Microsoft Windows Server System

Customer Solution Case Study

Punjab National Bank Dramatically Improves

Rural Banking in India

Overview
Country or Region: India
Industry: Banking
Customer Profile
Punjab National Bank (PNB) is one of the
leading public sector banks in India. It has
a large retail-banking network of over
4,400 branches and service counters that
spreads out into far-flung and remote
areas.
Business Situation
PNB was faced with the prospect of
increased competition from new private
and international banks. It also faced the
challenge of linking all of its branch
operations into a cohesive entity to serve
its customers. The bank's operations serve
a widespread population that speaks many
different languages.
Solution
PNB chose BancMate from Natural
Technologies to run its branch banking
operations on Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server
2000.
Benefits
Bilingual software improves customer
relationships.

Easy to implement and troubleshoot.

User friendly, cuts training time.

Scalable from very small to large.

The Windows Server 2003based solution was easy

to implement as well as maintain remotely across our
network of far-flung rural branches.
K. S. Bajwa, General ManagerIT, Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is one of the 500 largest banks in the
world, and enjoys a rich history and heritage. PNB was the first
Indian bank to be started solely with Indian capital. Established in
1895 at Lahore, and nationalized in 1969, it has worked
assiduously to build the banking sector in rural and urban India. It
has presence in remote areas of the country, cutting across cultural
and linguistic boundaries. Computerization of the branches for data
accuracy, operational ease, facilitation of customer interaction with
banking products, and centralization of data was of concern for
remote branches. One of the important reasons for choosing
BancMatea multilingual Total Branch Automation (TBA) package
for rural and semi-urban brancheswas that it is based on
Microsoft Windows Server System, which provides ease of
learning and intuitiveness, as well as the ability to easily implement
and support solutions based on it.

We chose BancMate as
our rural banking
solution because it is a
robust solution.
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Situation
The Punjab National Bank (PNB) enjoys a
long and rich history; established in 1895, in
Lahore, in the then undivided India, it was the
first bank to be started solely with Indian
capital. Subsequent to the partition of the
country, PNB was popularly known as an
Indian Bank. As part of the nationalization of
banks that happened in 1969, PNB was also
nationalized.
Today, PNB operates 4,070 branches and
443 service counters across the country,
consolidating its position as one of the top
nationalized banks of India. PNB has been
ranked at 395th position amongst the top
1000 global banks by the prestigious
international publication The Banker.

K. S. Bajwa, General Manager - IT, Punjab

National Bank

We have been able to

deploy the BancMate
solution at over 2,300
branches in India over
the last two years, which
is a unique
achievement.
K. S. Bajwa, General ManagerIT, Punjab
National Bank

Like other scheduled banks in India, the PNB

also comes under the guidance of the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and as a
government establishment, it has to follow
directions of the government. Two directives,
one from the Reserve Bank of India and the
other from India's Department of Official
languages are key in this context. In 1985,
the Department of Official Languages
mandated that all electronic equipment used
in ministries and departments of the
government and their attached and
subordinate offices would need to be
bilingual. That is, they should be able to
handle both Hindi and English. By the year
2000, the Reserve Bank of India had
mandated that banks should have a clear IT
plan that should be implemented: that at
least 70 percent of all branches should be
computerized.
At this time, PNB was perhaps the least
computerized bank in the country. Not only
that, almost the entire IT team was new.
From that time onwards, PNB has come a
long way, winning laurels for its innovative
approach to IT implementation. It started out
by first purchasing over 4,000 standalone

PCs. As the next step, PNB needed to find a

solution that would automate its business
processes and link the existing PC "islands"
into a more meaningful and manageable
network.
Business Situation
Meanwhile, the banking environment in the
country had undergone a sea change, with
private banks and international operators
entering the fray, and both retail and
corporate banking operations becoming
increasingly competitive and under cost
pressure. Effectiveness of customer
interactions was also coming under pressure
with rising business volumes.
IT Infrastructure at PNB
With technology emerging as a key driver of
business growth, the bank has taken a
number of IT initiatives to provide its large
clientele spread all across the country with
the best of technology while retaining the allessential human warmth. Its core banking
system (CBS) already acts as a single data
bank, a backbone to 2,108 service outlets
with internet banking services spread over 28
states in the country. This deployment has
lent PNB the status of being the largest core
banking system in Asia.
The bank has 676 ATMs and also coordinates
with the MITR group of six banks with 2,200
ATMs. PNB is a member of Institute
Development and Research in Banking
Technology (IDRBT)-sponsored National
Financial Switch (NFS) for mutual ATM
transactions. NFS at present has 18 banks
and a pool of 6,197 ATMs. PNB has also
pioneered the cheque truncation system in
India. Other software fuelling the systems are
instant fund transfer mechanism, data
warehouse for decision control and MIS and
risk management software based on Basel II
guidelines set by the Bank for International
Settlements.

PNB has so far marketed BancMate (on

a Corporate License basis, i.e.,
complete banking on BancMate) to:
1.
United Bank of India
2.
Himachal Pradesh State Coop. Bank
3.
Joginedra Central Coop. Bank
4.
Haryana Ks. Grameen Bank
5.
Hissar-Sirsa Ks. Grameen Bank
6.
Himachal Grameen Bank
7.
Shivalik Ks. Grameen Bank
8.
Kapurthala-Ferozpur Ks. Grameen Bank
9.
Gurdaspur Amritsar K G V Bank
10. Shekhawati Gramin Bank
11. Alwar Bharatpur Anch. Grameen Bank
12. Bhojpur Rohtas Grameen Bank
13. Magadh Gramin Bank
14. Nalanda Gramin Bank
15. Patliputra Grameen Bank
16. Kisan Gramin Bank
17. Devi Patan Ks. Grameen Bank
18. Rani Laks.Mi Bai Ks. Grameen Bank
19. Vidur Gramin Bank
20. Muzaffarnagar Ks. Grameen Bank
21. Hindon Gramin Bank
22. Ambala Kurushetra Gramin Bank

About 77 percent of its business is connected

through leased lines, ISDN and VPN. Other
services such as mobile banking, utility bill
payments, funds transfer, e-commerce and
CRM through mobile shall be introduced for
the PNB branches including setting up a
network operating centre (NOC) to monitor
the CBS network.

BancMate for total branch automation and a

total of around 2,400 locations will be
automated by 2006. We have been able to
deploy the BancMate solution at over 2,300
branches in India over the last two years,
which is a unique achievement, comments
K. S. Bajwa, General ManagerIT, Punjab
National Bank.

Since all the major branches are fully

computerized and networked, PNB offers
value-added services like 'anywhere anytime
banking' through ATMs, and Corporate and
Retail Internet Banking Services. New online
services have also been developedbill
payment, railway ticketing, and payment of
fees. For these initiatives PNB bagged the
Nasscom Best IT user award in 2004 in the
BFSI sector. Other acknowledgements: ITIL's
certification for best practices in data
centres; BIS certification for 116 offices; ISO
2000 certification for services.

BancMate runs on Microsoft Windows 2000

Server and Windows Server 2003, with
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as the
database. The client runs on Windows 95 and
later. In smaller branches, a peer-to-peer
network on two machines running Windows
98 provides the infrastructure for running
BancMate.

Solution
It was in this context that the IT team set
about evaluating various solutions for retail
automation and settled on BancMate, the
multilingual solution from Natural
Technologies Private Limited for retail and
rural banking operations.
BancMate is unique in the fact that it is a
multilingual retail-banking package. A user
can simultaneously use two languages within
the system. Microsoft Windows Server
2003 operating system (part of Windows
Server System integrated server software)
was chosen as the implementation platform
because of wide familiarity with the platform,
as well as ease of operation and support,
given the far-flung and remote branch
network that the bank operates.
The roll-out began in 2001 (on Windows
2000 Server operating system), and today,
more than 2,300 branches are using

It took nine months to customize the 24

modules of BancMate to meet PNBs needs.
The Windows Server Systembased solution
provides an easy-to-understand interface,
reducing not only installation and support
costs, but also training costs.
PNBs Confidence
Viewing the robustness of the package on the
Windows platform in all aspects, PNB decided
to enter into a marketing agreement with
Natural Technologies to sell out the product
to other banks at a reasonable price.
PNB and Natural Technologies have
marketed BancMate so far to seven public
sector banks, 30 regional rural banks, one
private sector bank, one state cooperative
bank, and two cooperative banks across 28
states of the country.
Awards for PNB and BancMate
PNB itself has gone on to win many awards
for its innovative approach to IT
implementation. These awards include the
Best Bank Award for Excellence in Banking
Technology by the Institute for Development
and Research in Banking Technologies,

We liked BancMate so
much that we entered
into an agreement with
Natural Technologies to
market it to other banks
in India.
K. S. Bajwa, General Manager- IT, Punjab
National Bank

Hyderabad, and the Wharton Infosys

Business Transformation AwardEnterprise
Transformation Award for technology. PNB
also received the Innovator of the Year,
award from PC Quest, a leading Indian IT
magazine, for bringing in the regional
language support for rural banking that is
provided in BancMate.

Benefits
Commenting on the benefits of BancMate
and Windows Server System, Bajwa says We
chose BancMate as our rural banking
solution because it is a robust solution.
Together with Windows Server 2003 and SQL
Server 2000, it has never given us any
trouble. In addition, new IT staff members
also find it easy to adapt to the solution.
Easy to Implement
The implementation process is simple, fast
and user friendly. In the last two years, PNB
has been able to implement almost 2,300
branches to BancMate and plans to complete
implementation to an approximate total of
2,400 locations by 2006. Adds Bajwa, The
Windows Server 2003based solution was
easy to implement as well as maintain
remotely across our network of far-flung rural
branches.
User Friendly Software Cuts Training
Time
The entire retail banking process is covered
in just two screens in BancMate. This makes
it very easy for bank employees to adopt the
new technology. The advantage of the easyto-use features can be seen from the fact
that PNB branches at rural locations have
been running this solution successfully and
have not faced any resistance in adoption.
The simplicity of the Windows interface has
helped reduce training costs by bringing
training time down to ten days. We chose
BancMate as our rural banking solution
because it is a robust solution. The operating

system and database has never given us any

trouble. In addition untrained manpower also
finds it easy to adapt to the solution,
explains Bajwa.
Easy to Troubleshoot
Further, the ease at which networking and
configuration could be doneand
troubleshootingon the Windows platform
meant that PNB was able to get the
infrastructure up and running very fast, even
in the remotest of branches.
Bilingual Application Software Improves
Customer Relationship
BancMate enables the bank to meet the
directives of the Official Language Act of the
country. BancMate gives the bank the ability
to maintain the database in Hindi and
English, as required.
The multilingual solution has helped the bank
maintain a better relationship with its retail
and rural customers. By providing bank
statements in the local language, PNB is able
to bridge the divide in rural locations as well
as with semi-literate customers. PNB has
been able to effectively improve collections
as well as to reduce bad debts and non
performing assets in this market segment
effectively. This is primarily due to local
language support in Windows and BancMate.

Scalable from Very Small to Medium

Operations
The scalability of the solutionfrom a twocomputer network to a larger onemeant
that the bank could save on implementation
costs by right-sizing the infrastructure to the
needs of the particular branch.

Future Plans
PNB has decided to have only two banking
software solutions in the bank, in other
words, either a core banking solution or

The simplicity of the

Windows interface has
helped reduce training
costs by bringing
training time down to
ten days..."
K. S. Bajwa, General Manager- IT, Punjab
National Bank

BancMate. All the branches running on

different legacy software will be migrated to
either of the two solutions by June 2006.
PNB has chosen Natural Technologies to
develop additional modules on BancMate to
enhance its features and meet the growing
needs of PNB. These modules are being
integrated through a distributed architecture
with BancMate and a centralized architecture
comprised of the banks core banking
solution. These modules are:

Proposal tracking solution to manage
business proposals.

Collection of excise and sales tax as per
government of India regulations.

Pension solution for government and
personnel pensions.

Retail lending module for consumer loans,
vehicle loans, and so forth.

Structured financial messaging system for
online remittance transactions between
PNB branches.

Real Time Gross Settlement system for
inter-bank remittance operations.
PNB and Natural Technologies are now
working towards consolidating the entire
distributed BancMate data at the head office
for the purpose of generating an enterprisewide reporting system.
PNB and Natural Technologies are also
developing a new bilingual BancMate
centralized core banking solution based on
Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at 1600 111100.
To access information using the World
Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com/india/
For more information about Natural
Technologies (P) Ltd. products and
services, call +91-141-2549089 or visit
www.BancMate.com/

Microsoft Windows Server System

About Natural Technologies Private

Limited (NTPL)
Natural Technologies Private Limited has
created bilingual and multilingual solutions
primarily for the banking industry. Natural
Technologies is in the business of application
development, consulting, distribution of
software products, systems integration, and
data processing.

Microsoft Windows Server System integrated

server infrastructure software is designed to
support end-to-end solutions built on
Microsoft Windows Server 2003. It creates an
infrastructure based on integrated
innovation, Microsofts holistic approach to
building products and solutions that are
intrinsically designed to work together and
interact seamlessly with other data and
applications across your IT environment. This
allows you to reduce the costs of ongoing
operations; deliver a more secure and
reliable IT infrastructure; and drive valuable
new capabilities for the future growth of your
business.

For more information on Punjab National

Bank and its products and services, visit
www.pnbindia.com

For more information about Windows Server

System, please go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem

Software and Services

2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows Server, and
Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective
owners.
Published in April 2006

Products
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition

Partner

Natural Technologies Private Limited