Punjab National Bank : BCP Automation Project

For banking sectors, business continuity is a key area of concern. Critical

components like servers, databases, storage, application server, etc that form

the computerized environment for a business can fail any time. The failure can

be due to database crash, application, central server failure or network failure

at NOC, CNC, etc. Here comes the reason for adoption of Business Continuity Plan

(BCP) for a business to be able to provide uninterrupted services to customers.

PNB implemented this project on March '09 in all 58 circles with the support of

HCL Infosystems. One major challenge that PNB faced was training users both at

circle and branch offices of the vast network of the bank with over 5000

branches. Some other challenges faced comprised of generation of crucial data

pertaining to balance, stop payments, etc.

The objective was to provide latest Balance File (fall back data) to a BCP PC.

The BCP PC is a normal Desktop PC that acts as a server for other PCs/Terminals.

As it is inline with the network architecture of the bank, through different

Circle Network Centers(CNC), it is connected to the main server and spread

throughout the 18 branches. The main benefit of BCP Project is that even in the

absence of connectivity, uninterrupted services to customers across all the

branches is provided. It also acts as a medium of storage as account-wise data

can be stored in the branch BCP PC.