Indian Financial Software
TCS Financial Solutions:
Anti-money laundering, core banking, CRM, wealth management
Anti-money laundering, core banking, CRM, wealth management
Infosys:
Core banking, CRM, treasury, wealth management
Core banking, CRM, treasury, wealth management
I-flex:
Analytics, anti-money laundering, consumer lending, core banking
Analytics, anti-money laundering, consumer lending, core banking
Polaris Software Lab:
Core banking, retail banking, reward management, risk management
Core banking, retail banking, reward management, risk management
Those aren't the only reasons Tata is pushing into the software market. India's financial IT services companies are trying to recast their intellectual property in ways that don't require the constant hiring of talent that's harder to get than ever. "Growing by adding more people is a fabulous business model when you have a huge labor cost advantage, but that cost advantage is dropping," says Bart Narter, an analyst with financial services research firm Celent. Instead, Indian services companies are looking to leverage the knowledge and experience of their employees by "encapsulating that into software, and then selling it over and over without the added labor costs," he says. Tata isn't the first: Infosys sells software called Finacle, considered by Gartner to be the leader in the international retail core banking segment. Its closest competitor is Flexcube, made by India-based I-flex Solutions, in which Oracle acquired a majority stake for $909 million in 2005. Meanwhile, banks continue their march to India and other regions in an effort to cut costs. In April, Barclays said it would ship 10,800 jobs to India and other countries. But some banks seem to be losing interest in running those operations themselves. Several India-based media outlets reported last week that Citigroup is shopping a stake in its business-processing unit in India to IBM and other services companies; both Citigroup and IBM declined comment. Narter predicts more banks will look to services providers to take over part or all of their India-based operations, which are called "captives." Familiarity and experience have made banks less concerned about handing over intellectual property and data security to outside firms, and they're at a distinct disadvantage in the talent war. "People would rather work for a company like Tata, where they have the chance to be a top dog, than for the outpost of some U.S. company," Narter says.
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