I-Flex Solutions Ltd

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- Point solutions to comprehensive processing platform

- Emerging markets to advanced markets

- Tier ¾ customers to top tier customers

- Software provider to IT partner for FS industry

- Regional player to global presence

- Direct sales model to partner and alliance model

- Indian brand to global brand

Its evolution journey from an Indian software firm to the industry leader in financial services has multiple aspects:

- Customer Service:

To improve customer service, we saw major shift in how they make themselves visible (outreach programs, exhibitions etc.). Their services business facilitated customer acquisition and development. First-level support (local) was backed by higher level support.

- Organization Structure:

They grew from a predominantly Indian organization to a global one with employees from over 70 nationalities. Due to their size, they implemented several processes to co-ordinate and standardize various day-to-day activities which helped them in providing a superior product and thus better value proposition. They also had several acquisitions both in and outside India to expand their portfolio of solutions. I-flex evolved from an Indian to a global organization in its journey.

- Product:

- staffed team with bankers in addition to technologists in light of the changing competitive context

- moved from “account-centric” to a “customer-centric” system

- created common service levels; parameterization helped in significantly reducing lead time and being more responsive to consumers’ needs

- developed a multi-currency, multi-language system to be truly global

- developed a modular system with a common core and separate functional modules

- How would the Oracle acquisition impact the future of i-flex?

Oracle acquisition will help i-flex to provide its global customers truly integrated solutions across the front, middle & back office. Oracle and i-flex have complementary strengths. While Oracle has a huge horizontal spread in banking, i-flex is the industry leader in banking services and might reach its goal of becoming the youngest IT company to reach a billion dollars in revenue. i-flex would benefit greatly from the sales and distribution reach of oracle. There is a possibility of i-flex getting Oracle’s multiplier effect due to the unparalleled reach it offers. Top tier banks will be more willing to work with them as the old ownership structure will no longer be an obstacle. i-flex will have access to the remaining 85% banks who aren’t in its current customer base.

However, it would be interesting to see if Oracle does interfere in the day to day operations at i-flex. Despite i-flex having seen a sharp decline in profitability (since 2002), the deal went through. Would need more data to comprehensively evaluate the effects.

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