Co-operative Banks adopt Sarvatra

Sarvatra is a money SW system to provide the ease of anywhere money

A cost-effective Anywhere Money system-Sarvatra - specially designed for
co-operative banks using point of sale (PoS) terminals on simple telephonic
network was launched across Goa by Goa's apex co-operative bank - Goa State
Co-operative Bank (GSCB).

Developed by Pune-based ebz online, along with a technical collaboration with
i-flex solutions ltd, Sarvatra was deployed at 13 of the total 64 branches of
Goa State Co-operative Bank, covering all 11 talukas, within a span of 30 days.
"The bank will extend this service to more branches after we receive the
desired results," said Prakash Velip, Chairman, GSCB.

Sarvatra is a money software system developed for the co-operative banks to
provide the customers the convenience of anywhere money, ie they can withdraw or
deposit money at any branch of a bank. Thus with Sarvatra one will be able to
avail non-ATM based anywhere banking services through PoS terminals set up at
branches. "This product is extremely convenient to customers and is very
affordable to co-operative banks as compared to setting up a network of ATM
machines, which require a centralized banking solution", said Mandar Agashe,
MD, ebz online.

Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister, Goa, while launching the Sarvatra card,
offered State-run Mahiti Ghar (Information Kiosk) to be used as Sarvatra centers
for GSCB.

The most interesting feature of this system is that the bank intending to
implement it need not be computerized nor it needs the expensive computer
network. All that it needs is the POS terminal costing around Rs 25,000 and the
Sarvatra software, which cost Rs one lakh per branch and a telephone line.

The user swipes the card in the machine like any other ATM and request for
the cash withdrawals or deposits, as the case may be, at any of the branches of
the bank and the request would travel through the telephone line to the base
branch for confirmation and back within nine seconds. However, the customer has
to get it countersigned by the manager before collecting the amount from the
cashier.

Niraj Naik, Goa

(CyberMedia News)