SKS Microfinance, one of the world’s leading microfinance companies, has launched a IT initiative that will accelerate its goal of financial inclusion. The initiative, which  involves Compulink, HCL, Microsoft, Tulip IT and Wipro InfoTech, involves the creation of a connected network of 1500 urban and rural microfinance branches throughout the country.

The IT initiative is aimed at helping SKS achieve its ambitious goal of expanding outreach from its current base of 650 branches serving 17 lakh poor households to 1500 branches serving 40 lakh poor households by March 2009. Dr Vikram Akula, Founder & CEO,SKS Microfinance said, “Technology has the power to enable us to reduce costs, maintain information integrity and provide more convenient services to our poor and low-income clients. Our customers will benefit from the state-of-the-art technologies developed by some of the best IT companies in the world.”
SKS currently operates in 15 states and has disbursed more than Rs 1,200 crore in credit as well as life and health insurance products to poor households in nearly 20,000 villages and slums. It plans to disburse an additional Rs 5,200 crore to clients in nearly 40,000 villages and slums in FY 2008-09. It is currently adding 50 new branches and 1.5 lakh new clients per month.

Prashant Gupta, Vice President - IT, SKS Microfinance said,"The proprietary solution will be rolled out enterprise-wide in six months.” The new IT backbone is expected to be in place by July, 2008.  The deployment and testing phase will be through by May 08.

Compulink will develop a three tier web application for SKS that will help develop deveklop internal software and complement web hosting services. Tulip IT will support connectivity across all 650 existing and future SKS offices using a hybrid solution with a mix of MPLS, RF and VSAT solutions. The partnership endeavors to provide efficient WAN infrastructure while providing complete end-to-end communication services with security. Other benefits include resource consolidation and creation of a centralized information system so that financial data can be retrieved in real-time from any of the offices including those in remote rural towns.

Wipro Infotech will host SKS' data center in Bangalore. The partnership will help SKS Microfinance protect applications running on different operating environments and reduce management costs and other overheads. Wipro Infotech is acting as a single point of contact for SKS for designing the overall topology for our systems, procuring servers for hosting the applications, and managing the entire system over time.
In order to standardize quality and address compatibility issues across offices, a central procurement system has been implemented. IT Assets include categories such as PCs, servers, peripherals, telecom/networking, software and other technology services. For the centralized procurement model, SKS Microfinance has partnered with HCL for Desktops, Printers, Multi-Function Devices and UPS, and with Wipro Infotech for Laptops to manage supply and post sale service across all SKS offices.

SKS has entered into a software licensing partnership with Microsoft to enable easier license management, planning and improve budgeting. The licensing model will take care of the SKS' software needs, maximizing licensing flexibility and choice for the next three years.