Technology experts discussed the adoption of the latest technology initiatives for providing better services to customers of cooperative bank:
BFSI and financial segments provides major accelerations to the growth of the country’s GDP factors such as economy, quality of life, poverty and removal of economic inequality, with special focus on rural and remote areas.
So far RRBs and DCCBs were the successful model to provide banking services to the bottom segment through the quality of services was not up to the mark as compared to the private and public sector banks. Loyalty, personal connection, simple and easy approach to meet essential or customize financial needs, etc, were some of the factors on which these RRBs / DCCBs were standing. Adoption and penetration of technologies across all segments have made a substantial paradigm shift against the traditional way of service executions were happening across these segments, and BFSI is not the exception for these transitions.
Promotion of personalized services
The young generations had come forward to lead the growth with a priority of expectations about the quality of services (personalized), advanced technology, speed & turnaround time, cost, and diversity of products with seamless executions through various channels. Day by day, the competition is growing due to the modernization ushered in by PSU, private sectors, and small finance and payment banks in the rural and urban markets. And for RRBs & DCCBs, there is no choice other than to adapt to the transformational change taking place in the market.
The technology-empowered community of the society under the guidance of compliance authorities (NABARD, NPCI, etc) has started helping these RRBs & DCCBs to scale up to the expectations of customers about their quality of services and bridging the age-old gaps created across technology, people, and processes. The government-level support through various schemes is helping RRBs & DCCBs so that they can be in the mainstream of the flow and can stand in the competition. This will be a journey and not a destination. However the speed of acceptance and adoption of the change is important.
Vijay Pawar, DGM – IT Dept at Pune District Central Co-operative Bank shares the insighs: “The visionary leadership and management of PDCC Bank had already set a strong foundation and way forward to support and provide essential financial services to our poor agriculture communities across the demographic region of the Pune district. PDCC Bank is growing at a stable pace at all levels.”
Mahesh Jani, Chief Manager IT at Rajkot Nagarik Sahakari Bank says: “Cooperative banks have adopted all the digital channels and customer touchpoints which PSU and private banks offer. Being a small UCB, we are in a better position to offer personalized touch in our offerings.”
Geographical coverage
Tata Teleservices is one of the prime digital service providers in the country and has grown to be a one-stop digital transformation platform for enterprises with its most comprehensive suite of smart connectivity and collaboration solutions. Mannu Singh, Vice President at Tata Teleservices shares: “We have a large fiber network of around 125,000 route km that runs through the length and breadth of the country. We have connected perhaps the highest number of business clusters, over 1 lakh buildings across 60 cities, which house the businesses we serve, and this number is increasing daily.”
The company has a large field team of about 2000 channel partners and 1500 enterprise personnel who interact with the customers directly, create awareness of its services, and generate demand that then translates into an order that is fulfilled and serviced efficiently. Mannu adds: “We are continually empowering and upskilling our field resources but at the same, building digital capability across the value chain, from demand generation to service assurance and operations to make customer journeys faster, simpler, and closer. Our growth plans are centered around strengthening our portfolio of services, especially in SaaS, IaaS, and cloud while at the same time enhancing our network and sales reach.”
Availability of the services across branches and at major touchpoints through various delivery channels is extremely essential to maintain the credibility and image among customers.
Vijay Pawar explains: “In today’s competitive age, retaining the customers with a positive customer satisfaction Index (CSI) is most crucial. In line with this, there are various known and unknown challenges that banks face. Among these challenges, availability of seamless networks across branches and various delivery channels is one of the important challenges to address. There are standards processes and procedures along with advanced technologies has been effectively utilized to mitigate this challenge however we still do see some loopholes. Our tireless efforts are to address those loopholes.”
He adds: “PDCC Bank is using primary MPLS network and redundancy to those as secondary can be secured VPN, IPSec, RF, etc, which were established to address those loopholes. Bank has primary & secondary end-to-end network tunnel with DC – DR, DC to Switch service provider data center, and DC to the crucial application service provider. PDCC Bank is always open to accepting new technology with conscious mindsets.”
New Technologies
Being fast and flexible is at the foundation of all digital and network transformation initiatives today. For cooperative banks, the cost of building and maintaining their private networks can be high and legacy connectivity solutions (like private WANs using MPLS) can be financially crippling.
Mahesh Jani shares: “We have adopted an automated workflow for customer services and inquiries including 24×7 services like missed call service. TAT is followed as per RBI guidelines. Our automated voice services are assisted by dedicated and trained back-office staff. We have adopted all the required technologies with cyber security, data protection, and overall safety of the bank and customer.”
PDCC Bank is gradually adopting the proven model used across banking service industries. It includes leveraging the various ways of technologies and social platforms recommended by banks advanced peers to reach out to end-user of the bank through branches and various service channels. The bank also proactively engages in collaboration with compliance authorities like Nabard and NPCI to run some of the financial literacy and awareness/education programs across branches. PDCC Bank also conducts/actively participates in social events like women empowerment educations sessions, and various exhibitions, especially on agriculture products, etc.
Vijay provides the details: “At PDCC Bank, under the guidance of technical consultant and through system integrator, the basic and advanced technologies with standard services practices through sop’s have been adopted. The PDCC Banks data center, 24x7x365 call center, head office, zonal office, and branches are aligned with a seamless technology platform to provide necessary services to our customers. Regular training, workshops, and awareness sessions including through social platforms is the key for the reduction of tat with improvement in quality of services to our customers Through advanced technology, PDCC Bank is always ready to help and contribute to society at all levels.”
Innovative Initiatives
Tata Teleservices has taken several initiatives in recent times to empower enterprises with innovative and reliable solutions as they move up the digital transformation curve. The company has strengthened its portfolio of enterprise-grade solutions such as Smartflo – an advanced cloud communication suite; SmartOffice – a one-box start-up kit with voice, data, apps, and storage, SD-WAN iFLX – an intelligently flexible solution (built on Fortinet’s platform) for network optimization.
It offers EZ Cloud Connect which is a dedicated private network gateway to public clouds. Ultra-Lola is a technologically superior point-to-point offering, with latency in microseconds, smart internet leased line with built-in security and manageability. Other offerings from Tata Teleservices include collaboration solutions, cloud applications and a comprehensive suite of cyber security solutions across industries. The company has also partnered with Zoom Video Communications to offer world-class unified communication solutions to enterprises.
Mannu Singh said: “All these solutions appropriately address the needs arising out of a distributed and remote working environment and enable customers to maintain business continuity in a flexible, scalable, and secure manner.”
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