Infosys Finacle echannels

Transcription

1 Ellen Walsh Product Report 26 September 2002 Infosys Finacle echannels Summary Finacle echannels provides a consumer e-banking solution to the bank s retail customers through the Internet and Mobile channels. It enables banks to offer single point of access to multiple products. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Infosys Finacle echannels: Features and Functions Gartner Entire contents 2002 Gartner, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Corporate Headquarters Infosys Technologies Ltd. Plot No. 44 & 97A, Electronics City Hosur Road Bangalore, India Tel: Fax: Internet: Infosys Technologies Ltd. #27, Infosys Towers, Bannerghatta Road Bangalore, India Tel: Fax: Internet: Overview The Business Banking Unit of Infosys offers enterprise-banking solutions to banks across the world. The Business Banking Unit employs approximately 500 people. Under a common Finacle brand, Infosys has multiple products addressing core banking, consumer e-banking, corporate e-banking, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Treasury. Infosys has a very large services arm, which works closely with the Banking Business Unit on an as needed basis. Finacle echannels is a component based, consumer e-banking solution addressing retail banking functionality and electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). This solution enables banks to offer a consistent experience to their retail customers through the Internet and Mobile channels. Built on open industry standard platforms, Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and.net, it is divided into three layers Channel access layer, Application layer and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) layer: The Channel Access Layer offers gateways to Secure Hypertex Transport Protocol (HTTPS), Wireless Application Protocol/ Shared Messaging System (WAP/SMS), Extensible Markup Language (XML) and customized gateways for teller, emerging channels and third-party applications. The Application Layer: Comprises several functional modules: Retail Banking: This module supports cross channel retail banking services including account management, fund transfers and request management. Customer Management: This module is the repository for the business rules that govern client interactions through various channels and handles cross channel password maintenance and setting of channel specific transaction limits. 26 September

3 EBPP: Finacle echannels enables the bank to act as a consolidator by allowing bill presentment and bill payment. The module supports multiple customizable bill formats and incorporation of complex rules for payment. Personalization and Content Management: Finacle echannels allows for personalization and customization of products and services based on customer profile. The Enterprise Application Integration layer contains connectors to enterprise applications such as CRM, Data Warehouse, Trade Finance, Treasury, Corporate and Retail back office systems or connectors to standard industry middleware. Table 1: Infosys Finacle echannels: Features and Functions Account Information Loan Accounts Deposit Schedules Investment Accounts Funds Transfer Multilingual and Multibyte enabled. Fully Multicurrency enabled. View Real-time account details or offline balances Search transactions by date, transaction, last x transactions or check number Pending instruments status Stop payments Transaction details Check book/check status enquiry, online stop payments, Temporary Overdraft inquiries Loan expiration date, number of principal demand installments in arrears, principal demand arrears, interest demand installments in arrears, interest demand arrears, bank charges demand installments in arrears, bank charges demand arrears, other charges demand installments in arrears, other charges demand arrears Account statement download in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format or to Personal Financial Managers End customer can view principal and interest attached to an account Display sanction date, sanctioned amount, disbursed amount and current liability View repayment schedule with flow amount, due date, installment frequency, number of installments and next installment due dates View principal and interest attached to deposit account View Schedules View deposit and maturity amount View the statement of holdings in various companies, the net available positions, locked position, transaction details. Issue instruction to the bank to transfer shares (backend support required). Transfer funds between accounts of same user and between own account and other accounts of a third party or between two valid third-party accounts Multicurrency transfers require the exchange rate to be obtained from the back-end system or offline from a local database based on rate codes defined at the time of installation This is a one time process setup Negotiated Rates agreed on by the customer and the bank View or stop pending transfers All transfer requests can be configured for additional authentication of transactions using transaction password or other mechanisms like secure id Bank administration can configure cut-off time for transfers 26 September

4 Table 1: Infosys Finacle echannels: Features and Functions Requests There is a submit request infrastructure which is used to do straight through processing with the back-end or send mail to designated relationship managers or use menus Prepackaged solution sets can be targeted at the certain customer groups to make customer self-service possible: online simulation of loan account pre-closure, account opening and checkbook requests. Online real-time processing for requests such as online demand draft request processing, based on back-end host support of remote interfaces Customer can mail request or select straight through processing of request Users can review request status and delete or retry requests Mail Management Users can create and send new mail messages Users can view, delete, search, retrieve status Banks can designate personnel to receive messages Using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) gateway facility, the relationship manager can communicate with the customer from external mail systems at the bank through Microsoft Exchange Alerts Multichannel alerting facility which supports logon alert (secure ), SMTP e- mail alerts and alerts over mobile (SMS) Financial Modeling Tools are available for the end customer to model the loans and term deposits with the bank Scheme-based modeling maintained by the bank for house loans, car loans or account-based modeling where users can pick established accounts and do what if analysis Loan Modeling support includes Demand Loans What If analysis can be done by modifying input data by loan amount, payback period, installment and balloon amount Deposit parameter amounts set are deposit amounts, maturity amounts and period amounts Results can be graphed Enrollment Online registration supported. Users choose logon id and temporary password. Taxes Financial year and previous year tax information available online, available at customer level Joint Accounts Joint users are supported Permissions include Funds transfer only, inquiry only or full permission involves cumulative amount, number of transactions, tenure User Preferences Users can set preferences such as address, ad modify links, date and amount format, minimum balance, mobile phone number, enable/disable from SMS banking, enable/disable Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) banking, activate, deactivate SMS alerts and external alerts Activities can be audited across SMS, WAP, Internet Electronic Bill Create/Add Payees Payment Modify/delete payees from payee list View/modify/delete pending payments Schedule recurring payments Search completed payments 26 September

5 Table 1: Infosys Finacle echannels: Features and Functions Electronic Bill Presentment SMS/Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Banking Functionality WAP Functionality Administrative Module Reports Banks designate account for payees who do not have an account Create standard list of payees Assign account numbers to payee during payee creation Pay any or pay some at menu profile Assign number of days required for payment at bank level Payment transaction creation/upload Update payment status for reprocessing of particular payment Purge unused payees, old payments Handle biller specific formats and literals Display bills in biller specific formats Handle biller specific payment details Bill presentment status inquiry and modifications Accept presented bill Sending payment and registration information to billers in biller specific format (flat file and report) Users can change mobile phone numbers through Internet banking customization option View last five transactions, transfer funds, balances, bill payment, messages to relationship managers Multiple Device Display Support: users can use any phone to access the WAP banking services. Banks can customize displays to make usage of screen size. Bank needs to maintain separate templates based on the WAP phone. Administrator setup of transaction level limits Funds transfer rules on bank, branch and account levels Credit and debit limit amounts are limited by bank level amounts defined in configuration files Multicurrency funds transfer online conversion rate is obtained at time of initiation of a transaction at user level Alerts on number of days for loan repayment, term deposits, minimum balances, password expiration, unread mails and pending third-party payments can be set Loan Modeling Scheme setup by specifying scheme codes, maximum repayment period, minimum amount, round-off amount, flat rate flag, interest calculation frequency and round-off indicator Modify/delete scheme parameters Add/modify/delete multiple interest rate slabs for a loan scheme by specifying slab serial number begin/end amount, interest rate and penalty interest rate Add/modify/delete deposit scheme parameters Data dictionary is available allowing the bank to use reporting tools like Crystal reports to develop custom reports. Some canned reports are available in the application. 26 September

6 Table 1: Infosys Finacle echannels: Features and Functions Self Auditing Marketing Information Maker Checker functionality is available in the admin module for inserting/updating/deleting limit records and limit-user linkages. It can be selectively enabled/disable for a particular table. Online activity inquiry for self and for administrators. Covers date, activity type, description. Ability to display advertisements to users Display specific products of the bank for the purpose of cross-selling Online Mall Bank users can make purchases of gifts, bookings, CDs and travel from external sites and pay through bank account The shopping mall exists as part of the application itself Platforms Combination 1: Application server: Websphere 4.0 Operating System: Windows 2000 Database: SQL 2000 Web Server: IIS 5.0 Combination 2: Application server: iplanet 6.5 Operating System: Solaris 2.8 Database: Oracle 8i Combination 3: Operating System: Win2000 advance server with.net Framework Database: SQL 2000 Browser IE 5.5 or above or Netscape 4.7 Secure id Server Ace Server 5.0 (optional) Reports (optional) Crystal Reports Enterprise 8.5 SMTP Server WAP Server Nokia (optional) Analysis Architecture SMTP 2.0 compliant server WAP 1.1; Nokia 1.1 Finacle echannels has been architected on open industry standard platforms like J2EE and.net and uses standards-based interface protocols like HTTPs and XML. Infosys provides a multichannel framework architecture to obtain a unified view of customer interactions across all delivery channels. Finacle echannels currently allows views across Internet and mobile devices. Infosys plans to extend this to the branch, call center and ATM channels. Fiancle echannels offers three basic functional modules: Retail Banking Electronic Bill Payment and Presentment Internal and External Shopping Mall Facility The architecture consists of the following layers: Delivery Layer end-user touchpoints such as Internet, ATMs, Wireless, and Call Center 26 September

7 Tools such as personalization and content management across multiple channels Functional modules including Retail (asset products such as loan and liability products such as savings accounts, current accounts, checking accounts and deposits), EBPP, and shopping mall Infrastructure Services for funds transfer, management, financial modeling, requests, administration and security Interface Layer for links to back-end systems via middleware or customer built application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with host and third-party applications The Finacle echannels solution is based on J2EE and.net standards and consists of three main layers: Tier I handles protocol transcoders for various industry protocols like HTTP(s), XML, Wireless Markup Language (WML), SMS. This is being extended to cover other channels. Tier II is the business objects and Rules Layer which is further divided into the following layers: Presentation, Command, Business Objects, Data, and Interface Layer. Tier III is the Backend Interface layer to various Host Applications. Tier II Model View Control (MVC) Framework has been used to describe the Tier II architecture. Model is the component that contributes to business functionality. View Controls the presentation logic, Control ensures that the right business components are called. Solution Architecture Under the J2EE Framework Presentation Layer View is controlled by Java Script Pages (JSPs). The JSPs contain the logic that is necessary to construct and control the presentation and user interface of the application. All requests from the browser are submitted to the servlet, which resides in the Servlet Engine part of the infrastructure layer. Command Processing This layer provides correspondence to the control aspect of the MVC and provides a standard way to invoke the business logic request. Command processing is initiated by the servlet by invoking a command object and passing the necessary repository object. Business Objects Layer This layer corresponds to the Model layer of the MVC framework and consists of Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). These beans contain the business logic for the applications. Stateless session beans are used, and all EJBs can be accessed only through a proxy provided by the EJB container. The bank can also develop new business rules by developing new EJBs with specific business logic and deploying them. Data Layer The Data layer consists of two elements: Data Access Objects (DAO), a class that contains life cycle methods of a business entity and Value Object, a serialized class which contains all the properties of a business entity. Tier III Layer 26 September

8 The interface layer has an XML/ISO8583-based interface with the backend systems. Finacle echannels sends a request as an XML/ISO 8583 message. Infrastructure Layer The infrastructure layer consists of an underlying J2EE compliant application server. Solution Architecture under.net Presentation Layer This consists of Active Server Page Extensions (ASPX), which contain the logic that is necessary to construct and control the presentation user interface of the application. All requests from delivery channels are submitted to the HTTP Handler, which resides on the IIS Engine in the infrastructure layer. Command Processing Layer This layer corresponds to control of the MVC framework and is initiated by the HTTP Handler by invoking a command object from the corresponding assembly and passing the necessary repository object. Business Layer This corresponds to the Model layer of the MVC framework and consists of the.net Remote Objects. These objects contain the business logic for the application. All the objects can be accessed through.net remote. Data Layer and Interface Layer These layers are similar to the J2EE infrastructure. Infrastructure Layer The infrastructure layer consists of the underlying.net framework. The current version of Finacle echannels is available on the Windows Advanced Server. Some of the key features of the.ne T framework used in Finacle echannels application are: Session Management Database Connection Management.NET Remote Pricing Infosys does not provide specific pricing. Infosys charges customers an up-front license fee as, well as ongoing maintenance fees. GSA Pricing No. Competitors Corillian Unlike Infosys, which supports a broad range of platforms, Corillian supports only Microsoft environments. Corillian utilizes its own proprietary Voyager middleware. Rather than developing the functionality itself and providing an integrated suite as Infosys does, Corillian relies on partners for extended functionality. 26 September

9 Corillian is starting to support the.net architecture for features such as personalization. Although most of Corillian s clients support the packaged application model, Corillian is starting to gain customers in the Application Server Provider model. Financial Fusion Financial Fusion provides a suite of e-finance solutions for Web and wireless applications, as well as enterprise middleware for retail banking and institutional electronic trading. The primary architecture is based on Enterprise Java Beans. Financial Fusion also offers adapters for protocols used in the communication of financial information in both the capital markets and banking (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication [S.W.I.F.T], Financial Information Exchange [FIX], Open Financial Exchange/Interactive Financial Exchange [OFX/ IFX]). Like Infosys, Financial Fusion also separates the business logic from the application layer. S1 Corp. S1 s applications sit on top of the S1 Enterprise Platform, which is based on the J2EE architecture. The S1 architecture supports database 2 (DB2), as well as SQL Server and works on the IBM and Wintel architectures. S1 phased out the Edify Retail and Business Banking Suites and moved the Q-UP IBS Platform for community banks over to run under the Enterprise Platform. The S1 Personal Banking and Small Banking products replaced the IBS platform. The Small Business Package replaced the FICS, IBS Cash Management and Edify Business Banking products. All of this consolidation has taken a lot of time and effort for S1. S1 also purchased Software Dynamics Inc. (SDI) and plans to incorporate branch functionality into the S1 Enterprise Platform application Suite. S1 sells the Enterprise Platform, which serves as the infrastructure, and then S1 developed applications that sit on top of the platform. The Internet banking suite of products are the first to be moved over and will be followed by the Wealth Management, Insurance and Corporate Banking products. S1 will host the product for the customer or will allow the customer to bring it on-site. For customers who choose to customize the applications, S1 sells a development toolkit. A Software Application Manager serves as a user-friendly GUI interface where managers can go to customize account parameters, control marketing messages and setup configuration rules. Other Competitors Like Infosys, these competitors provide core banking functionality, as well as a multichannel architecture that can be used for Corporate banking and other functions. Some of them also have CRM solutions. Eontec Like Infosys, Eontec is based on an EJB Server with business components that support financial service transactions (such as open account, deposit, loan origination and bill payment), customer contact and customer services. The Eontec Multi-channel Service is the multichannel architecture, which provides services within the EJB server. These services enable delivery of financial transactions to customer touchpoints and to back-end systems and also provide system access, logon, security; and administration. A branch module supports all aspects of over the counter activity at branches and other bank outlets. Internet Banking provides secure banking services delivered over the Internet. Temenos GLOBUS GLOBUS is a core processing solution with 24 7 real-time processing that encompasses both retail and corporate banking functionality in a multichannel architecture. GLOBUS has been integrated with a variety of legacy, back-end and enterprise applications. Temenos has a strong market presence in Europe, the Middle East and Asia/Pacific and has recently expanded into the U.S. 26 September

10 Strengths Rewrote Application for J2EE and.net Unlike some of its competitors who rewrote their platforms to be J2EE compliant by utilizing Java wrappers, Infosys rearchitected its solution from the ground up. Infosys has adhered very closely to the J2EE specification, making changes and support easier. Relationship With Infosys Services Infosys is one of the largest Information Technology service providers in the world. Although they belong to separate organizations, the Infosys echannels product team can draw on the expertise of the Infosys services team to develop functionality that may not be provided as part of the standard offerings. For example, the product does not currently have pre-packaged interfaces developed to interface with Siebel for customer relationship management. Infosys services, however have a whole unit dedicated to Siebel service integration and could easily assist the Finacle echannels product team in providing this functionality. Infosys has experience with Blue chip clients such as Citibank and Bank of America providing outsourced services. Cost Competitive Finacle echannels product is based out of India where labor costs are significantly less expensive than other parts of the world. This gives Infosys a pricing advantage over some of its competitors. Financial Position Infosys ended the fiscal year in March of 2002 with cash and cash equivalents over US$210 million. Infosys reported over $545 million in revenue for the year. The Business Banking Unit was responsible for $21.6 million in revenue last year. International Functionality Finacle echannels supports multiple currencies and languages and also supports both SMS and WAP for wireless functionality. Finacle echannels has been deployed in many different countries. Bill Payment and Processing Finacle echannels EBPP solution provides functionality similar to that provided by CheckFree in the U.S. and has been deployed by a CheckFree like payment aggregator in India. Java to.net Integration Strategy Infosys has developed an architecture that supports both.net and J2EE. Although other vendors support parts of.net, Infosys is more advanced in its support of the.net architecture. Infosys has developed a plan for companies that might want to support J2EE until.net becomes more mature and more widely deployed. When they are ready, Infosys provides the capability to migrate from J2EE to.net architecture. Limitations Lack of Presence in Retail Banking Market Outside of India and Asia/Pacific Infosys has a limited marketing presence outside of India and the Middle East, as well as less Retail Internet Banking customers than its competitors. Infosys, is however expanding into other markets. Its services division has a large presence outside of the Middle East and India, which will give Infosys much needed brand recognition. 26 September

11 Limited Number of Applications Infosys has less applications that sit on top of its platform than some of its competitors. Infosys continues working on this by acquiring companies and developing additional applications. Infosys acquired both a treasury management and CRM products during the second quarter of 2002 and plans to have them run on top of its platform. User Friendliness of Administration Module Unlike some of its competitors, which provide a sophisticated user-management console to make changes without having programmer intervention, the Infosys administration is harder to utilize. As a result, Infosys is, developing a more user-friendly administration module. Lack of Standard Interfaces to Back-end Systems Infosys has an extremely flexible and strong technology infrastructure, however it needs to develop more interfaces to back-end systems. The services arm of Infosys has experience in developing interfaces, however, it must be done on a professional services basis, rather than taking advantage of predeveloped application interfaces. Most of its established customers are using Finacle as a back-end for core banking functionality. Before signing a contract, Infosys will develop a proof of concept for the client, ensuring ability to connect to back-end systems. CRM Although Infosys has acquired a CRM vendor, most of the functionality is currently horizontal. Infosys plans to modify the application to provide banking-specific functionality and provide integration with the Finacle echannels product line. Missing Certain Features and Functions Although Infosys does provide a broad range of international functionality, it is missing features and functions that are important in certain regions. For example, it does not provide aggregation or check reordering services, and country-specific protocols such as Bank Administration Institute (BAI) in the U.S. market are not yet supported. Insight Infosys Finacle echannels Internet banking product is a good product for existing Infosys Finacle customers who want to add Internet banking functionality, as well as those institutions that want a J2EEbased flexible integrated platform for retail and corporate banking. Infosys also provides a migration plan for financial institutions that might want to start out with J2EE and later migrate over to.net. 26 September