BoI puts instruction manuals, key signatures on CD

B S Srinivasalu Reddy

Mumbai, Aug 26: THE state-run Bank of India (BoI) has become the first bank in the country to put all its instruction manuals and frequently used printed material and circulars on an electronic mode, with the launch of compact disc (CD).

“We have put about 9,000 pages of material, including four manuals, index of circulars, branch information, addresses and codes of zonal and regional offices and, importantly, signatures of all the branch managers,” BoI general manager SC Jain told The Financial Express.

“This measure was to make things easier for the branch level staff to perform their functions and to avoid occurrence of frauds. Frauds can be avoided by verifying the signatures on the CD without much of an effort from now on,” Mr Jain said.

About 16,000 signatures of branch managers and higher officials of the bank was incorporated in the CD in an encrypted format. These can be accessed by typing the code, or name of the person, but cannot be copied. The manuals and circulars were kept in the HTML format so that changes in the text can be carried out frequently, Infoways Ana (the networking software solutions company which developed the software for the bank) director, Dr SA Vinekar, said.

Bank sources said that publication of these manuals and other booklets used by branch staff frequently used to be printed once in four years at a cost of over Rs 5,000 per set.

On the other hand, the CD costs around Rs 200 per copy, including the one-time costs incurred on development. Earlier, the manuals were being printed every four years, considering the huge cost involved in it, sources added. Dr Vinekar, the security system for the software, involved passwords at several levels and saving the signatures in non-corruptible pictorial format.

As a measure of further security, two sets of user names and passwords were given at the CD access level.

He said that the whole material was condensed to 180 MB of space (only 50 per cent of one CD) against the mandate of a full CD, given by the bank.

But, he said Infoways Ana CEO Gajanan Chavan said that the concept and software would be offered to other public and private sector banks. “Already, we are in talks with some public sector banks,” he added.