Infosys is placing big bets as well as investing big bucks in its $300 million financial banking product, Finacle to turn it into a mega brand to get more traction with the customers.

Mr Haragopal Mangipudi, Global Head - Finacle, Infosys Ltd, told Business Line that it will invest up to 25 per cent of its revenue from the product on R&D to take it beyond its core banking solution niche.

Global footprint

He said that Infosys invested $75 million on R&D from revenue of $296 million revenue last fiscal. In the near future, Infosys would look at cloud computing, leveraging mobile banking, and expanding the global footprint. “We are bullish on Finacle Lite and on bank-in-a-box, which will enable customers to get started within six to nine months,” he said.

Analysts said that this investment is necessary because Infosys is witnessing a gradual decrease in its total number of new installations in terms of percentage growth and the company is adding features to offer new and existing clients more ways of reaching out to their customers.

Ms Srishti Anand, IT Analyst, Angel Broking, said, “Finacle is based on an older framework. There are many new ones from companies like Polaris and Oracle. When we asked Infosys about this, they said that there are many banks that have not migrated to any core banking, so win rates are good.” But Ms Anand was appreciative of the fact that Infosys is investing money on R&D. “Investments are high, but payback is good,” she said.

Mr Karthik Ananth, Director, Zinnov Management Consulting, said that the number of installations is reducing because everybody is finished core banking, except perhaps in places such as Africa.

Cost-saving

“Finacle has to look beyond core banking and at areas like analytics and mobility,” he said. Mr Ananth said that one area that Infosys could concentrate on was helping global banks to save on costs. “Infosys has a lot of customers in emerging markets and they are very effective here. Indian banks are known for low operational costs and Infosys should take this to global markets.”

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