Yes Bank inks 7-yr tech pact with Wipro

Yes Bank, a new entrant in India's banking sector, has entered into a seven-year agreement with Wipro Infotech for its entire IT requirements.

Though the total size of this deal has not been made public, Yes Bank officials claimed that the deal would result in a nearly 30 per cent cost savings over the next seven years.

Yes Bank's entire technology requirement for its offices and branches across the country and the data centre will be undertaken by Wipro Infotech on a build-own-operate basis. While Wipro has also signed a service level agreement, its revenue from this partnership will be purely based on "pay-per-use" model.

The bank plans to roll out nearly 400 branches in the next seven years. It is using Flexcube, the flagship banking software from i-flex, as its core banking solution.

While Wipro's revenue will depend on the bank meeting its target in the next seven years, the bank has also given the "first right of refusal" to Wipro in the case of inorganic growth in the future.

According to Rana Kapoor, managing director and CEO, Yes Bank, "This partnership will enable us to focus on our core business of banking and strategic imperatives, leaving all technology related aspects in the hands of 'specialists'. This will also allow us the convenience of 'technology on tap' as Wipro will implement the best-of-breed technology to meet our expanding needs over the next seven years."

Wipro will be the "preferred partner" for servicing all future technology demands of Yes Bank. While Wipro is the "prime partner", other consortia partners include IBM, Cisco, HP, Bharti and Reliance.

Wipro Infotech officials said that their company will initially have about 25 people to handle this account and this is expected to scale up to 75 people in the next seven years.

As per the first agreement signed today, Wipro will deploy comprehensive technology solutions to meet Yes Bank's business requirements in line with its technology roadmap.

This will include implementing core infrastructure and hardware, branch roll-outs, networking, managing the data centre and back-up support for disaster recovery.

In the second agreement, both organisations will work towards improving operational efficiencies in banking system by introducing international best practices.

These advances will initially be implemented in Yes Bank and thereafter jointly offered in the international banking and financial services sector.