Datanet Systems Ltd's IPO has evoked a good initial response as investors pick up more than 1 lakh out of 3.15 lakh shares on the offer, in the first day itself. The issue, which opened for subscription on August 23, will close on August 28. The shares are offered at a price of Rs 10. The eventual aim of the IPO is to list Datanet on NASDAQ, for which there is a pre-requisite that a company should be listed in its domestic country, informs Hari M Sharma, director, Datanet.Datanet Systems, formerly known as Datanet Corporation, was incorporated in 1995 and currently has offices in Delhi and Bangalore. It is a key solution provider to the banking sector and has developed workflow automation solutions like Any Branch Banking (ABB), Any Where Banking (AWB), Web Banker, Bankflow, EFT, etc. Its e-banking suite of solutions includes e-check, e-purse, e-credit, and e-DD. The company has one development centre in Bangalore and is planning to expand its existing facilities. The company, has floated the IPO to part-finance its expansion plans and to meet its working capital requirements, says Sharma.
Apart from this, the company has also developed and patented a platform, based on groupware technologies. The product, which is called Business Process Automation systems (BPAS), competes with the likes of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange, and enables workflow automation.
Another of its solutions, Total Bank Automation (TBA) has been installed in several banks, including the Bank of Baroda and the Federal Bank. In fact, Federal Bank, which has installed TBA in 120 branchs, is also using the ABB and cash management system, developed by Datanet, informs Sharma. Apart from these, Datanet's TBA has also been deployed in 350 post offices by the Department of Post. According to Sharma, Datanet is the only company in India to have developed a cash reconciliations online (CRO) software. CRO, which has been deployed by Bank of Baroda, enables inter-branch interaction, wherein deposits and withdrawals in all banks are instantaneously displayed at all the branches. ``CRO prevents situations where one branch of the bank has to take loans to from another bank to fulfill a deficit, not knowing that the another of their own branches has a cash surplus,'' explains Sharma. All Datanet products are platform independent. "So our applications can be deployed in any of the banking automationplatforms available in the market," he adds. The other focus area of Datanet is its smart card, which enables ABB. Datanet's smart card based on Payflex smart card, specially developed by French company, Schulmerger, for financial and banking transactions. Apart from these, Datanet has also developed a mobile banking solution based on WAP technologies, informs Sharma.
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