SBI's BPR exercise to finish by '05

The State Bank of India (SBI) will finish the business process reengineering (BPR) exercise by September 2005 with the help of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company by redefining processes to leverage the core banking solution.

"SBI has successfully experimented over 11 prototypes at various branches of Mumbai circle. Bank will roll out this new operating architecture in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad in two months", SBI chief general manager A Ramesh Kumar said today.

The bank would be extending the BPR structure to more circles and it would cover entire branches by September 2005, Ramesh Kumar said.

"SBI is witnessing spectacular jump in efficiency with the prototypes tested in various branches. The ATM accounts have gone up by 50% in Mumbai circle with the ATM prototype tested recently," Ramesh said.

SBI has tested various prototypes including `Grahat Mitra', drop box, small enterprise credit cell, currency administration cell and retail asset central processing cell.

The bank is on the verge of revamping the management of cash balance with the proposed currency administration cells which will ultimately reduce the cash carriage cost of bank branches, Ramesh said, adding the Pune region was testing currency balance management prototype.