Today the customers are more demanding than ever before. Customers expect to contact the bank, the way they want and when they want. If the bank can not provide the information and services to the customers that they need, the bank may lose the customers. To meet these demands, banks have gone for computerization. However, a bank expects the computerization should be `reliable', `maintainable', and `available' for all type of customers and its staff. Here, `reliability' means that the computerization should do what is expected to do at any point of time. Decision makers should be able to get the desired information quickly. Reliability may be determined by placing the appropriate operational computerized systems for long period of time with fewer human interventions. Computerization is `maintainable' implies that all system modules and programs can readily be enhanced, corrected and adapted to new operational developments of the bank as and when required. The `Availability of System' may be defined as to provide insight into whether the system will be in place and working when it is needed for critical applications or not.
The quality of computerization is determined by the satisfaction of banks, not by the absence of software bugs. Successful computerization plays an important role in building the reputation and progress of the banks. Banks must know what stakeholders, customers and officials of the bank want to achieve from the computerization. The computerization of banks has thrown up newer and more formidable challenges. The physical boundaries of the branches are not the constraints for the business. With the rise of the Internet and e-banking, banks are more empowered and so are the customers. See Table 1 for the expectations of the bank from computerization.
An acceptance criteria of computerization should be defined very clearly and precisely by the bank. The acceptance involves the proper planning and execution of tests and it demonstrates that the computerization satisfies the needs. The acceptance criteria should mention the hardware and software maintenance problems, which are the major issues in the bank at present. Financial constraints and hands-on training are also given due consideration in the acceptance criteria. A technical acceptance list may be prepared mentioning about the functional, performance and integration tests. Basically, the bank performs the acceptance tests to check whether the results achieved are correct or not. Table 2 illustrates the acceptance requirements of the bank.
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