Impact of Information Technology on Customer Services with Reference to Selected Banks in Chandigarh

Indian banking industry, today is in the midst of an IT revolution. A combination of regulatory and competitive reasons has led to increasing importance of total banking automation in the Indian Banking Industry. The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of information technology on operational activities of banks, operational efficiency of employees and to acquaint with the level of satisfaction among the customers and employees. Data is collected from 156 customers and 48 employees working in private and public sector bank branches in Chandigarh. It is noticed that in improving customer services, management information system and ensuring high productivity, technology orientation has become inevitable. Benefits of information technology in banking are: increases operational efficiency, productivity and profitability, offering the superior quality customer services, multi-channel, real-time transaction processing, ability to better cross selling of products and services, improved management information system, management and accountability, efficient nonperforming assets (NPA) and risk/credit management and minimum transaction costs. In creating a viable and efficient banking system, which can respond adequately to the needs of growing economy, technology has a key role to play. The technological challenge is to identify suitable areas of automation, selecting appropriate software and priorities the implementation on suitable and cost effective hardware so that in ultimate analysis, gains outweigh the cost.