Technology
POS supports banks to be cost-effective
The Point of Sale (POS) banking solution of Epic Lanka will help the
banks to establish cost effective branch networks and provide more
customer friendly services, said the General Manager Viraj Mudalige.
After modification of Point of Sale (POS) online data capturing
device of Epic Lanka we created a banking solution that the
international bank HSBC brought its service to the rural post office.
This solution addresses the whole society. It is used by the Nations
Trust Bank (NTB) in its doorstep banking micro finance scheme. Instead
of the customer going to the bank, the banks now can go to the doorstep
of the customer and give him the same service.
Mudalige said that the POS Bank solution evolved and developed
several versions to meet the different needs of different banks. The
latest is the lifetime banking that the National Savings Bank (NSB) goes
with to hospital wards to open accounts for newborn children.
In Sri Lanka offering a bank account for a newborn child is a
tradition and NSB wanted to encourage this saving habit of the people.
Our solution provides same service that a customer gets from any NSB
branch at a hospital ward.
They will issue pass books, accept deposits, update pass books and
issue receipts.
This banking solution has captured international market as well and
will be used in Australia for upper income market and Nepal for rural
banking.
According to our market surveys we found that online banking, E
banking and SMS banking are not much successful in Sri Lanka because of
the attitude of the people. Our people prefer to get their pass books
update immediately and receive a paper receipt after depositing the
money. Our banking solutions cater these needs, Mudalige said.
Mudalige said that NSB lifetime banking solution added new feature
that enable to eliminate co-banking solution from the banking system.
Because NSB does not have a co-banking solution and therefore we
modified the POS Bank solution to direct link with NSB servers via GPRS.
He said that this innovation added many values to its core POS
solution. Now banks can oust co-banking solutions that drain millions of
rupees and the country can save foreign currency as well because all
co-banking solutions are provided by foreign companies.
On the other hand the POS machines can be substituted for bank
branches. After the financial crisis the banks are in a difficult
situation and have slashed their cost. To open a bank branch they need
millions of money and other resources.
Now the banks can expand its operations using our solution with
fraction of such cost and resources while the operations are more
flexile. This is an ideal solution for the banks looking for expanding
their branch network to the North and East, he said.
Apart from financial transactions, this solution can also be used for
registration of people and other data storage and transmit purposes.
Innovation is the key factor of the success of the Epic Lanka during
the last 11 years in the software industry and Epic allocates 10 percent
of its profit for innovation, Mudalige said. After several years,
research with the Telecommunication providers Epic Lanka has replaced
GPRS by CDMA and has made the POS Banking solution more cost effective
and convenient.
The new device Epic CDMA facilitate the CDMA network to transmit IP
data.
Innovation is part and parcel of our software development process and
from the top management to operator. Our innovations cover all aspects
of our products including socio economic factors. Epic Lanka closely
work with universities and we have a dialogue with academic staff to
exchange our technical experience and their latest academic knowledge in
this fast changing industry, Mudalige said.
Innovation is an ethic here and there are invention, engineering,
entrepreneurship, management, environment and social components in it.
If you look at our latest innovations you can see that we have covered
all these aspects. Our solutions are flexible to meet the different
needs of the different customers, he said.
hExpense Tracker for iPhone
hSenid Mobile has developed "hExpense Tracker", an expense tracking
application built for iPhone OS, with special focus on the business
traveller. Through the "hExpense Tracker" a user can track his spending
in real time entering receipts, cheques, credit card and cash purchases,
to keep constant track of his expenditure.
 The system enables a user to track and monitor expenses ranging from
an airline ticket to a minute expense such as a cup of coffee or a
parking ticket.
hSenid's expense tracker facilitates all inbuilt features of the
iPhone supporting multiple simultaneous taps, zoom in facilities and
auto rotate options.
With the support of extensive research, hSenid's development team has
been able to simplify the advanced technical features of the iPhone to
provide the user with an easy to use, well defined, application. (User
interface)
The "hExpense Tracker" helps keep track of multiple projects while at
diverse destinations. Especially designed for the business traveller,
the system records all expenses throughout a particular business trip.
Be it a hotel bill, taxi charge or even a lunch out with clients. Once
recorded, the expenses can be analyzed through a detailed expense report
which is precise and straightforward. The expenses can be analyzed
further through a system generated graph which provides the user with a
simple clear-cut view of his expenses. Having recorded his expense
details the system helps the user to email the expense report directly
using the in built mail client of the iPhone, for reimbursement.
Surely, a piece of paper, pen and calculator can assist us in
tracking our daily expenses.
However, to remember the figure or save the piece of paper for more
than a few days would be extremely complicated. The use of an expense
tracking program provides a formal and systematic approach to Money
Management. It helps you to identify expenses or categories of expenses,
to make sure that the data you're basing financial decisions are solid.
Millennium IT at Cisco Summit
This year too, Sri Lanka's Millennium IT participated at the
prestigious Cisco Partner Summit organised by Cisco Systems, the global
leader in networking equipment and network management for the Internet.
The Cisco Partner Summit 2009 was held in Boston, USA from June 2 to 4.
The Summit provided an opportunity to interact with Cisco executives
and other Cisco partners from all over the world. The 2009 Summit was
also a further step in the direction of enhancing cooperation between
Cisco Systems and MillenniumIT.
The Cisco Partner Summit 2009 allowed MillenniumIT to strengthen
direct links with the global leader and to gain a stronger understanding
of Cisco's latest products and services.
"Participation in the Summit displays our commitment to a long term
relationship with Cisco Systems and our commitment to deliver the
highest standard of service to Cisco clients in Sri Lanka.
The Summit also provided a better understanding on how to deliver the
latest Cisco products and services in Sri Lanka and on aligning
ourselves with the Cisco product road map," said Faiq Faaiz, Executive
Vice President of MillenniumIT.
Earlier this year MillenniumIT achieved Cisco's Advanced Unified
Communications (UC) certification, Advanced Data Center Networking
Infrastructure (DC) specialization and Cisco's Advanced Security
certification, making MillenniumIT a fully fledged Cisco Systems
partner.
The Advanced UC, DC and the Advanced Security certifications are
programmes by Cisco Systems that show a partner's investment in gaining
the necessary expertise in selling, designing, installing and supporting
Cisco's integrated advanced technology solutions.
MillenniumIT is the only Sri Lankan company to obtain the Cisco
Advanced UC, DC and Advanced Security certifications.
MillenniumIT also retains a team of over 30 dedicated Cisco certified
engineers and maintains routing, switching and unified communications
labs in Sri Lanka, making it possible to provide an unparalleled
standard of service to Cisco clients in Sri Lanka.
BanglaCAT to implement IFS application
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From left to right (standing): Md. Abu
Raihan(IFS Consultant, ICE Technologies), Asif Hasan(Head of
Applications Sales, ICE Technologies), Rubaiyat Jamil(CEO,
ICE Technologies), Mohammad Abdul Wahid (Manager, Projects,
ICE Technologies), Zahid Khan(COO, ICE Technologies),
(Shiraz Lye, Manager Sales & Marketing South Asia)From left
to right (seated): Mir Mahfuzur Rahman(CFO, ICE
Technologies), Nazim A. Haque (Managing Director, Bangla
Trac Limited), Jayantha De Silva (Vice President, South
Asia), Poorna Bandara (Manager Consulting Services) |
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announces that
Bangladesh's largest independent power generation solutions provider and
Caterpillar distributor, BanglaCAT will implement IFS Applications.
BanglaCAT has recognised the need for an agile and flexible enterprise
solutions system to integrate its business operations across the region.
BanglaCAT, which decided to invest in a business solutions system in
the face of the global recession, chose IFS after an extended evaluation
process of global ERP providers. The company expects several benefits
after implementing IFS' agile component based system in their operations
and interactions with other Caterpillar dealers across the Asia-Pacific,
Middle East and South Asian region. IFS will deliver a solution
consisting of components for Finance, Distribution, Maintenance, Human
Resources and Business Performance.
"IFS has fulfilled all our requirements perfectly and emerged heads
and shoulders above its competitors in all important aspects. With the
flexible, component-based architecture of IFS Applications and
step-by-step implementation, we were able to define what phases we want
the solution to be implemented in and how we will approach the
automation of the organization" comments Nazim A Haque, Managing
Director, BanglaCAT.
Efficient, quick and competent local support was another deciding
factor when choosing the IFS solution. BanglaCAT intends to introduce
further components of the solution to its sister companies under the
Bangla Trac umbrella once the first implementation project is complete.
"We believe in long-term planning and this is the first step in a long
process of automation, optimisation and modernization of BanglaCAT for
the years to come," Nazim said. |
