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TO ALL MEMBERSCircular No. 11/2017 Date: 14.03.2017

Dear Member,

FINACLE BLUESBRANCHES IN DIFFICULTY; OFFICERS IN TROUBLE; BUSINESS SUFFERS

As all of you are aware, the Bank has been changing software platform from COBOL based CBS to Oracle based Finacle CBS with the migration of first 18 Branches in August, 2016. Software problems, migration issues, absence of proper support from M/s. Wipro – the system integrator – have been the order of the day in the beginning. We, from CBOO, had taken a lot of efforts to reach out to these Branches (in person and through mails), collect the details of their problems, collate them and discuss with the administration for early resolution. The President and General Secretary and a few other functionaries had visited around 7-8 Branches in Mangalore, Udupi and Bangalore including FTS and Web Centre along with representatives of M/s. Wipro, M/s. Accenture, the Consultant and ITD, HO. Continuous follow up was made in the direction of resolving the issues. There were also across the table discussions at PMO on each of the problems in the presence of the Wipro team. It was hoped that Wipro will not only resolve existing problems, but also ensure lesser hassles in the future batches of migration.

However, it is very unfortunate, instead of learning lessons from experiences and reducing the future hassles, problems in the later migrated Branches have increased thanks to lack luster responses from M/s. Wipro. Presently, 317 Branches have migrated to Finacle. The common issues observed can be summarized as herebelow:

a. Inadequate to NIL hand holding support in the first week of migration.

b. Irresponsive Help Desk (presently nick named by a Branches as ‘Hell Desk’)

c. A few compatibility problems – of PCs (lower in version), Printers and Kiosks etc.

d. Delay in completion of daily work forcing officers sit late up to midnight.

e. Customer displeasure in the aftermath of delay in transactions, print outs; resultant complaints and charged Branch environment.

f. Quiet exit of a few (including valued) customers from Finacle Branches – resulting in business loss.

g. Inadequate/below standard training.

h. Need for additional manpower at PMO, Core Help Desk and ITD.

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Phone EB SS KBP BS PVP DBP YS SPR (O) 2861615 2861678 2410009 2442942 2861837 2410009 2861431 2861488 (R) 2211097 –– 2241311 2243311 .... 9886649849 2443700 9481843186 (Mob) 92433 17217 9591890985 9535557433 9940924454 9900628137 9902066130 9448974990 9844218283 CBOO Central Office : 0824 - 2422 712, 2422 501 Fax: 0824 - 2422 129 CBOO CENTRE: 2493 698 E-mail : cbooco@gmail.com Website: www.cboo.org

In this connection, we have addressed a letter to the Management drawing the attention towards the problems at the field level and need for immediate corrective action. The same is attached herewith for your information. The President and the General Secretary called on the Managing Director and CEO today and briefed him on the hardships faced by the officers and the attitude of M/s. Wipro towards migration problems (along with handing over the said letter). The MD gave a very patient listening and appreciated the feedback collected by us from the field. While expressing his concern over the migration blues, he promised to look into the problems for early resolution.

We hope, Management will look into our suggestions and will take pragmatic steps to save the situation before future migration proposed for mid-April.

With greetings,

[SATISH SHETTY] GENERAL SECRETARY

Note1. The letter addressed is furnished as attachment to this circular and loaded in our

website. Please visit ‘www.cboo.org.’

2. Please refer our circular No.08/2017 dated 25/02/2017. All members/staff members may mail the migration problems faced by them to ‘finaclecboo@gmail.com’ as explained in the circular. The relevant issues will be taken up at appropriate levels.

- GS

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(Text of our Letter addressed to the Management)

Ref. No. CO/201/ 050/2017 Date: 14/03/2017

The Managing Director & CEO,Corporation Bank, HO, MANGALORE

Dear Sir,

Migration of Branches from present CBS to Oracle based Finacle CBS – Serious problems faced by Bank and misery and sufferings of officers

* * * * *

The Bank has commenced the process of migrating from the existing COBOL based CBS software to Oracle based FINACLE CBS softwaresince August, 2016. From the beginning, the Organisation has been supporting this endeavor by the Management. We have been issuing communications to the members in support of the process, educating the members on the need for the said transformation as well as preparing their mindset to face the eventuality and the hardships associated with it. But the recent developments in the migration process have given rise to:

a. Doubts about the sincerity of M/s. Wipro, the system integrator and doubts on their capabilities in ensuring proper migration with least hassles.

b. Thoughts on the lack of firmness in the administrative set up in the Bank to make M/s. Wipro deliver and deliver it properly.

Resultantly,

a. A lot of operational issues have been repetitively bothering the Branches in day-to-day operations.

b. Customer dissatisfaction has been rising day-by-day and temperatures at counters are rising coupled with silent exit of a few customers

c. The officers have been suffering to immeasurable extent with no/inadequate support from the requisite quarters.

d. Business of these Branches and the morale of the employees in total have been receding to the disadvantage of the Bank.

e. The long hours of work have impacted on the health of officers, especially at PMO, Service Branches and a few other Branches.

We would like to bring the following problems faced by the field staff as also the concerned Divisions for your information, perusal and doing the needful:

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A. From the side of M/s. WIPRO:

1. Handholding During First Week of Migration:

During the initial days of migration, Wipro is obliged to provide Finacle experienced personnel to hand-hold the Branches for a period of one week. But surprisingly:

a. Wipro has failed to provide such support at several Branches under migration and the same,in time. Hand holding personnel have not reached several branches, leaving the helpless Branches to fend for themselves.

b. Majority of the personnel, so deployed, are either inexperienced or not well versed with Finacle operations.

c. At many a Branches, they have not turned up after 2nd/3rd day.

d. Wipro has not set up any system to plan the posting of these helpers, track their reporting at designated Branches and collect feedback and evaluate the process.

Hand holding personnel (outsourced through M/s. Zenith) were themselves in need ofsomebody to hold their hands, much to the chagrin and frustration of the migrating Branches.

Wipro has let the Branches and the Bank down in providing proper hand holding.

A few Branches have faced near to NIL problems where hand holding persons were experienced/experts.

2. Help Desk Responses:

a. All migrated Branches have a uniform experience of total lack of help from Help Desk. The ‘Helpless Desk’ is manned by novices resulting in little help and support to the Branches.

Routinely,

i. The Branches need to raise the ticket by accessing ‘Finacle Help Desk’ link in the Intranet. These references will be allotted ‘Ticket Number’ for future reference/ reminding. The Level 1 (L1) personnel (Wipro Employees) are expected to resolve the issues within 10-15 minutes.

ii. Branches do seldom get resolution within the specified time(TAT). When they make reminder telephone calls, the calls are put on hold by these L1 personnel for 20-30 minutes, forcing the Branches to hang on to the phone (wastage of time).

iii. In further follow up, Branches email to ‘ncbshelpdesk@corpbank.co.in’ – which is also in vain.

iv. Even thereafter, resolution does not take place. L1 will either direct the Branches to contact the Bank staff at PMO or promise to call the Branches back – a promise seldom full-filled.

b. Improper L1 & L2 system of support:

In several discussions with Wipro, it was decided to set up two levels of problem resolution - First Level (L1) at Help Desk and Second Level (L2) at Mangalore (in PMO). It was clearly specified

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to Wipro that time specification shall be made to L1 to solve the problems referred or logged by Branches; in case of non-resolution within specified time, L2 must be referred by L1 or that the L2 shall automatically pick the problems for resolution. But unfortunately, the implementation has never moved beyond discussion table. Just a few days back, it was also suggested to them to station a minimum number of L2 personnel at Help Desk, Bangalore so that resolution shall be faster. Except nodding the heads during discussions, perceptible actions have never followed.

Recently, they have nearly stopped attending to the telephone calls due to multi fold increase in calls with more Branches migrating. Furthermore, a few requests are auto closed without offering any solution or simply informing the branches, ‘someone else will take care.’ A verification with M/s. Accenture, the consultant, will confirm that the average time taken for resolution of core requests is more than 4 hours with a few exceeding 24 hours and even more.

3. Migration Problems:

A lot of migration problems were witnessed in the first batch of migration. Software problems, user ignorance, absence of certain programmes, customization needs and other issues had surfaced. It was discussed that the problems faced during the first migration shall not get repeated in subsequent migrations. Wipro did not give any commitment on this; the spate of problems has simply been repetitive in successive migrations. We understand that non availability of support from the legacy software is one of the reasons for this. Issues relating to FRD, JD, ATMs, NPA Classification, LC & BGs, Collection of instruments, SMS Alert transmission to customers and Pass Book printing, DD printing, TDS issues are either not accomplished or not fool-proof.

B. From Management’s Side:

1. Quality & Duration of Training:

The Finacle programme being totally new, training the branch staff is a pivotal necessity. This is more so as majority of the existing CBS functions are key board based, as against which the Finacle software is mouse based. The Finacle programme reportedly has around 2500options/menus for total banking solution. Out of this, around 200 functions are required on day to day basis. The counter staff must have been provided with a minimum of 15 days’ training to acquaint themselves with the routinely requisite options, navigation and actual work. As against this, our training division had initially planned on 6 days’ programme. Later, it was reduced to 5 days; presently, it is only 4 days. It may not be a wonder if the same would be reduced to 3 days in the days to come, as more and more branches are set to migrate from April, 2017. The 4 days’ training is truly a cruel joke on the staff who may hardly get acquainted with basics of Finacle. This, according to us, meets only statistical needs and not practical aspects. The inadequate training has hampered smoother migration to a large extent.

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Moreover, the quality of the faculty who train the branch staff was/is far from any appreciable level. The trainers were seen frequently seeking clarifications over mobile to the queries of trainees. Sending snap shots and transmitting through WhatsApp was also observed (only a few are quite good).

2. Inadequate Supporting Staff:

The IT Division and the New Core Banking Solution Section are reeling under severe staff crunch. The increasing level of the phone calls (which basically must have been attended to by ‘Help Desk’) have tied them away from the basic work, they are intended to. IT Division has deployed major chunk of its officers to NCBS without getting necessary substitutes. We also have information that a few officers selected as Computer Officers in an internal process too have not been relieved to ITD as there are no substitutes to relieve them. The general shortage of officers (already existing in several branches and offices of the Bank) has become more severe in the new Finacle environment.

3. Improper/Inadequate Infra-structure:

The following inadequacies are observed in respect of the infra-structure support to the Branches:

a. The capacity of the PCs provided is not up to the basic requirement for Finacle. The Finacle operations become easy and speedier in PCs with 3 GB and above RAM coupled with IE10 and above browsers and with IOS WIN 7 and above Operating System. If the PCs are lower in capacity than this, the system not only slows down during working, it also does not depict a few options due to incompatibility. The Division has provided a few new PCs to the Finacle Branches as above and upgraded a few onlyto 1 GB space as against a need of 2-3 GB. The upgraded PCs are slowing down, hampering operations in the branch. At a few more Branches and STCs, sufficient number of PCs too are not available.

b. Printer and Pass Book Printer compatibility to new software is wanting. The configuration of the existing printers is not taking place timely.

c. Kiosks are not reconfigured in time forcing the customers to come to the branch premises. But slowness, routine operational difficulties in the branches force the employees to prioritise the work, leading to customer displeasure, arguments at the counter and customer complaints.

d. We have so far migrated only around 300 branches. The branches have already experienced server problems in 4 out of 6 working days last week.

4. Un-reconciled Transactions:

Transactions between Finacle and non-Finacle branches are routed through pooling accounts. The balances in these accounts is mounting and entries are not reconciled for long. Similarly, the Inter Branch Reconciliation of Finacle branches too, is not streamlined. ATM switch transactions (outstandings are substantial) too are not reconciled from time to time. We are afraid, with more

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number of branches scheduled to migrate in future, the situation is bound to go out of hands. Entries dating back to August, 2016 too are outstanding, pending reconciliation in all these 3 instances.

5. Migration in March:

We had suggested not to migrate in the month of March in the back drop of year end and need to concentrate more on recovery and BMs needing to cover the business gaps. Later, it was agreed that migration would take place in the first week of March and thereafter it would be only in mid-April. But there has been a U-turn and migration continues for the second week of March too.

6. ProblemsFacedbyOfficers:

Due to lack of support, the officers find it difficult to complete the work in time. It is making the end of day delayed beyond 11 p.m. Helpdesk personnel neither lift the phone nor respond to the queries by email, leaving the officers in lurch and making them to face wrath of customers. Even our lady officers are made to sit in branches beyond 10.30 p.m. There is no arrangement by the management for their safety when they leave the branch late. There are incidents of attempted molestation and misbehavior reported from few centers.

C. Suggestions:

1. Enforcing Seriousness in WIPRO for solving all Present Problems:

a. Wipro must be made to initiate immediate and cogent actions on areas of problems within a particular time frame without deflecting the issues.

b. A proper hand holding system and 100% responsive and quick Help Desk must be ensured; L1 & L2 levels of support shall be properly established and no references shall be made to PMO except those related to policy matters and operational powers delegated to each level of functionary in the branches.

c. EOD process, proper identification of display of problems coming in the way of EOD shall be developed on priority.

Any further payment to Wipro must be linked to fulfillment of these issues.

2. Security&SafetyofOfficers:

Officers are forced to sit very late hours – past mid night at times. Even lady officers are working in the branches beyond 11.00 p.m. There are threats to the safety – especially of the women. We request you to instruct the concerned:

a. To permit hiring the services of security guards (outsourced) where only women officers are there, beyond 7.00 p.m.

b. To permit reasonable expenses towards tiffin/refreshments and taxi expenses where branches sign out after 8.00 p.m.

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c. Branch Managers (irrespective of Scale and Grade) shall be present till the branch sign off. Zonal Heads too shall visit these branches in person to assess the situation and provide quicker solutions, if necessary.

3. Training:

Finacle training shall cover the basic needs and it shall not be for less than10 working days. The basic qualification and experience of the faculty too shall be ensured. In house faculty’s level of understanding the new software, their capabilities to communicate to the trainees shall be properly assessed beforehand. Proper infra structure and inputs shall be ensured.

4. Infra-structure and Manpower:

All the infra-structure issues shall be settled before future migration in April. The Bank shall provide PCs/Printers and other hardware with requisite capacities and configurations to ensure flawless operations, in advance and before the commencement of the process of migration.

5. Compensation for Late sitting and Holiday working:

The officers shall be adequately compensated for late sitting and attending the work on Sundays and holidays. Though the compensation is not an equivalent to the extreme situations faced by them, it will only play a succor role in the process of migration.

We hope, you will appreciate the ground level problems in the migration process and issue necessary instructions for early rectification.

Thanking you,

[SATISH SHETTY] GENERAL SECRETARY

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