Infosys Finacle platform announced

New enterprise management platform looks to simplify and condense banking

Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing, recently launched Finacle 11E, an advanced universal banking solution that simplifies banking transformation. The solution, launched in mid-September at the Sibos conference in Dubai, advertises a componentized approach to help banks rapidly modernize their operations while minimizing risk. Its enterprise-class components are expected to enhance the efficiency of a bank's operations, while improving customer experience across all channels.

Finacle 11E builds on Finacle's success of delivering powerful benefits to global banks, including a reported annual rate of return of over 55 percent on core banking transformation investments¹. It also facilitates the launch of new products and services faster - Finacle reports that its clients have experienced an average improvement of 33 percent in their time to market.²

The componentized structure makes it easy for banks to quickly target new customer segments. Banks can also choose the components they need and replace their existing systems one step at a time, to progressively modernize their business.

But the 11E's prime selling point is its enterprise class capabilities, which help banks eliminate duplicate applications[SO1] , reducing costs of operations and simplifying processes. With this release, Finacle has added six new enterprise components to its suite, including a payments process, multichannel framework, liquidity management and loan origination.

In an interview with Capital Business, Haragopal M, the Global Head of Finacle Infosys, explained that "You're getting a single place for the data with a 360 view of comprehensive information. So your existing legacy applications can feed on this system and they can benefit. [Users] don't have to enter it multiple times, or look at joining the data," he said.

"When you have an enterprise class, when a regulation or change happens, you don't have to change it in 20 different systems; you change it one place, and that gets circulated down. So one, the cost will be better, and two, the cycle time will be better," Haragopal added, noting that customers report a 19 percent efficiency boost with integrated enterprise systems.

Apart from being an open solution which can seamlessly interface with other enterprise applications leveraging industry standards, Finacle 11E creators have reported that it provides readymade business and integration adaptors, a necessary tool in the world of stringent regulations and shifting standards.

Indeed, a prominent topic at the press conference for 11E's launch was the effect of new banking regulations on costs for the institutions. At one point, NR Narayan Murthy, Executive Founder and Chairman of Infosys, alleged that new regulations would cost banks an estimated six million year-on-year.

In his interview with Capital Business, Haragopal took the question of regulatory costs into consideration when discussing the new platform.

"First of all, compliance depends on what kind of environment you have inside the bank. Compliance is not the same for everyone," he said, referring to the difficulty some banks face with integrating across multiple platforms. "It is in your ability to manage that complexity and legacy to not only make it cheaper, but essentially make it more feasible. Look at an integrated platform like 11E, and you don't really have to cloud the data from multiple sources. When you have various applications from multiple sources, then there is a conflict of the data. In a way, compliance, whether risk-related reporting or operational, each of these requires having all the data, in one place, and with an integrated view. Which all makes compliance much faster and easier."

"When a bank is compliant, you have the trust not only of the regulators and consultants but also the consumers. It has a ripple effect in terms of your business structure," Haragopal added.

But is Finacel's 11E readily adaptable to new regulations, especially considering the recent onslaught?

"Finacle by definition is a very compatible application. So when you need to change a process or a product definition, you don't have to call for that, you don't have to develop anything, [its within the system]. Because we have a service-oriented architecture, even your legacy can relay the same data," Haragopal explained.

Finacle 11E boasts new capabilities that include Islamic trade finance, leasing and hire purchase, factoring, alternative investments, and financial planning, though some seem to still be in the works.

"We were late coming to the Islamic finance field," Haragopal explains. "And why was that? Because we didn't want to just repurpose an existing solution just for the sake of it. So we went back to the drawing board, and said 'how do I marry the enterprise class of management with the paradigm of the Islamic finance business rules.'"

Why go that route? Haragopal explains that "there are lots of systems that are small and start very quickly, but once the volumes pick up, they will have a challenge. This is what happened with core banking.

"We're taking the pressure off of whether the system can perform or not; so you can say, 'go ahead and increase the business a 100 times. And we seem similar volumes picking up in Islamic finance over the next few years, so you need a similar architectural platform to core banking for Islamic finance," Haragopal said. "Good things take time."

The press conference for the product's release, held in Dubai during the Sibos Banking and Finance conference, saw Emirates NDB Chief Information Officer Ali Sajwani attend to show his support to the technology. "Finacle Core Banking Solution has been powering our operations since 2009. As a long term partner, Finacle has helped us grow both organically and inorganically," he said. "It is encouraging to see Infosys constantly evolving their solution to meet growing needs of banks for simplification and easy modernization. We are currently rolling out their new liquidity management solution to offer tailor-made cash management products to our corporate and SME clients."

 "Complexity of business operations and need for technology modernization are amongst the biggest hurdles to accelerate growth today. Leveraging the componentized nature of Finacle 11E, banks can choose to deploy a solution in phases based on business priorities. This ensures simplified transformation journey and faster realization of modernization benefits," Haragopal conclude at the conference.

© Capital Business 2013