Infosys has won a $29-million mobile banking deal from ANZ Australia, one of the largest listed companies in Australia with assets of AU$531.74 billion. ANZ is a customer of Infosys? core banking product Finacle since 2006 and has used the solution to quickly expand its business in Asia. The deal is a positive sign for the sector, whose pipelines have been running dry of late.
According to sources, ANZ?s business is worth $60 million for Infosys currently and the latest win would make the bank an even bigger client for the software firm. In bagging the mobile banking deal, Infosys has reportedly beaten firms such as Accenture, Deloitte and other companies that offer consulting in the domain. Infosys said that it wouldn?t confirm or deny the development because it can?t speak of specific client wins. ?ANZ is our customer but I don?t want to subscribe to any rumours,? global head of Finacle Haragopal Mangipudi said.
FE couldn?t confirm the details of the product to be implemented at ANZ. Infosys, in October last year, had launched Finacle Mobile Banking 2.0, a product that enables its retail and corporate consumers to access banking services through mobile SMS, GPRS, 3G and USSD-enabled handsets. ?We have seen lots of interest in the product. Two banks have gone live on the product while other banks are in the process of implementing it,? Mangipudi said.
The news of the latest win will be heartening for Infosys since it recently lost a $20-million Finacle contract in the?US. On July 23, FE reported that California-based Union Bank has cancelled a contract with Infosys to implement its core banking software product, a development that could potentially hurt the product?s prospects in the?US. The Union Bank was Finacle?s first customer in the?US?and Infosys was in the middle of a first stage roll out of the product.
ANZ operates in more than 32 countries across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, Europe, Dubai, USA and Asia with around 8 million customers. It wants to grow its presence in the Asia Pacific region and source 25-30% of earnings from the Asia Pacific Europe and America Division by 2017. The bank now wants to be a dominant player in the consumer banking space and wants to launch more mobile banking offerings.
Infosys? latest win comes on the back of a successful roll out of Finacle core banking platforms across many countries for ANZ, including China, sources said.? The software product has been giving the bank?s customers access to real-time account balances, faster account processing and an expanded range of products and services including electronic options and debit cards.
As per market research firm Financial Insights, ANZ switched from a first-generation Internet banking solution, provided by Edify, to the Infosys Finacle platform in 2006. Since the first implementation, Infosys has come up with higher versions of the Internet banking product.?Finacle is one of the rare success stories in Indian software products globally. The product runs 47,000 branches worldwide and raked in $295 million in FY11, growing 42% over the previous year.?
Vaitheeswaran quits Infosys BPO
Seetharaman Vaitheeswaran, an executive who made the manufacturing vertical for Infosys BPO a force to reckon with, has quit the firm and would be joining Manipal Universal Learning (MUL), a subsidiary of the Manipal Educational and Medical Group as its chief operating officer in September. Vaitheeswaran helped the manufacturing vertical for Infosys BPO grow from a small $25-million entity to one worth $150 million in three years. Manufacturing is Infosys BPO?s biggest vertical now, generating about 38% of its revenues while employing 6000 people. Vaitheeswaran confirmed the development. His last working day at Infosys is August 26. The top notch executive joins a growing list of IT industry professionals turning to the important but neglected education sector.