NEW DELHI: ICICI Infotech Services Ltd. has forged a strategic alliance with
IMS System Co. Ltd. (Korea) for NEWTON - a scalable core banking solution. This
alliance allows ICICI Infotech to have access to the source code and exclusive
rights for marketing and distribution in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with
non-exclusive marketing rights and cooperation in other countries.
P Radhakrishna, joint president, ICICI Infotech, said, "ICICI Infotech
has a large array of solutions addressing different business areas of the
banking vertical. We have always felt the need for having a core banking
solution to tie the entire loop of offerings. With this partnership, we will be
able to offer an end-to-end solution to banks. Since the source code of NEWTON
is available to our team in India, we will be able to respond to our customers
in a much shorter time-frame."
"We have been working together informally for some time and have already
formed a joint team to work on localization of the product. We foresee the
potential and anticipate market opportunity at about $100 million over the next
five years," he further added.
Ha San Lee, the technical director of IMS System Co. Ltd. commented that
recent benchmark tests on Hewlett-Packard Superdome machines indicated that
NEWTON was capable of handling loads of around 40,000,000 online transactions
per day, assuming only a 6 hour online processing day at a bank. The combination
of the IMS system with ICICI Infotech's expertise in India will be further
enhanced by using the front-end system BEAM, supplied by APAK BEAM Ltd of
Cyprus, to provide a complete solution for client banks.
The two companies are also exploring other strategic options, including using
ICICI Infotech resources in India on IMS projects worldwide and promoting ICICI
Infotech products and services through IMS's strong channels in North Asia
(Korea, Japan, Taiwan, People's Republic of China).