The major objectives of bank automation are better customer service, flawless book keeping and prompt decision-making that leads to improved productivity and profitability. The concept of bank automation started in the year 1981, but it was during the period 1984-1987 banks in India started the branch level automation, making use of the then available MSDOS based stand alone computers. This initiative was taken by the banks on the basis of “First Rangarajan Committee report” on bank computerisation submitted in the year 1984. ALPMs (Advanced Ledger Posting Machines) were the fashion in those days. However, the pace of bank automation was very slow in the banks primarily owing to the lack of trade union consensus on bank automation.
Another committee was constituted in 1988 under the chairmanship of Dr. C Rangarajan, the then Deputy Governor of RBI to slate down a perspective plan on automation of banks for a five year period. This paved way to the implementation of multi-user Total Branch Automation packages running on a LAN (Local Area Network), either on a Netware or a UNIX operating system. With the implementation of TBA, banks started to offer the facilities of exclusive Customer Terminal, Single window transaction, on-line and off-site ATMs, Tele-Banking etc.
But with the advent of new generation private sector banks in India during 1994-1996, the real era of bank marketing started and these banks started to offer any where and any time banking facilities to its customers. This was possible for them mainly owing to the fact that they opted for the implementation of a WAN (Wide Area Network) based centralised banking solution rather than a LAN based branch banking solution to network their limited number of branch outlets.
The old generation banks in India hesitated to follow this banking fashion on account of its large network of branches on one hand and the then prevailing exorbitant IT cost on the other hand. But with the globalisation and liberalisation of Indian market and with the enactment of TRAI (with a mission to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country in a manner and at a pace which will enable India to play a leading role in emerging global information society) during the late nineties, there happened a drastic reduction in IT cost.
Improved telecommunication facilities and reduction in hardware as well as networking cost changed the mind set of the banks in India to try the CBS option. This also equipped them with the required technology leverage to compete in the Indian market by offering the similar technology products and services, as those offered by their new generation competitors.
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