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India's largest bank, State Bank of India, is three years into a sweeping technological overhaul aimed at integrating its vast branch network and other distribution channels onto a simpler platform in the face of growing domestic and foreign competition
Bringing State Bank of India (SBI) into the competitive multi-channel world of the 21st century is no easy task. Not only is India's vast infrastructure largely under-developed, the sheer size of SBI makes any pan-bank upgrade expensive and daunting.
Nonetheless, with domestic and (albeit restricted) foreign banks snapping at SBI's heels for a greater share of India's growing financial services market, the bank has had to usher in sweeping changes to keep ahead of the game.
Perhaps the most important of these is SBI's Core Banking Solution (CBS) initiative, which is, according to the bank, the largest project of its kind in the world. In essence, CBS is a multi-channel initiative covering SBI's branches, call centre, telephone and online banking services, aimed at integrating these 'core' channels onto a single electronic platform. SBI awarded the contract to leading Indian software developer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The deal with TCS was signed in 2002 and involves procurement, supply and installation of hardware and the core banking software, customisation of the core banking software, implementation,...