Bangalore, Oct 20th: The Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank, a leading regional rural bank sponsored by State Bank of India (SBI), selected IBM's hardware platform to run its core banking application across its 530 branches, it was announced on Tuesday. "As the first regional rural bank in the country to implement a core banking application, the bank will use a range of our hardware and software products in its branch network to provide business continuity with redundancy even in remote locations. 

IBM bagged the deal for an undisclosed amount after demonstrating that its platform would help the bank's IT infrastructure provide its customers a range of services on real time. "Our products and solutions, including x3200 server, will ensure reliability to facilitate transaction time for business operations during peak trading hours," IBM India vice-president Mittal said. As a preferred vendor for mid-sized businesses, IBM is focused on the small and medium businesses (SMB) in the Indian market, as the segment is looking for cost-efficient IT solutions without compromising on performance. 

IBM India has tied up with new partners to offer its range of hardware, software and services to the burgeoning SMB sector in tier-two and tier-three cities across the country. Headquartered at Warangal, about 140 km from Hyderabad, the Grameena Vikas Bank was formed in 2006 with the amalgamation of five rural banks spread over eight districts of Andhra Pradesh. The central government holds 50 percent of the bank's equity, while SBI 35 percent and the Andhra Pradesh government the remaining 15 percent.