retailer Tesco, it did not have to worry about having to get new software written for that special purpose. Just setting up a link to the new channel would suffice.

"Our business rules layer enables new channels as a separate layer from the core banking portfolio so that banks can configure their settings," says Bhushan. Misys expects to be the first in the market with such software, since its product is being built from ground up on J2EE, not just providing Java GUI fronts to 20-yr old core banking processes, according to Bhushan.

Misys is also banking on its risk management system to drive growth across markets. In India, the company expects to nearly double headcount to touch 1,000 people, with its RMS division accounting for about half of the total.

The India development centre is also integrating the work being done at its recent acquisition of French company Almonde, so it can be done out of Bangalore. The need for compliance with Basel II norms is also driving growth for Misys. The RBI is encouraging banks to go in for package solutions for risk management and Basel II compliance, and Misys is pitching its BancMaster Plus at these banks. For large banks, Misys is offering Equation that offers solutions for branch automation, data warehousing and Internet banking.

priya@thehindu.co.in

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

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