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TCS, Infosys focus on Australian bank for gain
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 21:51 IST |
3 Comments
Bangalore: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys, the Indian IT players has ample opportunities to gain from the merger between Westpac Banking and St George Bank in Australia. Westpac is planning to spend nearly $338 million on integrating the information technology systems, and is also evaluating an outsourcing contract worth between $100-200 million (upto Rs 1,000 crore).
"The bank had evaluated Infosys' Finacle before this merger happened," said a consultant. The Australian banking industry, with potential customers such as Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB), Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ, will invest almost $4 billion on technology this year, according to the industry experts.
Westpac is also seeking to replace its existing core banking system apart from outsourcing its IT application development and maintenance activities. And both TCS and Infosys are discussing the Westpac opportunity.
TCS, which acquired the Sydney-based core banking software company Financial Network Services (FNS) three years ago, can gain from the integration because St George Bank already runs FNS system, reported Economic Times.
"Westpac, which uses a two-decade-old core banking system, has been evaluating an upgrade. With St George already running FNS, there is an opportunity for TCS," an expert said.
Infosys, which works with leading Australian firms such as Rio Tinto and Telstra, is currently exploring the opportunities for its core banking solution Finacle, apart from an outsourcing contract for managing the integration.
Westpac currently has a ten-year outsourcing contract with IBM, due to expire in 2010, but the bank is seeking to revisit its outsourcing strategy after the merger.