All District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) will be computerised and run using the same common application software within the next few weeks.
The ELCOT-developed application software was launched at the Secretariat on Friday by Cooperation Minister Ko.Si. Mani and Information Technology Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna.
Mr. Mani said that with the new software, interoperability between banks would become easier, customers could be served with better efficiency, and cost of operation would come down.
Officials said that the data porting into the common application software had been done in 1021 branches and about 930 branches were already online. The software was developed using open source technology with Struts framework. It consists of 33 modules, which cater to two major divisions – branch banking and head office module. The branch banking module addresses all the basic banking functions. The head office module covers the back office operations, such as staff management, payroll, ‘thapal', reconciliation and treasury operations.
The officials said that the software security met the international standards for financial transactions and was scalable to Core Banking Solution. Any delivery channel such as ATM, internet banking and SMS banking could be enabled. ELCOT, through open tender process, awarded the software development and implementation of the CAS at three pilot locations to a firm, Onward e-Services Limited, at a cost of Rs.1.37 crore. The web-based application was tested by a special team. For rolling out through Facility Management Services, ELCOT chose two firms – Onward and Wipro.
The total value of rollout was Rs.2.01crore (1030 locations – 23 DCCBs head offices; 717 branches and 129 UCBs and 170 branches). Facility Management Services include data migration, application software training to end-users and hand-holding support for two weeks at branches.
