BoB chairman and managing director PS Shenoy said, "With the active association of Gartner, the bank is planning a paradigm shift from islands of computing to enterprise level computing, and from manual to electronic banking. It will expand its activities in core banking, Internet banking, open ATMs and kiosks for reaching out to customers through several touch points, using wide-area networking."

Gartner is one of the world's leading IT research and advisory firms, headquartered in Stamford (Connecticut, USA). Its revenue in fiscal 2000 was $859 million. It has 4,300 associates, including 1,400 research analysts and consultants, located in more than 80 locations worldwide. Gartner is already engaged with ICICI Bank and Global Trust Bank for advising and research assignment, and 25 per cent of its revenues come from the banking sector.

BoB selected Gartner from 100 IT companies and it will help the bank to transform into a technology bank as well as provide convenience to the customers. "It will help the bank in business and IT-strategy, technology-plan, its implementation and post-implementation monitoring," Mr Shenoy said.

With the appointment of Gartner, the bank hopes to accelerate its progress in these directions for enhancement of customer satisfaction and achieving higher volumes of business, According to Mr Shenoy, BoB plans to invest around Rs 250 crore to Rs 300 crore in the next two or three years. In the next two years BoB may have separate IT subsidiary, for which they will recruit 200 young specilist officers. Out of this, Rs 50 crore will be used for wide-area network, Rs 150 crore will be used for core banking solutions, and Rs 50 crore for Internet banking and ATMs. The bank will write off these amounts over the next three fiscals as per the RBI guidelines.