Strategic Cost Management in Financial Services
Peter Chadford, Enterprise Application Sub-Practice Manager - Sun Microsystems Inc.

Synopsis: Cost containment was the strategy for most of the financial services industry throughout 2003 and 2004 as it sought its way out of a global recession. Although pressure on IT budgets continues, many financial services institutions are dedicating an increasing portion of their total technology investments to new developments, due to a strong focus on strategic cost management and the beginnings of a recovery in global markets. Moreover, leading financial services institutions are redirecting a portion of their maintenance spending to a long overdue transformation of legacy systems which in the past have drained IT budgets but have been able to address new business processes . It is estimated that the financial services industry globally were investing 38% of their 2004 technology budget of $334 billion in new and upgraded solutions and that this ratio will grow to 44% by 2009. Those institutions with renewal strategies to eliminate cost from legacy environments combined with an emphasis on delivery channels and customer analytics may potentially reshape the competitive environment in financial services.

The focus of this presentation will be on how some leading financial services firms are deploying strategic cost management policies as the basis to align their technology strategies to address the most pressing business issues facing financial institutions in 2005 and beyond.

The Road ahead in Banking Technology
Swarup Choudhury, Director, Financial Services Sector, Asean/South Asia - IBM India

Multi-channel Banking: The Power of the Network
Jangoo Dalal, Sr. Vice President (Enterprise) & Country Head - Cisco Systems India & SAARC

Synopsis: In today's competitive environment, sustaining profitable growth is a challenge. A good network solution helps power a bank's success. The power of the network can be harnessed for multi-channel customer interaction, for making the business resilient, and having a secure and robust infrastructure to support the business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Banking on Technology - The Imperatives for the year ahead
Balaji Iyengar, Principal Consultant, Finacle - Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Synopsis: This session will focus on banking technology trends and imperatives for banks going ahead into 2005. Some imperatives which involve technology will be looked into and how technology has played a key role in risk management for banks and enhancing customer experience.

Server Consolidation
S. Radhesh, Program Sales Manager - InfraStruXure Solutions - APC

Synopsis: The presentation will outline strategies for improving the availability of Network Critical Physical Infrastructure in a dynamic world.

Implementing Basel II - Issues & Practical Approaches
H. S. Rajashekhar, Principal Consultant - Risk Management - i-flex solutions

Synopsis: In this presentation, the speaker proposes to largely focus on practical issues in the context of key initiatives to be taken for implementing Basel II. He will address these at both macro (systemic) and micro (individual institutions) levels. He will present the comprehensive framework of the “Seven-steps approach to Basel II implementation”. He will discuss readiness self-assessments, tools, solution components and overall IT solution framework. He will share key insights and learnings from some interesting projects and also close interactions with bankers and regulators globally.

Java: Achieving Personalization in Retail Financial Services
Yogesh Gowda, General Manager - Financial Service Industry - Sun Microsystems India

Synopsis: One of the most significant trends in retail financial services today is the increasing interest in multiple channel delivery systems. The move to multichannel delivery is motivated by defects in today’s solid channel infrastructure as well as by compelling changes in consumer behavior, the financial services industry, and technological capabilities and specifically the increased focus on wealth management products.

Architecture is the key to multichannel delivery. The success of any multichannel delivery environment depends critically on clearly separating the delivery end points, customization for the delivery channels, the services that drive the delivery channels, customer relationship services, and core systems. By separating channel end points, channel services, common business objects, core systems, and customer relationship services, a proper architecture can meet the requirements established for multichannel delivery.

This presentation will provide an overview on the role that each of the components play in a multichannel architecture and will focus on why many financial services firms consider CRM to be the "soul" of an integrated multichannel delivery architecture. Special emphasis will be placed on the benefits of utilizing Java technology as the infrastructure for multichannel delivery. The presentation will also investigate why fundamental requirements like network identity are critical in any financial services architecture. We will also share case studies outlining best practice and pitfalls of some leading financial services firms who have already embarked on this journey.

Anti Money Laundering - Views from a Technology Lens
Hanuman Tripathi, Managing Director - InfraSoft Technologies

Synopsis: Money Laundering activities are increasingly difficult to detect due to the growing complexity of financial instruments, Globalization of banking industry and complicated schemes. The problem is compounded by the issue of physically scrutinizing high volumes of transactions, dealing with well-equipped and well-funded perpetrators and the increasing role of professionals with sophisticated technologies.

In this regard, the role of technology is more than just an enabler, it is an intricate part in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. InfrasoftTech is the only Indian company to have global implementations of its AML solution across US, UK, SE Asia and Middle East. In this presentation we disseminate through the key global AML requirements for financial institutions and try to understand how effective policies, procedures and appropriate technology help mitigate this risk.

Creating an Enterprise Wide Payments Business: Key Organisation & Technology Considerations
Shakti Saran, Management Consultant - IBM Business Consulting Services

Synopsis: The Introduction of Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) by the Reserve Bank of India promises to transform the dynamics of payment services offered by Indian banks. Whilst 'payments' has always constituted a fundamental pillar of banking, the profileration of payment options both electronic and paper based, wholesale and retail makes it imperative for banks to look at payments holistically and to treat this is an enterprise wide business, along the lines of lending and deposit taking.

Customers of banks' now have several payment options to avail of. For example, in recent times, we have seen the introduction of payment mechanisms such as EFT, ECS, debit cards, smart cards and now payment mechanisms adopting RFID (remote freqeuency identification) technology. These newer options, have strangely not reduced the isssuance of paper based MICR cheques. Since India remains an underbanked country, the issuance of cheques is on the rise despite the introduction of these newer forms of payments including RTGS. The Reserve Bank of India, in response to this trend, has initiated a cheque truncation pilot project with the objective of eventually phasing out physical clearing houses.

All of the above developments will require banks to make substantial investments if they wish to offer the gamut of payment avenues to their customers. Unfortunately, the payments business remains a highly scattered one with no real focus. Similarly the infrastructure within banks indicates multiple, pehaps inconsistent, ways in which the payments functions are organised with the existence of disparate systems in various places for numerous payment instruments across different businesses. This fragmentation is in turn an outcome of the varying organisation structures and business lines that historically exist in Indian banks.

This presentation dwells on this problem but largely focuses on remedies that banks will need to put in place to streamline their payments business and convert it into a healthy profit centre. They key considerations put forth will centre around organisational and technolgy issues.

Future of Banking
Raju Daryani, General Manager - Temenos

Synopsis: As banks moved into the 21st century, consumer’s banking needs are getting more complex and demands are for more innovative products offerings. As a result, the technology architecture of banks needs to be able to be more flexible and achieve faster go-to-market product strategy.

The speaker will share his thoughts about the inherent challenges of migrating from a legacy environment to a future bank platform. Technology and software architectures are discussed in the context the business requirements and customer service in an ever-changing technological environment.

Experience Banking
Neeraj Dotel, Industry Manager - Financial Services - Microsoft Corporation

Synopsis: Banking, an industry known worldwide for predictable business practices and measured evolution, is facing sweeping and unprecedented change. Customers demand personal service anytime, anyplace, and across any channel, with the competition a mouse click or a street corner away. These changes, compounded by mega-mergers, decreasing margins, regulatory changes, and fierce competition, present both challenges and opportunities.

More than ever, banks must adapt quickly to survive. They need to find new value in existing systems as well as ways to explore new market opportunities and relentlessly improve the quality of products and services.

This session discusses how upcoming technology can help banks gain a clear view of resources, open lines of information exchange, and implement adaptable, integrated systems that can be used to change the customer, employee, and operations experience.

Banking on Technology for Risk Management Solutions
C. Krishnan, Principal Consultant (Risk Management) - TCS

Synopsis: Technology plays a vital role in implementing the Enterprise Risk Management system effectively. Using the right strategy and IT underpinnings, a bank now has the capacity to quantify not only credit and market risk but also operational risk across the entire enterprise Technology enables linking more granular data and analyses required under Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley and the U.S. PATRIOT Act to key financial data, leveraging it into an integrated ERM approach.

Most banks have separate departments and systems for calculating the Bank’s exposure to the three major types of risk; credit (customers defaulting on payments), market (losses to market factors such as exchange rate shifts, interest rate shifts) and operational (losses due to natural or man-made accidents or disasters). This means they are unable to gain an overall picture of risk exposure. Gaining an enterprise-wide view of risk has become increasingly important for banks for two main reasons:

1. The New Basel Capital Accord introduces more stringent requirements for risk measurement and management, particularly in the area of credit risks
2. Since the different types of risk affect each other, banks need an enterprise-wide view of risk in order to make sound business decisions.

Simplifying the Data Deluge through Storage Virtualization
V. Vivekanand, Director Sales-SAM, APAC - Hitachi Data Systems

Synopsis: In this session, Bruce Symes will demonstrate the real value to the banking community of STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION. He will demonstrate that virtualization simplifies the complex tasks of consolidating multiple and varied storage platforms to enable simplified business continuity, disaster recovery, data lifecycle management and more rapid deployment of regulatory compliance statutes. The real value being realized through huge cost savings in staffing, training and expensive telecommunications infrastructure

Business Intelligence Maturity Roadmap for Indian Banks
Gagandeep Arora, Country Head (BI & KM Practice) - TCS

Synopsis: The banking scenario in India is heading for an evolutionary change driven by the changing socio-economic dynamics of India and globalisation. In order to survive, sustain, leverage and grow, banks need to relook at the portfolio, operational excellence and target market segment. The convergence and integration of business, processes and technology is the need of the hour. One of the key driver is to map the Business Intelligence (BI) need with business drivers and set a BI program to achieve the desired objective. In order to monitor and govern the program, there is a need to build the BI maturity roadmap that will help banks in measuring (tangible/intangible) benefits.

Next Generation Cabling for Data Centers
D. S. Nagendra, Country Sales Manager (Enterprise Networks) - ADC Krone

Synopsis: ADC KRONE is a world leader in providing global network infrastructure products, services and software that enable the profitable delivery of high-speed Internet, data, video, and voice services over our customers’ unique networks. Our customers are served regionally around the world by businesses focused on solutions designed for telecommunications, wireless, cable, and enterprise networks. In the current business environment where customer service, downtime and speed are critical, it is essential that an Enterprise is able to improve connectivity. Enterprises that have deployed the most reliable connectivity solutions in their LAN and Datacenters will have an advantage. Connectivity solutions consisting of Speed, bandwidth and future proofing is recommended for Data Centers.

10 Gigabit over Ethernet is a technology that can deliver multiple gigabit speeds to the enterprise with the cost benefits of copper. ADC KRONE’s revolutionary CopperTen is the world’s first "Copper Ten 10 Gig UTP" cabling solution that has made this possible. Datacenters can future proof their networks by supporting tomorrow’s protocol to the full 100m with CopperTen.

Rapid Enterprise wide Application Rollouts: A case study in Core Banking
Ashish Basu, President & Global Head - NIIT

Synopsis: NIIT's learning solution for applications and business processes support your efforts to provide your employees with anytime-anywhere training that accommodates different learner types and needs. NIIT uses a blended learning model that combines instructor led, electronic course facilitation, expert access, online mentoring, and learning portal based content distribution. The turnkey solution can be deployed to deliver training on:
- Business applications like Core Banking, CRM, Data warehousing and data mining
- Business processes and new product rollouts
- Basic IT skills and soft skills
Key Benefits:
- Reduced time to skilling
- Ensure rapid and scalable training delivery - Realize cost savings in learning delivery by using a blended learning model