Revenue Opportunities &
Sales Performance
How did RS Software perform in FY23Rs.
FY 23 has been a year of significant sales efforts with existing clients and
prospecting with new prospects, in all of our focused geographies, and opening new markets
with our partners. Our partnership strategy is being reinforced and will continue to be an
important part of our growth in the coming years. India has become a global leader in the
adoption of digital payments, and we continue to play an important role for India to
achieve such phenomenal success. No wonder that the largest revenue contributor for us in
FY 23 is India, while the largest pipeline value built is in geographies outside of India.
During FY23, we maintained our focus on the execution of our business strategy for
products and key offerings, go-to-market and sales execution, delivery fulfilment and
efficiency in our execution. All of this translated into improvement of quality of revenue
and margins, and it has positioned us well for revenue growth and improved margins in FY24
and beyond.
RS Product suite gaining traction
We found healthy traction with prospects for our RS DigitalEdge™ product and are
confident of converting this traction into new clients acquisition and revenue growth.
This product has potential to meet requirements both at central infrastructure, and also
in implementing use cases to monetize modernized digital payment infrastructure; and that
too both in emerging economies and the developed world. We are responding to some key
opportunities in the US and Canada.
RS DigitalEdge™ - Innovation at central infrastructure
We successfully closed a significant contract in the US. RS DigitalEdge™ will
deliver the following advantages to our client:
• Ease of integration for banks and TSPs systems to the RTP platform through
REST APIs
• Ease of integration between banks and fintechs using Common Standard REST APIs
for Payment Initiation
• Enabling external stakeholders to consume the central infrastructures
underlying mission-critical systems through Services Standardized Service Interface
• All of these will accelerate adoption of RTP.
RS DigitalEdge™ - The overlay layer to monetise modernized payment infrastructure
RS DigitalEdge™, as the Overlay layer, has been positioned to enable vertical
solutions build. The first use case is for Insurance companies to substantially lower
their cost for claims pay-out by using real-time payments and ISO 20022 data. This will be
executed through our partnership in Canada. Our solution will deliver the following
results to the Insurance companies:
• End-users will receive their claims immediately
• Cost of real-time payment processing will be comparatively lower than checks
• ISO 20022 message protocol will allow reference data to flow along with payments
to enable a far more efficient reconciliation and business process automation
• Insurance companies will benefit from much higher predictability and real-time
ability around its liquidity.
RS RTPS™ and overlay technology stack for modernizing central payment
infrastructure
We have created a high-quality, high-value proposition and gained the mindshare of
potential large customers that are seeking modern central payment infrastructure
solutions, either through modernization of their existing payment systems or by building a
new central payment infrastructure, with one of more of our premium products for such
central payment infrastructure - RS RTPS™, RS DigitalEdge™, RS BillAbhi™
and RS IntelliEdge™.
Along with our partner in the Middle East, we responded to a RFI for a large deal. We
have been shortlisted as the best technical solution for the implementation of a 4th
generation central payment infrastructure with the following solution components:
• Real-time Payment platform using RS RTPS™
• Overlay layer for enabling value-added services using RS DigitalEdge™
• Bill and Invoice Payment as one of the first value-added services using RS
BillAbhi™
• Fraud and Risk Management solution encompassing all transactions on this central
payment infrastructure using RS IntelliEdge™.
Partnership to leverage the major growth opportunities in the fastest growing digital
payments market India with our product ConnectEdge™
We have signed up a strategic partnership with one of the large PSPs for offering the
RS ConnectEdge™ platform for the India market to process UPI and BBPS transactions
for the banks and fintechs. RS Softwares revenue will be dominant through a revenue
sharing model over 5 years. The platform will go-live in FY24, and we expect the first set
of customers to be on-boarded soon post go-live.
RS IntelliEdge™ - Innovative technology stack to build fraud and risk management
in digital payments
We found healthy traction in the India market for our RS IntelliEdge™ product. We
are confident of signing at least one or more large deals in FY24 for RS
IntelliEdge™.
We are in discussions with multiple customers - central infrastructure and banks - in
India and other global markets for RS IntelliEdge™ as leading-edge fraud and risk
management solution. Several banks are showing interest in the value proposition of our
product. Our product will help the banks fight potential frauds in real-time payments,
give the bank more control to address fraud across multiple channels, and cover account
level profiles.
Partnership strategy key component of growth strategy
Our partnership strategy has been validated and is rewarding us. All three of our
go-to-market partnerships have already started yielding revenue and/or opened more than
half a dozen significant opportunities in the US, Canada, Europe and India markets.
What were the principal challenges faced at the start of FY 2022-23Rs. And how were
these addressedRs.
The combination of partnership and product lead strategy has resulted in slower sales
cycle, but the big positive is high number of market opportunities, resulting in sales
pipeline value that we have not seen before. FY23 witnessed the highest number and value
of opportunities and contracts involving RS products, and each of these contracts needed
a significant amount of discussion and negotiation to finalise the commercial structure
and contractual clauses pertaining to ownership of intellectual property.
What/Where has been our primary focus in Sales & Marketing activities during FY
2022-23Rs.
RS Software has strategically invested and spent significantly considerable time in the
RS Payments Innovation Lab to hone the business and technology architecture that can
maximize the depth - the reach of the modernized rails and the breadth is distinct use
cases powered by the modernized rails. For mission- critical payment systems of any
client, these assets drive the payment modernization agenda by addressing the demand for
shared digital infrastructure.
The key focus for sales and marketing in FY23 was to leverage these capabilities to
address market demand with product-led solutioning. The culmination of payment domain
expertise built over three decades, open-source technology experience, and passion for
innovative approaches to develop scalable, resilient, and secure solutions, which help us
develop the most strategic assets of our portfolio.
The Sales team focused on creating a quality pipeline of opportunities driven by
recurring revenue models over a sizeable duration. The sales execution and productivity
were focused on ensuring the overall efficiency of the sales and marketing efforts. It led
to building more than half a dozen sizable new opportunities, which are currently being
pursued and are related to inn mission-critical payment systems of our products through RS
multiple social media channels, our ‘followers on Linkedln, etc., such as Nasscom.
All marketing efforts are towards generatingleads and new opportunities.
What does the Sales function expect to achieve in 2023-24
We expect to achieve the following results in 2023-24:
• We will continue to cross-sell and grow at one of our large customers in India
in the areas of FRM through our product RS IntelliEdge™ and enhancement of many of
their central infrastructure payment rails.
• We expect to launch the next enhanced version of our RS IntelliEdge™ to
meet very high scalability of digital payments in FY24. This enhanced version of RS
IntelliEdge™ will be one of the key sources of revenue for RS Software over the next
3 years.
• We expect to launch the next enhanced version of RS DigitalEdge™ to
accelerate adoption of real-time payments (RTP) in global markets where the central
payment infrastructure is working with legacy technology stack. It will also address key
use-case(s) for RTP for Insurance companies in Canada and US, where we are pursuing
significant opportunity.
• We have partnered with a large player to launch our RS ConnectEdge™
platform, for the India market. The platform will enable banks and fintechs to experience
seamless on- boarding and process UPI and BBPS transactions.
• We see potential opportunities along with our partners for our products RS
DigitalEdge™, RS IntelliEdge™, RS BillAbhi and for our solution accelerators.
• For the Acquiring and Acceptance segment, our Payabbhi?platform is gaining
traction in the US market, where we are offering along with our partner.
Overall, we see growth opportunities in multiple global markets, including US, Canada
and Europe, in the areas of payments modernization and providing overlay
services/solutions, all of which can be addressed through our product suite.
Innovation
What has been the primary focus during FY 2022-23Rs.
The innovation and competency building process is both strategic and key to achieve the
companys transformation to the new enhanced strategy and its implementation. FY 2022-23
validated global interest in all our products that are MVP ready. The company has focused
on building expertise, products and solutions to address the growing demand for payments
modernization globally. Majority of our efforts in innovation in FY 2022-23 were primarily
centred around fine-tuning RS DigitalEdge™ to make it more fungible and enhance the
Overlay Service Layer to address additional use-cases in the US and Canada geographies,
enhancement of Payabbhi?, supporting our Sales and Marketing teams with details to
enhance the positioning of each of our products, and enhancing the RS Payments Universe
portal. Importantly, new initiatives have been added to include work in hyper scalability
AI/ML technology.
Products
Many of the products that have been developed in the RS Payment Innovation Lab are now
successfully installed at our global clients, including in India. Many of these are being
continuously enhanced and upgraded.
RS IntelliEdge™, implemented as an Enterprise Fraud Risk Management (EFRM), is
already running successfully, pan-India. EFRM was benchmarked for 2,000 transactions per
second (TPS). With large adoption of digital payment in India, the transaction volume grew
at multiple times the rate at which it was expected to grow. With horizontal scalability,
the EFRM platform scaled without degradation by more than 300% and supports ~ 6,500
transactions per second. With 11.3+ bn transactions scored in May 2023, it now needs a new
architecture for further scalability. During FY 2023-24, we will be upgrading the
architecture of RS IntelliEdge™ such that the product can support 40,000 TPS, with
active-active deployment setup.
We also plan to enhance the functionality of RS IntelliEdge™ to score
cross-channel transactions, along with customer account profiling, to enable fraud and
risk management for banks.
RS BillAbhi™ is now a globally competitive product and further enhancements are
being made to create a differentiating proposition for both developed and developing
economies. With accelerated adoption of RTP, electronic invoice and bill presentment and
payment (EIBPP) becomes a compelling use- case of RTP bolstered with Request-for-Pay
message construct. RS BillAbhi™ can support Request-for-Pay and complies with ISO
20022 protocol.
RS RTPS™ is now ready and upgraded, enabling us to participate in the global
faster payments arena where ~ 70 countries are at some point of their faster payments
journey. We are seeing traction in multiple geographies to implement payment modernization
for real-time payments. We see opportunities where we can leverage certain components of
RS RTPS™ as point solutions or ‘accelerators to meet customers requirements.
RS DigitalEdge™ is a new product of our RS Payment Innovation Lab, focused on
combining Digital Overlay Service layer with enablement of real-time Payments. This
solution has generated significant interest in most customers minds as it can help
central infrastructures, banks/financial institutes, and PSPs in their payment
modernization journey. It can significantly simplify API- as-a-Product that banks strive
to offer as part of their PSD2 and Open Banking initiatives, as well as unify the upstream
services from central infrastructure rail providers without compromising on speed and
quality.
Payabbhi?, our solution for Merchant Acquiring and Acceptance and for accelerating
Commerce, has attracted attention of a few large PSPs in the US market, as they clearly
see the differentiation that product brings vis-a-vis most acquiring and acceptance
platforms. The product is being enhanced to make it Cloud agnostic.
RS Payments Universe™
The RS Payments Universe™ portal from the RS School of Payments™ continues to
serve as a knowledge management and collaboration platform for all RS Software employees.
In addition to providing up-to-date information and trends on the payments domain,
technology, regulation and related subjects, there is a white paper section that features
articles containing novel and innovative thoughts and ideas authored by RSites on the
various developments in the payments world. These thought leadership articles communicate
deep insights and demonstrate the payments domain expertise and know-how that position RS
Software as a leading expert and consultant in the payments world. We have enhanced our
coverage on social media and other channels of digital marketing to share our thought
leadership in the payments industry, as it chases payments modernization.
What are your future plans for FY 2023-24Rs.
We will continue to innovate in the RS Payments Innovation Lab to build faster
switching capabilities and will further innovate using Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Machine/Deep Learning (M/DL), and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to ensure efficient
and effective fraud detection through RS IntelliEdge™. We will enhance our R&D
efforts in hyper scalability, Digital Ledger Technology, CBDC and Overlay Service Layer.
The journey continues to pursue our vision of building Payments at the Speed of Thought.
Quality & Benchmarking
What were the major achievements during FY23Rs.
The Q&B process has been strategic to the company since its inception, and the
company has pursued global benchmarking all thru its existence, of its process
architecture. Over the years, the company has built a robust Process Architecture which
has enabled RS Software teams to deliver high quality Products and Services to our
customers.
In FY23, we continued to finetune elements of our Process Architecture and standards
through the following actions:
• Certification of ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015
• Migration of processes from Services to Product based offerings and services
• Identifying and mitigating risks across processes and projects
• Identifying and implementing business process automation to enhance productivity
• Developing a thorough understanding of project dynamics by detecting points of
failure and generating alarms f Conducting weekly reviews of project reported metrics and
customer status reports f Conducting defect and root cause analyses
• Organizing training sessions, workshops, planned and unplanned audits, quality
weeks and other academic and non-academic seminars
• Carrying out routine audits of quality systems by third parties f Security
Standard certification for payment platforms.
What are your plans for FY24Rs.
As the company is quickly transitioning to offering products and platforms in addition
to services, Quality and Benchmarking (Q&B) function will pay particular focus to the
following in our execution in FY24, some of which are a continuation of the efforts in
FY23:
• Enhancement of business processes to a dominantly Product focused organization f
Business process automation to drive productivity
• Align the data and information security processes with industry best practices f
Enhance the companys process-oriented culture through continuous awareness programs f
Introduce defect metrics and causal analysis for products and platforms f Benchmark
product development to global standards.
HR Highlights
What were some of the employee-focused key initiatives taken by the companyRs.
RS Software has taken the following key initiatives towards greater employee focus:
• The organization focused on attracting and retaining talent. Our efforts towards
hiring covered both fresh graduates from reputed Engineering colleges and experienced
professionals. Together, we hired 40+ new employees in FY23.
• The company is successful in attracting high-performing ex-employees who are
keen to work in high quality digital payments that the company is engaged in. This
reflects the brand of the organization and the value these personnel see in RS Software in
terms of learning and growth.
• The organization focused on competency development of the individuals in the
areas of:
i. Payments domain: Real-time Payments, Overlay Services, Fraud and Risk Management,
Bill and Invoice Payments, Merchant Acquiring and Acceptance, Alias Management,
Reconciliation and Settlement, etc.
ii. Technology: Primarily in scalable design and architecture principles, Java (full
stack), opensource technologies used in our products
iii. Processes: Product development, service delivery management, Agile, quality
management
iv. Soft Skills: Primarily communication and client engagement
• The organization moved from a dominantly work-from-home (WFH) model that was
adopted during Covid time (April 2020 to December 2022) to the hybrid model (partly WFH
and partly from RS Softwares office) where every person is expected to work in-person
from RS Softwares office at least 2 days a week. The leadership team and managers set an
example by working from RS Softwares office every day.
A weekly roaster policy has been implemented to enable the hybrid model, ensuring that
every project and process/function have resources in the office when they are needed. HR
processes have been enhanced to ensure all elements of human touch are in place while
working in the hybrid model. All of this, together, has helped improve employee
engagement, employee morale and the overall productivity of our workforce.
• The RS Club activities have been started to ensure employee engagement.
• We implemented additional risk management processes to ensure effectiveness of
100% availability of infrastructure to support delivery, operations, and innovation.
Employees now have more direct access, inperson or remotely, to support function teams for
faster and better service levels.
How did you ensure communication with employees during FY23 when the working mode is
‘hybridRs.
Our workforce operated in a hybrid model in FY23. A weekly roaster policy was
implemented to ensure managers have the right mix of resources working from our office and
the remaining from home, such that every project is well equipped to be delivered to our
customers on-time and meeting their requirements.
During the fiscal, we ensured employee communication using the following execution
framework:
• We invested in an organization-level collaboration platform which all our
employees adopted to engage with each other for all forms of communication - email, audio
and video calls for 1:1 and team discussions. This had a very positive effect in terms of
our teams productivity, and it also improved our engagement with clients. The
collaboration platform also helped in bonding our employees far more effectively.
• The leadership team engaged not only with the line managers but also with the
second level of management on a weekly basis. This was consciously done through in-person
meetings and not using online modes of communication.
• Employee touch points were created to ensure employees can connect with HR
anytime.
• The operational leaders in our Innovation, Delivery and Support functions had
weekly meetings with their teams to not only manage the business execution, but to also
share progress updates of the company and seek their teams inputs related to day-to-day
operational aspects. Here again, the collaboration platform was widely used for open and
seamless communication to ensure each teams effective execution on client-facing projects
and internal organizational initiatives.
• The CEO and the executive management team had skip- level meetings to drive a
culture of open communication and employee participation at all levels. This helped in
improving the people management skills of all team managers in the organization and the
overall employee morale and satisfaction.
What are the key practices in HR that are helping the company to achieve the goals set
by the transformation the company is pursuingRs.
The following HR practices are helping the company significantly in achieving the
transformational goals that we are pursuing:
• HR is enabling continuous employee engagement, across all leadership levels,
through digital channels and tools, and through in-person interactions and focused
sessions.
• There is a special focus on training and building competencies that are directly
aligned with the companys business plan. The competency building plan takes into
consideration the performance, strengths and capabilities of every individual, the
existing team composition, and the employees career growth aspirations. Highly
knowledgeable and key leaders in the company are directly involved in driving this focused
exercise, and the same is assessed each month for effectiveness and results.
• The performance management system has been refined to ensure better individual
and team performances contributing to the companys business goals and ensuring retention
of quality talent. We have taken judicious calls in deciding the accountability structure
for each of the following key areas:
• Organization and team goals - financial and nonfinancial
• Project delivery to clients - therefore, client delight
• Innovation and product development
• Self (employee) development
• Overall, we have established a combination of people, process and
performance-oriented culture, that recognizes the strengths of our human capital and also
the companys needs towards its business plans, and with a commitment to achieve a win-win
result for the organization as a whole and every employee.
What are HRs plans/goals in FY24Rs.
We have developed a healthy sales pipeline and we expect quality revenue growth in
FY24. To help achieve our business goals in FY24, we have laid down the following key
plans for HR, which will be evaluated every month vis-a-vis target KPIs and defined
metrics:
• Talent acquisition: Taking into consideration the projected employee strength
month-on-month, we plan to attract and hire experienced professionals, dominantly with
qualifications in computer science or engineering and with relevant experience, across
multiple roles in our Innovation/Products and Delivery organizations. The talent
acquisition process, including channels and partners, evaluation methods, and onboarding
and training have been customized to meet the target numbers for fulfilment in each
quarter. We have on- boarded a set of highly reputed partners to recruit quality talent.
Talent management: Ensuring a right hire and allocation of the right role, competency
building, managing employee performance, talent mobility, HR practices and policies, and
effective employee engagement, together, will drive our end- to-•end talent
management.
• Induction program: We believe that starting right through a high quality,
effective induction helps ensure better employee performance, employee retention and
employee morale. In view of this, we have enhanced our employee induction program keeping
our fulfilment plan in mind, and therefore customized the agenda and its execution to be
able to meet our FY24 goals. We are effectively leveraging RS School of Payments and our
knowledge repository in this initiative.
• Employee morale and satisfaction: Our objective is to continue to develop a
high-quality workforce that is fully engaged and actively participates in the companys
pursuit of its strategic growth. For this, we believe employee morale is key, and
therefore we have defined employee engagement on a continuous basis to be one of the key
KPAs for HR and every member of the senior leadership team. Through this initiative, we
are also targeting a higher retention of our talent, which will also yield better returns
over the coming years.
Marketing and Branding initiatives taken in FY23
What were some of the marketing and branding initiatives taken by the companyRs.
Participation in important international and national marketing events in the Payments
domain
• At the international level, RS Software participated in the SIBOS event in
Netherlands, which is a globally acclaimed financial services event organised by SWIFT.
The event gave our executive and sales team an opportunity to connect with thought leaders
from across the industry and thus increase our network and reach. RS Software had an
opportunity to showcase the company brand and highlight its competency in real-time
Payments.
• At the national level, RS Software was a sponsor at the Fraud & Risk Summit
conference held in Mumbai. Attended by banks and non-banking financial institutions, this
was a platform to discuss ways to combat increasing fraud cases in the financial sector.
Our management team took this opportunity to speak about our product RS IntelliEdge™,
highlighting the companys innovative fraud and risk management solution. RS Software also
hosted a booth at the event where delegates could connect with our team and learn more
about the product. Numerous participants utilised this occasion to learn more about the
solution and how it may benefit their organisation. This was also a platform to have
preliminary first-time meetings with banks and non-banking financial institutions.
RS Software at Nasscom major SME platform
• RS Softwares digital capabilities were showcased by Nasscom through a report on
‘Indias Tech SMEs: Rising in the Global Digital Arena. Twenty detailed case-studies
showcased digital tech capabilities and talent excellence of SMEs, and RS
IntelliEdge™ was amongst one of those featured.
• A member of our technology leadership team participated as a panellist in the
Nasscom organized session on Women in Technology, conducted at the EY premises. Our
spokeswoman spoke on going towards a cashless India with recent go-digital trends, PaaS
(platform-as-a-service), cloud and adaptive AI.
Branding at RS@Infinity
Fiscal FY23 also saw RS Software relocating to a new location (office) - RS@Infinity.
The reception and main area, through which employees and visitors walk-in, was
appropriately branded with designed posters highlighting RS
Softwares achievements over the years and laid great emphasis on the vision of the
company - Payments at the Speed of Thought. This important branding exercise was also
carried out keeping in mind the new associates of RS
Software who we planned to hire during the fiscal and going forward.
What are the different marketing tools used by the company and what benefit is it
bringing to the tableRs.
The corporate website serves as a strong marketing tool and was completely enhanced and
revamped in April 2022
• During the fiscal, there was ~ 90% increase in new visitors vis-a-vis returning
ones.
• We experienced a significant increase in the number of specific visits from
prospect companies, countries and competitors with whom the company was involved in
business related discussions. Marketing team helped the Sales teams with all relevant
research and data-points to help understand the areas the prospects are visiting, and
hence preparing them to pitch accordingly.
• We had high profile visitors from 25+ global 500 companies, and several more
from top global Payments organizations, which is a clear reflection of the results of our
outreach and branding efforts.
• Website traffic data shows there has been an increase interest in RS products
RS RTPS™, RS RealEdge™, RS IntelliEdge™, RS BillAbhi™, RS
DigitalEdge™ and Payabbhi?.
• Website visitors were linked to our sales efforts towards business growth.
During fiscal FY23, the company received queries for at least six new business
opportunities from across the globe (including India), which the Sales team is currently
pursuing.
• The website was also a tool to attract potential employees. During FY23, we
received 300+ applications against open positions.
• Series of blogs and white papers were published.
RS Software gains a large following on LinkedIn - 20,000+ followers and increasing
everyday
The next important marketing tool is social media, comprising LinkedIn, Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram, and we made an impact significantly.
• On LinkedIn, our follower base crossed the 20,000 mark, with a significant
percentage of them being ‘wannabe employees, thus establishing their faith in our
brand.
• With respect to our posting on our products, focus was given on specific
individuals and companies and events, to ensure an increase in reach and brand.
• We improved our messaging style to denote our thought leadership skills.
• During the fiscal, there was a marked improvement in visitor/ follower
engagements in the form of likes, reposts, and comments.
• We initiated a practice of creating a monthly database of all our followers on
LinkedIn to identify potential customers and employees and following up with them.
• We experienced an increase in website traffic visible through social media
posts.
46 : Annual Report 2022-2023
What are the few marketing initiatives planned for in FY24Rs.
• Our companys website will be repositioned aligning to our corporate strategy
with more focus on our products.
• To ensure a better capture of business leads, landing pages will be developed to
use on social media and email campaigns.
• We are defining a plan and process to follow up with LinkedIn followers. We will
implement it in FY24.
• We will participate in multiple technical forums and marketing events such as
SIBOS, Money 20/20, and Nasscom Product Conclave as part of our continued efforts to
increase our network and reach to position our products and offerings and achieve revenue
growth.
Finance
What has been the biggest challenge for the finance process in FY23Rs.
To augment resources with a cash flow focussed strategy that complements the growth
strategy of the company.
To meet the cashflow focused strategy that does not compromise on the growth strategy
of the company.
How did you meet the challengeRs.
• The Finance team focused on multiple areas and has adopted a strategic cost
structure that would meet the short-term requirements of the company, while focussing on
the longer-term strategy.
• The Finance Team leveraged its receivables from various stakeholders.
• The Finance team was vigilant on careful allocation of budgets and tracking cost
productivity at all levels in the organization.
• The Treasury management continued to be in focus, while meeting all the
statutory requirements of a public listed company.
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