SBI, Datacraft connect 10,000 branches

MUMBAI: State Bank of India has achieved the milestone of networking 10,000 branches of the State Bank Group across the country.

To achieve this end, SBI has partnered with Datacraft India, an independent IT solutions and services company. This networking project is one of the largest of its kind in terms of technological complexity, geographical reach and benefits that will accrue to the customers of the State Bank group.

Commenting on this milestone, AK Purwar, chairman, State Bank Group, said: “I am very happy to find today that Datacraft has networked more than 10000 branches of State Bank Group. All our Associate Banks and our Kerala and Bangalore Circles have been fully networked. This enables the Bank today to render world class service to the people of the country, to more than 100 million customers of the Bank.”

The SBI Connect project, which commenced in June 2002, has been executed in three phases. Phase One covered about 1,400 SBI branches in 49 cities and involved network design, implementation and management. In September 2003, SBI and its seven Associate Banks awarded Datacraft the Phase Two contract to network about 3,400 branches in more than 300 cities.

Phase Three, which is currently under implementation will be networking about 6100 additional branches of the Group further enhancing their national connectivity footprint. The networking of 10,000 branches was accomplished in just 42 months.