In conceptual terms, the development of the software has been driven by a clear understanding of the fast-changing environment for banking transactions. The new focus will be the customer and technology. In the future, more and more customers will use less and less of across-the-desk and person-to-person transactions in banks. As customers look for easy access, web-enabled systems will replace branch mode of operations, curtailing transaction costs.

Add the information data bank and you have a formula for leveraging the bank's resources. The software spans itself from enabling the customer to operate from web and mobile phone at one end to integration with payment gateways at the other end.Customer profiling will be easy and banks can use the technology effectively to market new products to target customers with the time to market being sharply narrowed down.

According to Infosys spokesperson, the company would not suffer from the disadvantage of being a late starter in comparative terms to the well-developed western economies and the software emerging from there. The unfolding of web is a new development even to the western economies. And what Infosys has done is to take technology to the front end. Therefore, it is on level-playing field now.

And what about software developers from the advanced countries selling their banking software solutions in the Indian market. While the company spokesperson admitted that this is not impossible, the investor will have to make a more careful assessment of the ground realities, before he draws any conclusion. On the other hand, Infosys would be marketing the software not only in India but also in the global markets. Being scalable and adaptable, the package is believed to accommodate linguistic differences.

The proof of the pudding as they say is in eating. Investors would have to wait and watch if Infosys manages to sell the software in good numbers in Europe, the US and Japan.Infosys spokeperson pointed out that banks in advanced countries were spending billions of dollars in upgrading their software from legacy system to web-enabled system. Time will prove how successful Infosys is in selling this product to major players in the developed world. At home, it is a well-known fact that there are many players in banking software.

That is because this is a competitive industry catering to a diverse band of banking customers. Of course, Infosys is addressing the higher end of the spectrum. It has based its product on the strategy that in future, finance transactions will have to be in the nature of a single-window service. This makes sense, as money, credit and debit transactions will have to flow seamlessly across several activities, from payment of bills to stock market transactions.

In the long run, Infosys has a winning strategy. As to how much it will add to the bottomline will be difficult to predict right now. During the launch of the product, it became clear that the price of the product to each bank will depend upon the complexity and range of applications. However, Infosys will be upgrading all its existing clients to the new technology. The new technology may call for some additional investments in networking and communication hardware. So in the final analysis, put it down to intangibles, if you like. The new software shows that Infosys is not complacent and is keen to keep itself in the forefront.

Company Law Settlement Scheme
Serious doubts have been raised by the corporate sector about the success of the Company Law Settlement Scheme (CLSS) introduced by the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) which has set a collection target of Rs 100 crore. The DCA has not done its homework properly, said an eminent company secretary. It has not been able to sell the scheme to the target audience.

First and foremost, the notices regarding non-filing of statutory documents have been sent to many companies which have filed the same. These companies will now have to send an explanation to the registrar stating that they had already complied with the relevant requirements of law. The registrar, in turn, will have to check the company's claims from his records, thereby unnecessarily wasting his time.

Secondly, in some cases, the notices have been sent to the old registered office of the company in spite of the intimation by the company regarding its change of address. A company, which changed its registered office from Gujarat to Maharashtra five years ago, got a letter from the Registrar of Companies (ROC), Gujarat instead of the ROC, Mumbai.

Although the DCA is trying hard to publicise the scheme, a notice presented to the right person will serve the purpose better than outdoor publicity.The DCA has also failed to recruit additional manpower to handle the scheme, which has imposed additional burden on the existing employees. This has influenced the functioning of the ROC as a result of which the time taken to complete normal work has gone up.

The department has also added to the confusion by stating in the notification that immunity would be granted only when the designated authority is satisfied. A declarant would expect to be relieved from all hassles after he has filed the declaration and paid the relevant fees. However, if the designated authority is not satisfied, then the declarant would not only lose the amount of penalty paid, but also could face prosecution for a matter undetected earlier.

There are more than 5.5 lakh companies in the country out of which more than 2.5 lakh default in filing their documents. A majority of these defaulting companies are defunct and there is no activity being carried out by them.It is more convenient for these companies to get their names struck off from the list of companies by not filing their annual returns than to apply to the ROC under section 560 of the Companies Act for their names to be deleted.It would be in the government's interest to introduce provisions which address to this matter or it would have to come out with a new settlement scheme every five years.

KSESH (with contribution from Prashant Kothari)