YES BANK is India’s fifth largest private sector bank with a pan India presence across all 29 states and 7 Union Territories.  In its ninth year, YES BANK, with Rs.99,104 crore in total assets, has managed to outpace most other private banks. Today, the bank has a widespread branch network of over 630 branches across 375 cities, with 1150+ ATMs across India. Lack of Standardization However, to continue on its dream run, it needed to fix some nagging IT issues. In its quest for unfettered progress, YES BANK followed the principle of outsourcing all that was not core to business, including IT. “In the case of IT, we decided to outsource all that was commoditized,” says Suren Shetty, senior president and CIO at YES BANK. The company signed up for a complete asset and IT outsourcing contract, which recently came up for renewal. It was during the renegotiation of this contract that Shetty and his team dedicated efforts to alleviate some of the pain points that had crept into the system. The bank was using multiple devices for its printing needs across its branches and operating centers was one of the issues . The branches were using one device for fax, another for printing, and yet another for scanning and photocopying.

There was a lack of standardization and it was hard for the IT team to quickly respond to printing issues. Also, support at the branches in tier 3 cities was a challenge.

Moreover, the IT team was spending a considerable amount of time keeping track of the annual maintenance contracts, re-order quantities, and tracing consumables like toners and cartridges. YES BANK knew it first had to fix one of its most pressing needs: Standardization. “When you are growing as a bank, you need every location to be serviced and catered to in a standard manner,” says Shetty. So, the bank needed to consolidate its printing assets and have a single service provider who would take care of its end-to-end printing requirements across the branches. It identified a few partners and assessed them on the basis of factors like the strength of their brand, the image they portray, a pan-India service network, and their eco-sensitivity. More importantly, YES BANK also needed its partner to be flexible in terms of pricing and costs. “Technology in the domain of printing is fairly standardized. It is the service that makes all the difference,” says Shetty. And it found the quality of service it was looking for in Canon. But before it could take Canon’s help, the bank first needed to analyze its requirements. To do that, an on-site assessment was conducted to gather usage statistics—based on users’ proximity to machines, number of users at a branch, and the type of printing—in order to identify the avenues for saving costs. Post its analysis, YES BANK decided to take on 520 of Canon’s multi-function devices, where one device would cater to all the bank’s needs—printing, scanning, and photocopying—coupled with a managed document services (MDS) contract.

YES BANK deployed entry level MFDs at the branches that house fewer employees and opted for the mid and high-range MFDs for its corporate offices.

“This helped us save capital expenditure we would otherwise have incurred,” says Shetty. YES BANK and Canon have agreed on a rental business model of five years for all the MFDs, under which, Canon would manage all the printing services, including consumables, on a per click model. Pay Per Click Printing Model The MDS model relieves the IT team from managing consumables and spares across 430 branches. As per the SLAs, Canon has promised a high uptime of 99 percent across the bank on a month-on-month basis, helping the bank reduce approximately 30 percent of its carbon footprint. With duplexing enabled on all the MFDs, YES BANK will also stand to gain from the reduction in paper consumption costs.

“This engagement with Canon has brought in more control. We can centrally monitor the usage of printing, scanning, and photocopying at our branches,” says Venkat Krishnan, CTO, YES BANK.

Also, change management wasn’t too much of an issue as the initiative has given visibility to over 7,024of its employees and a single point of contact for their grievances related to printing. “We have also seen productivity gains within the IT team from a helpdesk perspective because they don’t have to manage the day-to-day activities of printing services,” says Krishnan. The implementation has also taken care of costs associated with the time taken to resolve an issue, day-to-day management activities, and ensuring availability of services. “We have seen a 35 to 40 percent reduction in routine business and management costs over the previous model,” adds Krishnan. In terms of services, under the agreement with Canon, YES BANK’s branches located in the metros are guaranteed same-day services, while even the remotest of branches can expect to receive help from Canon within 24 hours of logging a complaint. The engagement also allows YES BANK the flexibility of averaging out the costs across locations if, for some reason, one branch’s usage goes beyond its usual range. That way, not only does YES BANK avoid incurring additional expenditure, but it can also recalibrate its requirements accordingly in the following month. This is made possible by continuously keeping track of how the company’s print environment is performing through regular monitoring. Delighted with the overall service that YES BANK is enjoying, Krishnan says, “It has been a beautiful engagement for us and we hope to implement this across the YES BANK group and set an example in the banking service provider industry.”