Mumbai, Feb 2: Bankers need to factor in the emotional needs of their customers. There is a paradigm shift taking place in the industry with the emphasis shifting from mass branding to concentration on individual needs - a shift from transaction-based dealings to relationship-based ones," said Mindtree Consulting co-founder Rostow Ravanan, addressing a session on New Channels and New Challenges, at the Trade Fair & Conference on Banking & Finance Technology which is being held in Mumbai. He indicated that this paradigm shift will necessarily call for decentralisation, with financial service providers focussing on individual branches and the incorporation of new technology, primarily the Internet and the deployment of infrastructure like ATM's and alternative access devices such as PDA's, iTV, kiosks etc.He added that technology was likely to unlock non-traditional sources of revenues for banks and financial institutions (FIs), the key driver being service that is more customer-oriented, increased customisation and faster product cycles. Banks would have to adopt a customer-centric approach and start empowering officials at the branch manager level, Mr Ravanan said.
Given the speed of change in the financial services sector, security, reliability, scalability and hi-availability are key issues, he said, adding that alliances would also propel growth for these companies.
Speaking on IT trends in the banking sector, Infosys Technologies' head of business consultancy group (bank business unit) Sanat Rao touched upon the fact that technology finds greater acceptability in banks once it matures and stabilises, leading to stability, reliability and security, given the conservative nature of the business.
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