'The IT infrastructure in India is improving dramatically'

What is your opinion about India with respect to IT infrastructure?

I think the IT infrastructure in India is improving dramatically. One can take a
pessimistic view and say that we're not there. However, on seeing the growth,
we can say that it can only get better. I've no complains with the IT
infrastructure, though there are some bottlenecks but with the growth India is
having, now we can say that we can be there.

Can you tell us more about your network?

We have 102 branches in 74 cities and all branches are connected through Frame
Relay right now. But we're moving toward the leased line network with star
topology. We have something called aggregate location and there are smaller
locations coming into aggregate location. The smaller locations use ISDN as back
up. The aggregate or bigger locations have outer route on the leased line. For
example, if Mumbai-Delhi line goes down, then they can go Mumbai-Chennai and
then Chennai-Delhi. Pune is a smaller location for us. Pune has ISDN as fall
back network. As and when branches get bigger and when they increase in business
volume, we will also bring them into our triangle network.

Amit Kumar, sr. vice president (Technology), Max New York Life

What is the dealer network all about?

We work through our branches. Instead of dealers, we have agents. And agents
basically work on streets. They do not have offices. But very soon we are going
to provide them portal access. They will have all the information with them and
they can access it from home.

How soon we can see this?

By the end of this year.

Are there any mobile applications for the affiliates and employees?

As the distribution portal goes live this year, the next year we will be working
towards extending that onto mobile phones. On mobile phones, they can access all
the information. Technology is moving faster and with mobile phones getting
cheaper, we see ourselves giving mobile phones and hand-held devices. So when
they talk to potential customers, they should have all the information at their
fingertips. So you will see something from our side in the next year on that
part. It is well there in our plan.

What are the challenges faced in keeping the network run efficiently?

Two challenges. One, stability and the other keeping it up all the time. And all
this depends on response time. Response time again depends on how much bandwidth
we take. It is expensive right now but things have changed a lot now in
comparison to what was there a few years back. So I think stability and keeping
it up all the time are two challenges we face, though the situation is
improving.

How are you dealing with this issue?

Our triangle network and ISDN backup are what we feel the best ways to tackle
this problem. Besides, we outsource our network management to our business
partners.

What are the security measures adopted for the network?

We have pretty robust security measures for our data storage. We have some of
the best network security applications deployed with us. We are lucky as we have
our parents in the US and they have helped us in many ways. They are the
renowned names in this field. Network security is very important for us. We put
a lot of emphasis on this. Also we believe in investing in this. Nobody in this
world can say they are perfect or they are hack proof. Nobody can claim that.
But I can say that we have deployed very efficient security measures.

How IT and networking technology are helping the BFSI sector improve its
productivity?

There are a lot of ways it is helping us. For example, today in our company,
issuance of policies is completely paperless. The proposals and documents coming
from various branches get scanned and electronically go to our centralized
document shop at Gurgaon. Here seeing the images, we do all the required
processing and the policies get issued. And for underwriting, 60% of the cases
do not go to a human underwriter. It is done electronically. And there is no
paper involved. All this is because of IT and network.

In the context of telecom and networking needs of BFSI, what are the major
concern areas?

I think the first major concern area is information security because day by day
we are becoming more and more dependent on telecom network. We used to have our
data at a remote place for what information security is an important area.
Second would be contingencies, backups, and planning for that. And the third
area would be the stability of the network. Also I say that it is improving but
still there are a lot of things to be done on that front.

Gyana Ranjan Swain