Laser Soft Infosystems floats BPO subsidiary

Chennai: Laser Soft Infosystems, a city-based software company which is into banking and financial solutions, is getting into business process outsourcing (BPO).

Known more as a product-oriented company, Laser Soft now plans to utilise its domain expertise gathered over the last 16 years and provide back-office services for banking and financial sectors. A separate company, which will be a wholly-owned subsidiary called Laser Soft BPO, will be set up for the purpose.

Says Laser Soft CMD B Suresh Kamath: "A number of customers have already approached the company for BPO. The services that can be offered are inter-branch reconciliation, loan application processing, cash management services, trade services, treasury management, clearing, credit card and ATM card processing, and many other services."

Laser Soft has also officially launched Laser Twig, an innovative and cost-effective bank automation software. This software is ideally suited for the branches located in small towns and rural areas, where investment on full automation is not feasible.

The product was pilot-tested in 200 small town and rural branches of Andhra Bank. The cost of automation works out to Rs 2 lakh, including the hardware, compared to the normal automation cost of Rs 15 lakh.

Explaining the features of the product, Kamath says it was designed to connect two or three PCs using unique peer-to-peer networking, a first-of-its-kind concept. The bank manager uses the computer where the data resides. Transactions, which are authorised by the manager, are put through the other operator PCs. The product also sports an optional feature for integration with the core-banking system of the bank and can also be integrated with the ATM network.

Last week, Laser Soft had launched yet another product called Calculex, an exclusive banking calculator. This product, while giving instant replies to queries related to deposits and advances, also eliminates the need to use conventional methods of interest calculation tables.

In line with the company’s rapid growth, a sixth software development centre, with a capacity of 150 seats, was inaugurated by Andhra Bank chairman B Vasanthan. This has been registered with Software Technology Park of India. This is the third development centre in Chennai and the sixth in India.

Laser Soft has already developed 25 banking products and has 20 banks and financial institutions, including Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, Union Bank of India, American Express Bank and Bank Muscat, as its clients.