The 300-year-old Barclays Bank Plc started offering corporate banking services to Indian customers in November 2006. The British-origin bank currently operates four branches in India, but believes that this limited number will not hamper its growth as it can use technology to reach customers across the country. It recently launched ‘Hello Money’, a mobile banking service based on the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform. Sridhar Guru, Director, IT, Barclays Bank Plc, in conversation with Biztech2.0, elaborates on the IT infrastructure that's gone into developing this mobile banking service.

What kind of IT infrastructure have you developed to support mobile banking?

Efforts to develop a robust IT platform began a year before we launched services in India. We started off from a functional architecture viewpoint while concentrating on various aspects, such as the automation capability a country like India will need, and the discrete computing platforms required. We also focused on statutory and regulatory automation platforms that banks are required to have, such as Basel II and other RBI-based reporting. Above all, we had to pay attention to how these systems will interact with each other, to enable us to reach customers through various channels such as branches, the internet, mobile phones and ATMs. A strong IT team of 5000 people in the parent organisation also helped us to go live in an emerging market like India.

What kind of platforms do you have for Hello Money?

Hello Money isn’t a ready-made solution; it's a combination of various things. The core application environment is based on the Java platform. While we were the architect; Bharti Telesoft helped us build the key application. The security platforms we used meet ISO and telecom security standards. The hardware platform is a combination of technology from IBM & Cisco that provides connectivity and security. Indeed, security has been given utmost importance while developing the solution. We made sure that the application is secure not only in terms of its software code, but also in terms of software environment and hardware platforms. So there's security and encryption at three levels.

How is the USSD platform different from other platforms?

It is primarily the difference between menu-based and message-based mechanisms. The former lets you transact in a more interactive way, whereas the latter is more a store-and-forward model. A message-based model primarily involves SMS, while a menu-based option involves technology such as USSD, GPRS and WAP-based menus. The interactive model is obviously much better as it does not leave any critical financial transaction information on your cellphone. A clear advantage of USSD is its ability to be invoked from any cellphone of any make or type. This helps us to bank with the unbanked.

What kind of challenges did you face while developing this solution?

In case of mobile banking, the major concerns were choice of technology, how to make it more secure, how to create the user interface, and even the choice of languages to be provided. We faced more challenges on the lines of how to define and build something for the first time. We had to conduct many market surveys and target customer surveys in terms of what will/won't work, what’s the best mechanism to deliver the solution, how to make it more secure, and other traditional challenges.

As far as the multi-channel strategy is concerned, what role does IT play?

At this stage we're trying to have a full-fledged channel integration strategy. For a bank that has a fairly limited geographical distributional channel – just four branches – it becomes crucial to leverage these channels to penetrate deeper into the customer market. The leadership position we desire will involve significant action on the integration of these channels. For us, a channel integration strategy is not just about building a CRM or IVR solution, or giving people the opportunity to do the same things on the internet and mobile phones. It’s really about discovering the current capability of each channel and bridging the gap between channels for further growth.

What suggestions can you give those interested in developing mobile banking solutions?

I would suggest that they keep a lot of focus on innovation. The CIO is supposed to build a culture of innovation in the organisation. I think it really helps to have a bottom-up strategy instead of top-down. Those in the bottom layer must be given an opportunity to come up with new ideas. You really have to have a constant view of where the business is headed, and of the traction that technology is able to provide. It is also significant to ensure that technology organisations (vendors) get an equal status in terms of devising the solution. It’s a two-way street.