Indiantelevision.com Team

(27 August 2008 3:00 pm)

BANGALORE: IDenizen Smartware Private Limited (IDenizen) announced a strategic tie-up and co-branding initiative with Corporation Bank through the former's education ERP product suite by way of what is claimed a first ever RFID Visa SmartCampus card.

This partnership brings the power of modern banking and VISA debit cards to students' financial transactions and helps link all the stake holders – the students, the staff (faculty as well as non-faculty), parents and the management of colleges. SmartCampus card will replace the identity card that students have to carry.

Besides being a conventional debit card, SmartCampus will help automate and give easy access to most campus activities such as payment of admission and other fees, library automation, examinations, access to the students' performance data, recruitment, etc., among many other features related to and concerning any student. Corporation Bank has 4000 ATM's in India, with VISA having 25000 plus, and transactions can be carried out across all these ATM's as well as through all retail outlets that accept debit cards.

To retain stickiness of the youngsters, Corporation Bank plans to offer a free credit card with a small credit limit to students without any document verification once they have passed out of college.

Both Corporation Bank and IDenizen use the campus and ground events route to create awareness, with IDenizen also being involved by way of sponsorships of college level events. Corporation Bank will also make it easy for the SmartCampus card users to avail loans to the extent of Rs 1 million and Rs 2 million for further studies in India and abroad respectively.

IDenizen has received $2.25million as first round of funding and plans to utilize 40 per cent of this amount towards marketing activities during this year, said IDenizen COO Vinod John.

According to IDenizen founder and CEO Girish Baliga, 60000 students across 60 institutions in four states of Gujarat, Karnaraka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala use the SmartCampus card. Baliga is targeting 250,000 card users by the end of this fiscal and a million over the next three four years. By fiscal 2012-13, he expects revenues to cross Rs 1 billion.

Baliga estimates the annual total size of the market in terms of transactions as Rs 70 billion approximately and wants to be the dominant player in this field. Baliga plans a brand building exercise by the end of this fiscal. This includes advertisements, details for which are being worked out.