The interaction one had with Arvind Sharma, director, Institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology, was truly an eye opener as it brought to the fore that increased competition from foreign banks and robust IT applications have been driving the cooperative and PSU banks to upgrade their IT infrastructure.
BFSI is today fast emerging as a high growth area where the pie for the channel is increasing by the day though these accounts were traditionally well guarded and serviced by the vendors themselves.
Not long ago, the channel partners were confronted with major challenges in addressing this space. And the hurdles were in the form of investment, building skills, long gestation periods and inadequate technical know how.
But the ground realities are changing. These days, one sees optimism not confined to merely metropolis-based Value Added Resellers (VARs) who already have the experience of being at the forefront of catering to IT applications business with a number of leading banks, financial institutes and brokers.
Even smaller resellers in the metros or for that matter partners in cities like Indore or Ahmedabad say that customers in the banking and financial sector look at the channel for support “at least regionally”.
Banks and other financial institutions prefer working with a single channel member who can address their day-to-day IT applications.
What has essentially come to herald a new wave of change is that in order to continue having greater value, vendors will have to increase their penetration through partners that manage the end-to-end stack.
Small-town resellers say while business with banks and financial institutions is a relatively new paradigm for them, they are finding takers in leading banks like State Bank of India, Union Bank of India and ICICI Bank at various levels.
Banks, on their part, are also showing keenness partnering with small partners as they would prefer better returns on IT investments and more reach with ensured supervision at the micro level. Several banks(not just the big ones), even those in the cooperative sector like Shamrao Vithal Bank invest around Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh annually for every key branch in terms of procuring hardware and updating IT applications and thus there is a lot of money even at micro level.
There is an opportunity for smaller system integrators to make money as banks also allow local procurement of products like scanners, printers and systems.
But there are certain steps partners need to take and foremost of all is the need to develop a software focus to penetrate into this segment.
You ought to be well prepared to supply and integrate various components including software and peripherals to participate in the tenders that banks call for. The training and certification for your workforce is one area you would want to focus on even though this would mean some expense. If you are prepared to meet their needs, you could surely bank on them for a rich harvest.