Customers in developing economies seem to keep the ‘technological factors’ of services such as core service and systematization of the service delivery as the yardstick in differentiating good and bad service.

The saying that “there are no shortcuts to hard work” aptly points out that bad performance cannot be short-circuited by adopting a state-of-the-art’ technological system. It is common practice amongst strategists and planners to hold the current state of technology responsible for poor performance. One of the reasons for this is that it shifts the focus of affairs from delivery of the service to the process of its creation. And by the time a new system with upgraded technology is in place, a whole set of new technologies emerge.

The concept of banking has drastically changed from a business dealing with money transactions alone to a business related to information on financial transactions. This implies that Information Technology (IT) will play a critical role in the years to come by providing better customer service, presumably at a lower cost. Several innovative IT-based services such as Automated Teller Machines (ATM), electronic fund transfer, anywhere-anytime banking, smart cards, net banking, etc., are no longer alien concepts to Indian banking customers. But the diffusion of technology is somewhat slow in public sector banks when compared to private sector banks and foreign banks. Not so long ago, when e-banking was still gaining a foothold in India, there was a case of fraud in Europe, where a clerk had siphoned off small change from different accounts and transactions into his personal account, and this practice had continued over several months before he was caught.

The Analyst Magazine, Technological Upgradation, Information Technology, Automated Teller Machines, ATM, Electronic Fund Transfer, Smart Cards, Net Banking, Public Sector Banks, E-Banking Services, Indian Economy, Financial Transactions, Human Resource Upgradation, Business Process Re-Engineering, Liberalization, Socio-Economic System.