11-Feb-2020
The Muthoot Pappachan Group has tied up with UST Global to modernize its IT infrastructure. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the non-banking finance company said it was a ‘multi-hundred crore’ project which will be rolled out over its 4,200 branches across the country. “This was a key action point on our agenda – to get the IT infrastructure to be run by a partner across all our branches. We will continue to do the software development ourselves, while the IT infrastructure would be managed by UST Global,” said Thomas John Muthoot, CMD, Muthoot Pappachan Group.
The Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG), a diversified financial services conglomerate, is tying up with digital solutions and services company UST Global. The move is expected to kick off an ‘end-to-end digital transformation’ of the former’s financial services business, also called Muthoot Blue, as a significant part of a group-wide business rejig exercise.
The transformation, branded as Digital Blue, has been divided into different ‘towers’ aiming at specific outcomes. These include IT infrastructure, an all-new gold loan platform, a new loan management system, CRM, data warehouse and analytics, which will all fit into a new enterprise-level architecture.
Financial inclusion
The exercise is primarily aimed at easing scalability, building the group’s quick and agile decision-making capability, increased productivity and efficiency from the business and cost standpoints, said MPG. Digital Blue is an intensive six-year long journey with the ultimate objective of achieving Muthoot Blue’s mission to ‘transform the life of the common man by improving his financial well-being’, it added.
Digitalisation will provide the foundation for sustainable growth, keeping MPG abreast with the rapidly changing environment and staying relevant for future, said Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman and Managing Director, MPG. “If the unbanked in India were to be a country, it would be the seventh largest in the world. Real change in the lives of the people in the lower strata of the socio-economic pyramid will come about with improvement in their financial status. Hence, financial inclusion is at the core of Muthoot Blue.”
Digitalisation will generate detailed, sharp and intimate customer data and ensure efficiency and flexibility in customer service and experience, he added. According to Eugene Koshy, Chief Purpose Officer and the lead behind the group-wide business transformation, the goal of being the financial service provider of choice to the common man can be realised only with digitalisation.
Modern IT infrastructure
“Our engagement is such that we are servicing over a lakh customers a day at our 4,200 fully-owned branches through 26,000+ employees. Accordingly, we have kept the customer at the centre of all digital initiatives under this transformation journey,” Koshy said. This primarily involves developing a modern infrastructure for cutting-edge applications across key products and services, which will ensure superior customer service and regulatory compliance as expected from a systemically important NBFC.
Alexander Varghese, Chief Operating Officer, UST Global, said his company and MPG have a common mission — to transform lives. “With extensive experience in digital transformation across the globe, we are fully committed to MPG in helping it stay ahead in the a highly competitive market,” he said.
Gilroy Mathew, Vice-President, UST Global, said the modern cloud solutions built around UST’s own cloud offerings will accelerate the digital transformation initiatives at MPG. It will add great impetus to its business operations and help establish a long-lasting relationship with customers. Digitalisation and IT modernisation will pave way not just for stronger customer and user experience but also improve IT security and operations at MPG, he added.
