Datacraft Redefines Connectivity for Regional Rural Banks in India

Initiates provision of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) to rural banks

Datacraft, the region’s leading IT solutions and services provider, has joined hands with a leading application service provider to provide a core banking solution to a number of regional rural banks (RRBs) in India. This initiative, sponsored by a leading Indian public sector bank, will redefine regional rural banking connectivity in the country. The programme aims to lend support to rural banks by offering the best of IT infrastructure through an innovative and economical model.

Speaking on this landmark project, Sunil Manglore, CEO of Datacraft India said, “Our objective is to provide connectivity to a large number of branches in order to empower their retail and small business customers. Together with our partners, we offer rich, varied and proven experience in technology as well as the banking domain knowledge that is instrumental in implementing banking solutions.”

The rural segment in India is a significant contributor to the country’s economy. However, 60 per cent of RRBs lack basic communication infrastructure or funds to develop this market. Built on next generation technology, this initiative will provide a comprehensive platform for banks to address strategic and operational challenges including customer demand, change management, competition and compliance, all in an effective and cost-efficient manner.

“For this initiative, the banks need not incur any capital expenses to procure the requisite hardware, software and network equipment; they only need to pay towards the usage of the applications and equipment on a monthly basis. That is charged based on predefined Service Level Agreements (SLAs),” Manglore added. “This directly resolves plaguing issues faced by the banking fraternity like lack of IT infrastructure, non-standardised software, adherence to KYC (Know Your Customers) norms and compliance issues.”

With a mandate for all RRBs to migrate to core banking by 2011 and the increasing focus on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines on financial inclusion, this initiative will connect over 4,000 branches by the end of the phased project. Datacraft is playing a pivotal role in implementing connectivity solutions for these branches via a flexible and cost-effective technology. In addition, it is responsible for the maintenance, management and uptime of the entire network including end-to-end IP security.

In order to ensure optimum feasibility for the project, the datacentre and Data Recovery site will be hosted out of different locations. Additional centralised applications will be hosted progressively depending on the requirements from time to time.

About Datacraft

Datacraft is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a US$4 billion leading global IT solutions and services provider. Datacraft operates in over 55 offices across 13 Asia Pacific countries. We help clients plan, build, support, manage, improve and innovate their IT infrastructures. Datacraft combines an expertise in networking, security, data centre, storage, Microsoft solutions and converged communications & contact centre technologies, with advanced skills in consulting, integration, training and managed services to craft IT solutions for businesses. For more information, please visit www.datacraft-asia.com