Financial services · Mumbai, India · 2021
NABARD Society: 24x7 access for 3,000+ members and 70% fewer counter queries
The NABARD Employees' Co-operative Credit Society ran its books on a system that had never seen the internet. We built a secure service layer around it, so 3,000+ members can check balances and renew fixed deposits from their phones, while the core the Society trusts stays exactly where it is.
- Client
- NABARD Employees' Co-operative Credit Society
- Market
- India
- Engagement
- Legacy modernisation, then Care & Grow plan
- Timeline
- 6 months
- In care since
- 2021
- Platforms
- Mobile web app, Public website, Admin tools
- Capabilities
- Web EngineeringCloud and HostingIntegrations
3,000+
members with 24x7 access
70%
fewer counter queries for balances
Online
FD renewals, for the first time
The context
A trusted system that members could not reach.
The Society is a co-operative run for and by its members, employees who save, borrow and invest through it. It offers savings accounts, loans and deposit schemes, including fixed deposits (FDs) and its own Dhanlaxmi deposit.
Its core system was built for staff and ran on a server with no connection to the public internet. That kept it safe and kept it accurate. It also meant that every balance check, every question about a maturing deposit and every renewal began with a visit to the counter or a phone call during office hours.
The challenge
Two risks, pulling in opposite directions.
Replacing a working financial system is risky. Years of ledgers, interest rules and member history live inside it, and the managing committee had no appetite for a big bang migration. Leaving members offline carried a different risk: a growing queue at the counter and members who expected to manage their money the way they manage everything else.
So the architecture had to separate the two decisions. The core would stay the source of truth. Members would get a modern, secure way to see and act on their accounts. And nothing a member did online could ever put the ledger at risk.
Our approach
Keep the core. Build around it.
Prem Raval led the account and wrote a good share of the code himself, with designers and engineers working from the same whiteboard.
- 01
Listen & Learn
We sat with counter staff for a week and wrote down every question members asked. Balance checks topped the list by a distance, followed by questions about deposits nearing maturity.
- 02
Map & Measure
An assessment of the legacy core: what data members needed, how often it changed, and the short list of actions that could flow back. Everything else stayed read only.
- 03
Sketch & Shape
Mobile first screens tested with members, and a sign-in using the Society account number members already know, rather than an email address many had never registered.
- 04
Build & Break
Data migration, a cloud service layer with scheduled syncs, and a security review that treated every screen as a target. We tried hard to break it before anyone else could.
- 05
Launch & Land
A phased rollout by branch, counter staff trained to help members sign in for the first time, and a runbook for the day a sync runs late.
What we built
Member services, online, with the ledger untouched.
A service layer between the retained core and the internet, a member app on top of it, and the tools the office needs to run it.
A cloud service layer
Migrated data and scheduled syncs from the retained core give members fast, controlled access. Renewal requests travel back through one audited path that the office confirms.
Secure member sign-in
Members sign in with their Society account number and a password, with self service password reset and the last sign-in time shown on every screen.
The whole position on one screen
Total deposits, pending loans and savings balance at a glance, with a simple chart of what a member holds against what they owe.
My investments
Every deposit listed with its scheme, tenure and maturity date, plus copy and print for the members who still like paper.
Fixed deposit renewal, online
Deposits approaching maturity are flagged early, and members renew them online for the first time instead of filling a form at the counter.
Profile rules that respect the office
Members update their own email and mobile number. Identity, designation and address details stay read only and change only through the Society, because the core remains the record.
The outcome
Fewer questions at the counter, more time for members.
3,000+ members now have 24x7 access to their accounts. Counter queries about balances fell by 70%, and fixed deposit renewals moved online for the first time in the Society's history.
The part we are proudest of is what did not change. The core system that held the truth still holds it, and the staff who trusted it still do. That is the approach we bring to every website and web application build that sits on top of an older system.
They did not ask us to throw away a system we trusted. They built the member experience around it, and our members finally have their passbook in their pocket.
Care & Grow
Quietly online since 2021.
In our care since 2021
The portal runs on a Care & Grow plan. We host and monitor it, keep it patched and review security every year. Every sync between the core and the service layer is logged, and our on call engineer is alerted if one runs late.
When the Society changes a deposit scheme or an interest rate, it appears in the portal once the core is updated, with no change to the member experience. The hosting and monitoring behind it come from the same team that started in hosting, and you can read how that works on our cloud and hosting page.
Who worked on it
- Partner, product and engineering
- Product designer
- Two back end engineers
- Front end engineer
- Data migration engineer
- QA and security engineer
- DevOps engineer
Credits
Product, design, engineering and ongoing care by D&C Studios. Prem Raval led the account and was hands on in the code, with a product designer, four engineers, a QA and security engineer and a DevOps engineer alongside him. The Society’s office staff and managing committee shaped the rules and tested every release.
The client is the NABARD Employees’ Co-operative Credit Society, Mumbai: a separate co-operative that serves employees. This is not a case study of work for the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
About these screens
The screens on this page are redrawn from a test session Prem ran at half past midnight in April 2021, a few days before members first signed in. Names and figures are samples, and no member data appears anywhere on this page.
Working around a legacy core of your own? Tell us what it runs on.
Stack and tools
- PHP
- MySQL
- Bootstrap
- REST APIs
- Scheduled sync jobs
- Managed cloud hosting