Relief-there was a hint of it on Vijay Dhar's face, but years of banking software development had made enough of a banker out of him to conceal it. Global interest in Bangalore-based RubikSoft, of which he was the chief, had turned exponential as a result of recent newspaper coverage. But brand recognition was just the start, and the real challenge lay ahead: in cracking the $130-billion (45 per cent of the world's total) American market for banking and financial service software packages.

"It is high-risk, high-return," said Dhar, "and that is why the stockmarkets are watching us." Indeed, opting for the packages rather than services business was a courageous decision in itself, given that the product had to be a global success-installed across hundreds of banks and FIs-just to recoup fixed costs. That too, against entrenched global bigwigs. And for that, the marketing budget had to be global in scale, which could easily negate the locational R&D cost advantage. "But then," continued Dhar, "the good news is that an acutely well-focused marketing effort need not cost the earth."

Was it well-focused? Conceptually, yes. As a spin-off from a global banking conglomerate, RubikSoft boasted of a rare combination of banking expertise and tech prowess to begin with. And now, it had a potential winner in RubikIntegra, its leading-edge brand, positioned in the target banker's mind as the 'most flexible integrated banking package'.

Dozens of banks in Africa, Asia, and even Europe had already taken to the package, and were highly satisfied. With its n-permutation architecture, RubikIntegra had brought single-platform coherence to zillions of transactions across locations, interfaces and services (including net-banking), and all within an 'individual window' format to make the customer the focal point of the entire operation. Plus, RubikIntegra's open modular structure allowed other specialised sub-packages (say, an m-commerce software) to be snapped in and out of the super-structure rather painlessly. "The deal-clincher, though," said Dhar, "is the money we save them. Not just on installation, but on actual transaction cost. That's why we've got some 150 customers in more than 60 countries, and all this in less than five years."

Naresh Nair, Chief Marketing Officer, nodded vigorously: "Yeah-money talks."

"Sure," replied Jayesh Swaminathan, the R&D Chief, "and louder than ever these days, even in America. Besides, we're armed with demos that zero in on the weak links of the software jumble out there."

No exaggeration there. The opportunity had been well chalked out, with thousands of man-hours of research. The US market was not only fragmented, it was also chaotic. Hundreds of American banks' legacy systems were in desperate need of replacement. Several were still using proprietary mainframe-based systems from the 1970s that were proving way too rigid, insecure, and inefficient to adapt to the current banking environment, what with shifting market dynamics, growing real-time service expectations and redrafted regulations.

"Who'd have imagined a cellphone replacing your wallet," mused Swaminathan, "but visit Atlanta and see-3gm banking is on."

"That's good," said Dhar, keen to get the strategy pow-wow underway, "but we've still got to reach out. Remember, we're still relatively unknown and don't have sufficient reference sites."

"We've got our target segments worked out," said Nair, "and while our own team can move in on the smaller banks with demos, maybe we could strike deals with America's established tech-service vendors to target the big banks."

"The vendor idea might have worked well in Europe," said Dhar, "but I'm more keen on containing costs in the US, since our other efforts will hog so much money. You know, it costs more to host a high-profile banking conference in America than to create a whole product in India."

All three laughed. Then Nair made another attempt: "I know, but by my calculations, just two of the big-name vendors can give us some 25-30 installations that can serve as referrals for our own direct pitching team. Also, the 'safety in numbers' rule might hold sway. Big banks will be afraid to reject the UK-based majors in favour of this little nobody from Bangalore, no matter what the flexibility and savings we offer. You know, nobody ever got fired for..."

"...buying ICM," came Swaminathan's voice.

"Yeah," Nair glanced back, "Though that's just a vendor in this case. The volume market leader Equidux has more than 600 installations, and the value leader Heisenberg has more than 120-each worth a helluva lot more."

Dhar didn't wince. He sat there, thumb at the chin. "Let's not overstate their dominance," he said, "some 600 installations is not even one-tenth of all the installations in the world. Second, let's not underestimate our power to revolutionise the scene. In dollar terms, we're operating on a realisation per installation that's so low that those guys can't even begin to understand how. I like that. It means we're going to shake the market up a little bit. If we weren't going to be bold, we could've easily stuck to tailored software services and suffered under the commodity-type margins that only the mega-firms can survive on."

"We could try making a go of it without vendors, but that implies a total dependence on our own team, which is still a little wet behind the ears. Would an upward revision in risk be okay with shareholders?" asked Swaminathan.

"You leave that to me," replied Dhar, "they know what the global brand game takes."

"Fine-so we get more leeway on our own ideas," said Nair, looking pleased.

"Leeway doesn't mean recklessness, Naresh," said Dhar, "Anyhow, my point is, I want the entire show to go low cost. Low cost and high buzz. We've got to out-think them."

Nair and Swaminathan looked at their boss, whose eyebrows had started rising just the way they typically did when he had something up his sleeve. Sure enough, he did. "Okay," began Dhar, clearing his throat, "tell me what you think. My suggestion is that we don't go to vendors, but pull off a few installations ourselves in such a way that the vendors are drawn to us. And then, if we get good terms, we let them fan out and do the job."

The chief's eyebrows were showing no signs of descending. There was more. The two waited. After 20 odd seconds of silence, Dhar uttered his mind: "Basel."

"Basel?"

"Yes," said Dhar, speaking slowly, for emphasis, "that's what's on every bank chief's mind. The notion of prudential banking is in flux. For years, banking remained enslaved to a rigidly simplistic formulation of assigning risk-weights to assets, conceived and laid down ages ago. New Basel thinking favours a finer risk calibration that's in better sync with banking realities. But even these thoughts are under evolution. Whatever shape the prudential regulations finally take, the fact is that bankers are thinking about all this from a 'need' rather than 'regulation' perspective. They actually need real-time dynamism in their view of safety-as a probability."

"That's where RubikIntegra comes in," smiled Nair.

"You bet. Flexibility is the story, and flexibility is RubikIntegra's story. As the Americans would say, the die ain't cast yet."

Question: should RubikSoft risk making its own sales pitch in the US?

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