Grateful IOBian

IOB is 78 years old , so I learnt from a social network post today. Am sure I am only one amongst the lakhs of well wishers and employees who acknowledges gratefully the bank for its services and support it has lent. May the Bank continue to serve in the decades to come.

One major difference between the public sector institutions and other private organizations is the deep rooted connection the employees feel they have with them. With the current scenario of employees looking over the shoulder for the next better opportunities, services extending for 30 and 40 years will soon be a thing of the past. Having been associated with IOB for 25 years, I can certainly feel nostalgic about those days, particularly as an employee.

When I joined the staff department in 1976, the bank has already grown and was still climbing. I can still recall people talking animatedly in buses about IOB declaring a 14.4% bonus to its employees, an astonishing figure when the more stable banks were contended to declare the statutory 8.33%.

It was a pleasure working at the Central office in the then 'Staff Department' and learning the ropes of administration and more importantly the art of letter writing from stalwarts who will beckon you with a circle around your initials in the office copy, to point out some omission. The respect for the organization was cultivated by advising us not to put the pins across the bank's symbol in the letterhead! The empty superintendent's chair will never be occupied even by staff working on holidays!!

The learning at the branches were priceless; From seniors who taught us customer handling, tallying of books, official discipline, cash handling, avoiding manual mistakes and the list goes on. The door to door Deposit campaigns made in the neighborhood taught me finer aspects of marketing and also enabled me to bring customers closer to the bank.

The bank not only created trust in the minds of customers but also the staff . The facilities offered to the bank men were enormous. Housing loans were given at 5% rate of interest and most of the bank's employees who own a house now would not have done it without this support. The yearly 'Festival Advance' offered free of interest was the first savings point of every employee with an eye on the future. I have known many employees, who used to buy jewels using the Festival Advance and other accumulations and then pledge the same under Jewel loan scheme, thus creating the precious bullion, which was a must in those days for the girl's marriage.

Had reasons to be happy whether it is rain or shine as they would attract either Flood loan or Drought loan. The employees were offered financial support to buy vehicles and at one point of time, we used to joke that everything we moved around belong to the bank. The house supported by housing loan, the vehicle through vehicle loan and the marriage of the employees were also assisted with 'Marriage loans' ! Assuaging the yearly income tax worry, the bank supported its staff  by offering loans on the investments one make like loan against NSC etc.,

'To deliver the best of judgments the judges have to be kept above wants', it used to be said. Adapting the adage, the bank offered support on all fronts and at every opportunity to keep their staff comfortable. Perhaps that is the reason the bank men were always in neck deep of various bank loans and drew minimal net salary at some point of their career.  But, at the end of one's service, a prudent bank employee could go with a handful of cash bag by making clever use of the loans offered and pooling in his own meager resources. IOB was always the first bank to offer such facilities and every IOBian will be proud to recollect such supports. I am yet to come across a common man who could use the bank's 'Recurring Deposit' scheme to better use than a bank employee !

It was the first bank to create its own home-grown software, when computerization was introduced in Indian banks and it is to our credit that people used to say proudly that one of the foreign banks in the neighborhood of our head office visited our computer department and appreciated the efforts and nuances used by the team.

An organization with over 2500 branches across the globe and more than 30000 serving employees is bound to come across many bottlenecks in its run and it is commendable that the bank has risen to the challenges and has covered its path with glory over 77 years. I am very confident that the bank will continue with its trail of glory and service to the people, despite the contretemps that could come from time to time. As an IOBian my heart always skips a beat when I pass through the Central office building in Mount road and see the towering building standing tall !

The current and future employees of the bank has the onerous responsibility of keeping its flag high and it is a matter of satisfaction that there are all signs of these IOBians surpassing this expectation.

Banks and Technology

The more banks adopt technology, the farther it seems to be distancing itself. The more facilities it seems to introduce, lower the banks seem to fall short in the expectations. Does that mean that the banks are not serious about what they do to improve customer service, facilities with additional support from the emerging and growing technologies?

Though prima facie the banks' efforts to reach out to people and bringing Indian banking on par with the best in the world may appear to be more of a dressing up exercise and with goals other than customer satisfaction, it cannot be totally swept aside. After all, computerization introduced amidst so much of resistance from major walks of stakeholders way back in the 1980s has indeed brought benefits to the customers around but then it appears to be insufficient. More so, the banks' struggle seems to be in keeping up with the technologies used and extract the maximum benefit out of these efforts, rather than its willingness to serve. In short, the banks seems to be falling short of directions in choosing the right priorities !

But then, what exactly ails the banks' technological aspirations that gives way to more of frustrations from the customers? A recent article I read seems to provide some thoughts and insights (http://ponnarasups.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/engineering-grads-have-bright-future-in-banking/)

Even when computerization was introduced in the later half of 1980s, banks though hurriedly brought in computers also did their best to provide support by stationing technical staff from the software providers but then, this obviously could not have been a permanent solution. Indian public in general are well equipped and knowledgeable to expect and extract the best out of banks and this is where the latter faltered.

The initial hesitation and dilemma of the banks about using third party applications or in-house developments took their own toll and by the time the issue stabilized many precious years have rolled by and so also rose the customer knowledge and expectations.

Those banks which chose to use third party applications had a head start in that the usual strapping and paraphernalia accompanying any application launch  was there but by the time the euphoria started clearing up , the realities began descending in and only then the banks started talking about the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) etc., and the software developers made good use of the time between the initiation and reality. The banks that used such software had to then continuously engage themselves with the developing organizations about the functional gaps and support.

The gaps in functionality was blissfully absent in those handful of banks which chose to develop their own software. But then the people who were involved were mostly bankers who were falling short of the professional intricacies, expectations and were obviously struggling to keep up with the mercurial advancements- both technically and professionally. Bankers being such a serious breed would never accept anything other than perfect and that seem to be directly at loggerheads with the existing practice of  deliver and then started discussing about shortfall in the name of 'production support'.

Long and short of the story is that from both the sections of banks, the customers suffered uniformly. Banks should have neither indulged in complete technical aspects nor given away total control to the developing organizations but must have had a finger in both. In short, they lacked the wisdom, sight and professionalism that typically signifies many US and other customers who provide software business to India. Though, they entrust the work of development of the software they also engage immediate rungs of professionals who effectively monitor, report and scream when things go out of control. And for them, "Customer Satisfaction" is the ultimate and no compromise will be made in this area.

Even now it is not too late for Indian banks and with some non political, non trade unionist attitude and actions they could well come out of the shackles as these are not problems that could be resolved over months. With no dearth of technical talents in the country, banks would do well to form core experts team and technology team, who should work closely as a single unit.

With so much of vendors also available and making the best use of the existing competition , the banks could well extract their pound of flesh which would result in a stable and sturdy software more user friendly to the customers. Instead of trying to impart technology into the aging skulls of bank men, Banks would do well to blood young engineers into their fold and run a focused and specialized banking boot camp to groom a possible pool of techno bankers, a breed that is going to be in great demand in the years to come. The senior bankers could well be allowed to specialize on project managements and control mechanisms, so that the banks don't lose their experience and expertise. When these groups start jelling together, the customers would well start heaving sighs of relief in having struck the right combinations. Until then, the steam let out by dissatisfied customers could add to global warming in no small means, rather justifiably too.

When the Crown stumbled

Being somewhat familiar with Internet and computers, I have always been making my banking transactions from home, so that the bank is relieved of hosting at least one customer less at the branch. I am a strong advocate of Internet banking and use of other means which would desist customers from visiting a branch. I have also been under the impression that when you have sufficient balance at your disposal and the means to access it, you are safe at anytime to face any exigencies in life. And unfortunately, it was this surmise that fell in a heap early this week. No my bank did not go bust nor was there any run on the bank. Customers were simply unable to withdraw their amount and make any transactions. Their bank balance suddenly looked like the film heroine whom you could admire from a distance but could do nothing more than dreaming about doing!

The bank originally established to encourage 'Overseas' operations but very much 'Indian' as for its banking roots are concerned screeched to a halt last weekend. The bank, which has so far been boasting of being the only bank in India to be using a home grown software developed by its own computer department manned by its  dedicated set of domain rich knowledgeable officials, was in fact driving with its proprietary software for quite sometime, with occasional hiccups. The hiccups, as and when happened, were deftly handled more by the patience of its loyal clientele than by the experts who  pitched in to put it back on rails.

What happened this week was a disaster- What started as a trickle slowly spread from Internet Banking to the ATMs until the final crown viz., the main banking software came tumbling down, leaving both the branch officials as well as the hapless customers aghast. For close to four days, people could not effect any transactions, withdraw money, close loans, make overdue payments resulting in a reported loss of hundreds of crores of rupees. While Rome was burning, the Bank chose to play violin with its own melancholy of " Unable to service due to Maintenance...". The Bank chose to clean up its own backyard for four days, at the cost of innocent and patient customers, as per the bank’s self confessed announcement at its net banking site.

At branches there were many instances of customer silently suffering such as unable to withdraw matured deposits, a parent restricted from proceeding with purchases for their wards’ marriage and the variations of rupee value and gold prices not exactly helping them. An international travel could not be made and a student was forced to continue to live with the suspense about the fate of his educational loan application. 

The rumor mills were also doing the rounds which forced even some of the irate customers to rush to the branches as they were fearing the worst for the bank, since it  could not transact for days continuously.

The branch officials were the worst to be affected as they were left to fend for themselves against the angry customers, who at places even threatened to take law into their own hands. Some frustrated staff, unable to face the customer’s ire chose to vent their feeling over the social network.

A software crash is not an unknown incident and it can happen to any organization at any time. What was more appalling was the reaction of the bank to the disaster in keeping everyone in the dark about the reason and the status of the remedial measures. If they have taken four days to maintain the software at customer cost, as they claim, I have a feeling that their legal department will be having its hands full, facing compensatory claims in the months to come. Clearly the bank was found wanting in handling the situation and in my opinion, this is more a disaster from the PR perspective for the bank than the software .

It is also time for the bank to introspect whether it is adequately shielded against the shortcomings that normally accompany the home grown software such as sufficiency and independence of testing of its software, periodical independent audits and Disaster Recovery Measures.

A disaster of this nature impacting the customers, though tragic, is also viewed  in its aftermath as an awakening exercise. It will be in order for the Board to constitute an Independent enquiry to find out the robustness of the software to meet the increasing functional and non-functional stress and expectations arising out of the flurry of new branches, whether lessons learnt from any previous such outages were addressed and the effectiveness of the Disaster Recovery Management which is in vogue.

As one who is associated with the bank for decades, I bled to hear customers using expletives in their ire. But, it was also heartening to hear that some of the branches went out of the way to meet the customers’ needs by making payments despite the non availability of the support system.  It is such gestures from loyal staff that helps me to retain my belief that this bank will be held high soon.

Unlike yesteryear when customers used to visit branches to form opinions, present day clients conduct their banking transactions from across the globe. Their gateway to the bank is its software which sits as a crown on the massive edifice of the bank, built on years of service and reputation. When it falters, it creates a very bad taste in the mouth. So, it is paramount that such outages are reduced to absolute minimum in terms of minutes and not hours and days. Hope banks  remember that it is not a sin to falter but to allow that to repeat, is.