Peer-to-peer

Taking a call on IT

Enterprises spend huge amounts of money while communicating with different entities. Srikanth RP looks at two diverse organisations, Bank of Rajasthan (a public sector bank) and Moser Baer (the third largest optical media manufacturer in the world), who have leveraged the power of IT to reduce communications costs and improve investor relations respectively

Banking on IP telephony

Bank of Rajasthan has pared its inter-branch communications bill by using IP telephony

Even as Indian banks look at upgrading their legacy networks to IP based ones, one of the most compelling reasons for upgrading an enterprise network could well be IP telephony. As most average-sized Indian banks have hundreds of branches, the savings on telecommunication costs accruing from routing inter-branch calls via VoIP can be quite significant. As its name suggests, the Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) has its stronghold in Rajasthan. It is one of the biggest players in the Indian banking space with a nationwide presence of 403 branches and 12 regional offices.

Like other large banks, the BoR was running up huge inter-branch and HO-to-branches telecommunications bills. As the bank already had a network in place connecting its branches, it decided that the cost savings of routing calls on its network could have a substantial impact. Accordingly, BoR selected D-Link’s products for setting up a VoIP network. HCL Infosystems helped deliver the solution that lets the bank’s network deliver voice and data on the same network. The bank spent close to Rs 35 lakhs on this project. Says Anand Bhatnagar, GM, IT, Bank of Rajasthan, “The return on investment is phenomenal as we have saved costs at two hundred branches.”

Currently, the network connects 200 branches and 12 regional offices. As the network is both voice and data enabled, the cost of inter-branch calls has come down substantially. The bank uses the same bandwidth for both voice and data. Interestingly, it has decided to deploy D-Link’s station gateways instead of the standard practice of using IP phones. The station gateways let conventional telephones be used for making calls over a closed user group. A station gateway costs less than an IP phone as it supports two extensions. This lets the bank halve its costs as compared to what it would have had to spend on deploying IP phones at all its branches and at the head office. The bank has purchased around 400 station gateways for inter-branch calls.

Unlike any other technology where organisations have to wait before they can justify the return on investment (RoI), IP telephony provides instant results. As almost all the voice calls of around two hundred branches are routed through the network, the return on investment is phenomenal.

For example, calls between branches in different regions typically used to cost thousands of rupees. As these are now being routed using IP telephony, the savings are significant and sources at the bank estimate that the bank will get its RoI within eight months to a year.

Moser Baer improves investor relations

Organisations are starting to deploy specialised investor call solutions to become more transparent

This network is unique and has no parallel in any other country Kiran Datar Director Strategy & Finance WebEx India

After performance, transparency is the most important factor that can make or mar a company’s fortunes. Many brilliant companies that failed to convey their financial figures in a transparent manner to investors have seen their valuations erode. The only way out is to give detailed financial results and become more accountable to investors and analysts. However, information dissemination is a huge challenge as a company cannot reach every investor or analyst (global and domestic) during each conference call.

Moser Baer India, the world’s third largest optical media manufacturer faced this situation as it was a big challenge to relay financial information during conference calls to the growing number of analysts and investors who were interested in the company. Traditionally, conference calls are arranged by a broker who in turn restricts the number of analysts as there is no guarantee that a broker will invite every analyst. Also, in such cases, investors or analysts from remote locations are left out. After evaluating its business needs, Moser Baer zeroed in on Webex’s investor relation solution called ‘CyberBazaar Investor Relation call’.

Says Tarun Jaitley, GM, Investor Relations, Moser Baer, “We wanted a solution wherein the onus of inviting the participants would be with us rather than the broker. Today, with the solution from Webex, all our investors and analysts are able to reach us through a simple telephone call.” This solution also gives Moser Baer the capability to respond faster to its stakeholders. Apart from control, Moser Baer can invite an unlimited number of analysts or investors to participate in a conference call. Moser Baer also has the option of relaying the same information at the same time over a number of different delivery channels—television, webcast and telephone.

In addition conference calls can be recorded and transcripts made for archival and audio playback services. Using the platform, investor relation calls can be customised according to business needs. There is also a provision for a chairperson to take control of a meeting and interactions can be enabled on a first-come, first-served basis to create a hassle-free experience.

Says Kiran Datar, Director, Strategy & Finance, WebEx India, “Call moderation, customised greetings and time management can also be enabled during a typical conference call. This facility lets overseas investors and analysts participate.”

As the platform is interactive, Moser Baer can showcase presentations and the analyst can point out certain areas on his PC wherein he needs clarifications. In the current economic scenario, transparency is a must for organisations if they need to disseminate information in a manner which analysts and investors are comfortable with. Going forward specialised investor relations IT solutions will certainly be a key part of a company’s strategy for living up to an investor friendly image.