Information System Analysis On Hdfc Bank
As part of the RBIs liberalization of the Indian Banking Sector in 1994, The Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited received an in principle approval
to set up a bank in the private sector. The bank was registered as ‘HDFC Bank Limited’, in August 1994 at Mumbai, India. HDFC Bank commenced its operations as a Scheduled Commercial Bank in January 1995. HDFC is one of the India’s premier housing finance company and it experiences an impeccable track record in Indian market as well as internationally.
overview
HDFC Bank provides a wide range of financial products, assistance and services to its more than 18 million customers across various hundreds of cities in India using multiple distribution channels including ATMs, phone banking, mobile banking and net banking. HDFC Bank is a dynamic bank, with a young and zealous team determined to achieve the vision of becoming a world-class Indian bank. The business philosophy is primarily based on four core values – Customer Centred, Operational Excellence, Product Leadership and People. With the belief that the ultimate identity and success of the bank will reside in the exceptional quality of our people and their extraordinary efforts, the bank is proving to do exceptionally well.
As on the year ended March 31, 2010, the Bank had a total income of Rs. 19,980.5 crores and net profit of Rs. 2,948.7 crores as against Rs. 19,622.9 crores and Rs. 2,245.0 crores respectively in the previous year signifies the growth and scope of the bank.The bank has three principal business sectors: 1.retail banking, 2.wholesale banking and 3.treasury operations.
vision and mission
HDFC Bank’s mission is to be a “World Class Indian Bank”, maintaining high standard against international standards, putting forward best practices in terms of product offerings, service levels, technology, audit & compliance and risk management. The main objective is to continue building excellent customer franchises all across distinct businesses so as to be the best provider for target retail and wholesale customer segments, which will result in healthy profits, consistent with the Bank’s risk appetite. HDFC Bank is dedicated to do these while also ensuring the upmost levels of ethical standards, integrity and regulatory compliance.
Business strategy:
Increase the market share in India’s banking and financial services sector by a disciplined growth strategy aiming at balancing quality and growth in profitability.
Enhance its technology and open saleable systems in order to deliver increased number of products to increased number of customers and to hold operating costs;
Maintain high standards through credit risk management;
Develop more and more innovative products and services that attract its targeted audience and address inefficiencies in the Indian market;
Develop products and adapt to services that reduce its cost of funds;
Aim at healthy earnings growth in financial segment with low volatility.
Infrastructure and Operations
Profile
HDFC Bank was incorporated in August 1994, and, currently has an nationwide network consisting of 1725 Branches and 4232 ATM’s in 779 Indian towns and cities.
Refer figure 1.
HDFC Bank in India operates on the following basic segments:
Personal Banking: Includes all financial deals between a commercial bank and
an individual.
Wholesale Banking: Includes all sorts of financial dealings within Corporates, medium
and small Enterprises, Financial Institutions and Trusts as well as the Government Sector.
NRI Banking – Includes personal banking relations with the Non Resident Indians.
HDFC Bank has been recognized, felicitated and awarded by a number of organisations.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
The Banking sector is pretty much used to the concept and implementation of Management Information System since decades.
Earlier during the start of 1980s the term MIS was used for the mainly making reports and to analyze the data.. This was then send to Top management, and decision were taken by them accordingly.
Management of Information system is really benefitial during taking decisions and is a collected result of both- Data mining and Data Warehousing.
Refer figure 2 for benefits of MIS.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
ARCHITECTURE: Hub And Spoke Architecture
The head quarter of HDFC is located in Mumbai. It has a network based IP which is centralized and the branches are spread across the nation and is connected to the main data centre at Chandvilli in Mumbai. Maharashtra.
Network:
A regional hub is defined such that the branches are categorized under different regions each having its regional hub. At the main region, the different branches coming under a single location are connected to the hub. These are then further connected to the central data centre using pipes having bandwidth of either 2 Mbps or 64 Kbps.There are two hubs instead of one.
In a matter of years to come, HDFC Bank has decided to put connections with the feature of built-in redundancy in the network itself. Like, Madras could be connected to Bangalore and Kolkata, with all three of them being connected to Chandivili. Therefore, if the Kolkata-Chandivili link fails, then Kolkata will use the Madras link to connect to the Chandivili data center. VSAT solutions is used for networking.
Servers
The bank uses SCO Unix and MicroBanker from i-flex solution.
With an increase on number of Bank’s branches, it became necessary to consider Unix/RISC operating systems instead of an Intel Unix platform, and thus the bank selected the Sun platform. Presently the bank is running its application on a Sun platform.
As there was a rise in the volume of transactions, the total number of branches as well as the number of users has resulted in up-gradation of the hardware platform also.The database used is DAS and network SAN.
Banking applications
The software used by the bank for corporate and retail banking are different. The reason for this is that there was no package which could cater to both the domains.
For the corporate sector HDFC Bank used MicroBanker after Flexcube. The Flexcube UBS uses a Compaq Alpha box-GS160. It also uses SAN solutions from Hitachi Data Systems. For the retail sector, the bank uses an offering from i-flex solutions : Finware.
There were no issues faced by the bank regarding migration as the products they used were easily upgradeable and were usually supplied by the same set of vendors. The vendors also ensured that the programs that they were supplying had the feature that could conveniently help in migration or upgradation.
Storage
The bank currently using SAN technology, but they may have to consider NAS technology in the future. This calls for huge investment as various areas such as backup, disaster recovery need to be addressed. The bank has to store data according to the RBI guidelines for seven years, and as it is not necessary to store the data on the net-the bank uses tapes for off-line storage of data. The bank anticipates storage costs to decrease, and bulk purchases would be economical.
Disaster Recovery setup
The approach is that is needed to protect our data first as the basis for a business continuity plan. The disaster recovery site of the bank is located in Chennai. The data which is tored at the main site is also replicated in real-time online at the site in Chennai as well. Servers store the data at the site of DR and constant replenishment takes place. Incase of any disaster , the data is replicated and is available to use. Hence , both the bank and the customer have a feeling of security.
BANK : HDFC BANK
Vendor NCR: To provide Cheque Clearing solutions to cheque clearing operations department
About NCR: (Refer figure 3)
NCR is one of the prime leading vendor of payment and image processing solutions. It’s core objective is to assist the financial institutes and companies to deliver products incorporating innovation in the constantly changing scenario of payments.
The solution enables transaction with references to items to be captured digitally centralized or distributed to ATMs, branches, processed, archived and exchanged.
These solutions are built with intensive knowledge and consulting and analysis by experts, integrated with a full range of high quality imaging transports and ATMs, and supported by a wide range of global customer services..
Other solutions included are like the cheque image processing, image storage and the retrieval, cheque and document imaging software etc.
CHEQUE CLEARING PROCESS (INDIA): (Refer figure 4 and 5)
The advent of the clearing process takes place with the cheque being deposited in the bank/branch from where it is drawn. The delivery of the cheque takes place to the specific branch or bank. Then the cheque is sent for payment if there are funds available and if the banker is convinced that it is genuine.
In case if the cheques are left unpaid, they are returned to the present bank through another clearing which is known as Return Clearing.
Signature Verification System (SVS):
Refer Figure 6
The Signature Verification System further strengthens the entire process of verification by complete electrification of the whole process. By taking the image of the signature cards, the operators now can have direct access to the stored image of the cheque as well as signature card ,during the time of verifying cheques.
The end result is that the entire process of cheque signature verification is carried out at a faster rate, also being more accurate as well as cost-effective compared to that of any other manual process.
CONCLUSION:
A management information system is a process which necessitates the manager with the information required to manage an organization efficiently and effectively. MIS is considered an essential component of effective and reasonable business decisions.
The report concludes that Management Information System is par beneficial to the Banks for its transaction. We have seen the cheque Clearing Process and the involvement of IT for the same.IT contribution to banking Sector has really facilitated fast communication and real time networking.
The Signature Verification System ensure the security and thus maintains the faith of the customer. Thus, the degree of customer satisfaction is enhanced.
Comment on the HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank has done exceptionally well considering its enthusiasm in MIS. Along with NCR it has received many award for preforming excellent. IT has been falicitated with the Multi-Channel Capability award for using the NCR APTRA eMarketing solution by NCR. IT facilitated the customers; communication via email,mobile services etc.
It has also received the best ATM Installation and Management Solution award for HDFC Bank adapting to the NCR APTRA eMarketing solution to enhance customer service, reduce ATM transaction times and operating costs, and increase new revenue channels through its ATM network.
Thus, establishing such IT infrastructure has reduced cost of paper for letters and faster access to the services available. It has also enhanced the customer experience. But, a lot more can be done on security which can again expand the applications for the customers and will built a sense of trust for the same.