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IT has Driven Reliance Money's Growth: Sudip B
By Manu Sharma, Jun 25, 2009 1105 hrs IST

Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MD & CEO of Reliance Money can claim to be a man who controls the fortunes of many, literally. An astute investment professional, his acumen is relied upon to not only steer one of the largest financial brokerage and distribution companies in India but also as an advisor to the general public on various financial matters. Sudip is a seasoned commentator in various media forums on financial issues. CXOtoday however prodded him to bare his views on technology and its implications on the business of finance. In an interview with Cxotoday's Manu Sharma, he spoke on how significant IT is to his business and how it can be leveraged as a business solution. Excerpts from the interview...

What are the key factors that impact growth in your industry? How are you as a company responding to these challenges?
The health of the capital market is most critical for the growth of our industry. This in turn depends on both macro and micro economic factors. The economic condition, growth prospects, relative growth potential amongst the developing countries etc., determines the health & growth of the financial markets.

Currently the international financial markets are going through a crisis. Indian markets and the economy have also been affected. However, as a company, we are to a great extent insulated from market fluctuations due to following reasons:

a) No percentage brokerage is charged by us. Thus our brokerage income is not directly affected by our turnover increase or decrease. We charge a fixed fee.

b) We do not only deal with few institutions and large clients, our services are widely available across the country and primarily retail in nature.

c) We do not rely on funding income (i.e. IPO funding, margin funding etc.), like many other broking companies.

d) Our product basket is wide and diversified. Apart from broking, we sell insurance, mutual funds, credit cards, loans etc. We also facilitate money transfer, money changing and sell gold coins. We also run PMS and Wealth Management Operations.

What has been impact of the US meltdown on your business? How are you coping with the current recessionary business climate?
The impact on our business has been marginal. The overall capital market volumes have come down significantly but our turnover in the equity market have remained almost stagnant over the last six months. This has resulted in our market share to more than double. Thus we are not adversely affected.

Over the last ten years large enterprises have automated their business processes and increased their efficiencies by deploying information technology, what has been your own experience in this regard?
No large business can be created or sustained without the help of information technology in today s world. It is not possible to create a pan-India network and acquire large client base without significant support from IT. We have used and leveraged IT to the maximum possible extent for creating Reliance Money and making it the largest financial broking and distributing company in India within a short span of 1.5 years since its launch in April 2007.

Moving forward do you see technology becoming increasingly critical to business success?
As we expand and grow, IT will become even more important to ensure best in class' customer service and customer experience.

Do you think that IT can be leveraged for business innovations or is IT only a tool that aids business operations?
IT can be leveraged for business innovation and we have done so extensively. For instance, each customer of ours gets a unique security token which generates a six digit number and the same changes every 32 seconds. Only with this number, the customer can get access to our site for using their account. This ensures best in class security. Besides, like bank ATMs, we have introduced trading kiosks which are deployed at public places to enable customers to transact at ease even while on the move. We provide a mobile platform, real time online chat services, automated technical analysis and many other advanced technological solutions and features.

Do you pursue IT as a strategy or is it merely a tactical tool?
We pursue IT as a strategy

What are your expectations from your CIO/IT organization?
IT is the backbone of our organization and thus a critical function. We want to leverage IT to ensure bringing in of new products and services. We also use IT for providing customer delight.

Personally also, are you gadget-savvy? What are the gadgets you use?
I use gadgets like laptop, PC, mobile phones etc

Agree

Disagree

Keyur, 3 G, Mumbai: Nice article Reply

Geetanjali, BPO, Mumbai: Yes, mr sudip .. your comments are quite vital and is quite apt. industry has seen quite some growth with the new position Reliance money has taken in the market. Reply

Raj maurya, Raliance money, Mumbai: IT's a Realy good company Reply

kishore, rmz, belgaum: good show Reply

abishek, sti info, nashik: budget no good for the common man Reply

dinesh marathe, adlabs, pune: long time no see sirji Reply

allied inst, allied inst, New Delhi: want training in finance mgt pls contact email below with ur details Reply

sourab sinha, bae sys, singapore: If India can't take advantage of the global recession and come out stronger than other developed countries, then it would be a disgrace of all Indians Reply

nakul, exl, mumbai: I don't see you anymore on UTVi. When are u back on the air. Eagerly awaiting your show. Reply

Bhargav, XXX, Mumbai: hi dudes Reply

Namita Gupta, hll, kanpur: i like your unique password system implemented across ADAG Reply

nagaraj shetty, krone, karwar: any financial jobs in Relmoney Reply

amarjeet kaur, WAKS, srinagar: why the tiff between the two ambani's instead look for better ways to co-operate and improve ur busniesses Reply

sonali, consultant, pune: Sir when is your show back in air, we are very keen on watching the show on UTVi Reply

altaf, kng, kol: babu moshoi Reply

kks, intelli, nagpur: good stuff on ur site Reply

Dr Biswas, Indian Railways, Siliguri: How can you say the impact is India is marginal when almost all the industries are impacted by the slowdown? Reply

Nitin Garg, Corp Lawyer, Dehradun: What do you expect of the Indian economy in the coming years? Reply

usha, mcdowell, mysore: k sir one needs to learn from Reliance on how to survive in business Reply

Baljit Saini, JCT, Gurdaspur: I am a regular watcher of your program aired on UTVi. Reply

mukesh singh, acto, jodhpur: long time no see Reply

shruti setia, tribune, bathinda, punjab: Sir I am an arts student in media studies and don't understand much of finance & money. so I am requesting u to start a educative program on utvi to non-finance students. Reply

Roney, max, ponaji: I love the television show -- SmartMoney which comes on Saturdays. I am a regular viewer of the programme. Reply

mustafa, stockinvest, bhopal: i need advice regarding investments.pls reply Reply

kadir ahmed, ahmed&bros, lucknow: i agree with the story Reply

debashish roy, hll, dibrugarh: Good story by cxotoday, would appreciate if more such non-IT CEO are featured this series Reply

arun kumar das, tata steel, j'pur: Where are all these big ceo these days? Reply

virender kashya, acme infotech, noida: IT will become even more important to ensure best in class' customer service and customer experience. I feel this is strong statement for others to follow Reply

charter account, mscaci, nagpur: hey how is the junior ambani doing! Reply

Sabrajit Ghosh, Tata Tea, Kokata: Is the slowdown in India impacting the CEO like Sudip Reply

Jay Bharat, Jay Bharat Inc, USA: I hope and pray more CEOs in India will take a leaf out of Sudip's book and put more of their eggs in their IT basket. India is the IT provider to the world,but IT is struggling to take off at home. The appt of IT icon Nilekani to head the national ID card system by PM Manmohan Singh augers well for IT. If only more Mediam size industries and Govt depts are IT driven, India can take of like China. Reply

Monty Singh, ABB, Bangalore: Do u have any jobs for engineers at Reliance Money Reply

manisha saraf, raidinfo, mumbai: Good show guys Reply

vivek paul, Erickson, Delhi: I love the way Reliance operates and bags customers Reply