One positive fallout of BoI's deal with HP was that it spurred other PSU
banks to join the IT outsourcing bandwagon. Bank of Baroda (BoB) came to the
party by selecting HP as its strategic IT partner for its technology-enabled
business transformation project. Once completed, the project would deliver a
uniform, portal-based IT infrastructure covering BoB's domestic and
international operations.
Today, HP is implementing and managing an enterprise-wide, service-oriented
architecture that would include integrated deployment of more than 40
applications such as Finacle core banking, phone banking, Internet banking,
delivery-channel integration, risk and performance management (from Crisil); as
well as CRM, data warehousing, global treasury, HRMS, and cheque truncation
systems. It is also designing, building, and managing tier III data centers that
help BoB in meeting its storage and connectivity requirements, as well as DR and
BC (business continuity) capabilities plus network management.
The single, portal-based IT infrastructure would finally enable its 25 mn
customers with access to banking and financial services anytime, throughout the
world through multiple delivery channels like Internet banking and call centers,
ATMs and transaction kiosks. Besides core banking, BoB's support applications
are based on the Oracle business suite, while a mix of applications from Logica
and Oracle (OFSA) handle the regulatory conformance.
In the first phase, BoB hopes to rollout the project to 650 out of its 1920
branches, of which the pilot on 150 branches is supposed to be over this year.
The deal is supposed to have a five-year life (or till BoB acquires adequate
proficiency to handle its IT requirements). BoB has already embarked on this
endeavor by appointing Gartner for business and technology consulting.