State Bank of India goes beyond

geography

Client: State Bank of India

Industry: financial services

Country: India

State Bank of India (SBI) is India’s largest and the world’s fifth largest bank, with more than 90 million customers, 15,000 branches and 7,000 ATMs in India and 40 other countries. Executing an enterprise wide IT strategy to integrate one’s service channels is no mean feat for any organisation. When your operations are scattered across myriad geographies and time zones, it’s even more tricky. SBI recognised that success required enlisting the expertise of a partner to design, build and manage a converged network capable of carrying all its present and future traffic. The integrator would also be responsible for bandwidth, all networking equipment, software, and management as well as a 24/7 helpdesk, service level agreements (SLAs), and the management of scheduled and unscheduled network outages.

A future-ready networkOver a period of eight years, starting in 2002, Dimension Data worked with the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Unit to build and deploy an integrated IP network that today powers all the bank’s business processes in some of the world’s most high-tech cities as well as in India’s most remote rural areas. Applications powered by the network range from core banking, treasury operations and trade finance to inter-branch voice communication and unified messaging. The project, which has met all budget and timeline requirements, was executed in five phases. Phase I covered 1,400 branches in 49 cities. Phase II covered 3,400 branches in more than 300 cities. Phase III involved networking the remaining 6,100 branches. Phase IV covered an additional 2,800 branches, and Phase V, which touches 2,000 branches, is currently in progress. The new network has been designed to give SBI a seamless flow of transactions, streamline data gathering and dissemination, and support an integrated view of products across all channels.

Three-tiered approachThe system is based on a three-tier, self-healing corporate WAN, which has a centralised data centre in Mumbai and a backup in Chennai. The three tiers comprise a core linking the country’s four main cities, a distribution network linking local head offices and zonal offices back to the core metro cities, and an access network for the end branches. SBI’s converged system is based on IP telephony, with some 15,500 IP phones being deployed and a closed user group voice solution providing 24/7 availability for voice. This has enabled standardisation of voice equipment across the organisation and drastic cutting of the costs of inter-branch voice communications.

The system allows advanced integrated applications, such as billing and accounting, XML-based services, voicemail, unified messaging, conferencing and collaboration solutions, and directory support, to be rolled out as services on the network when the bank requires them.

Management of the bank’s IP telephony system is monitored through our Global Service Centre in Bangalore. Bank executives are provided with a dashboard that enables them to see at any time whether any part of the system is down and what sort of fault is the cause.

OrchestrationSeamless connectivity is assured through the use of leased lines and bandwidth is provided by three telecommunications service providers, orchestrated by Dimension Data. We also provide unbroken service through our Uptime Maintenance Service, which incorporates detailed SLAs, including penalties for network downtime. Service level management responsibilities include partnering with the telecommunications service providers, and other third-party vendors to ensure that all SLA requirements are fully aligned and delivered upon. We also act as a single point of billing from the telecommunications service providers, on the bank’s behalf.

In addition, through our managed services, we take ownership and accountability for all processes and service outcomes.

In total, we have over 700 engineers across the region working on behalf of SBI, covering 150 cities.

The integrated IP network powers all the bank’s business processes in some of the world’s most high-tech cities as well as in India’s most remote rural areas.

In total, Dimension Data has over 700 engineers across the region working on behalf of SBI, covering 150 cities.