TCS helps with modernisation and digitalisation drive in the Indian postal system
Indian IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has revolutionised the Indian postal system through its latest project, which involved the digitalisation of as many as 150,000 post offices across India. The project was first formalised in a deal signed in 2013 between TCS and India Post.
TCS’ digitalisation processes across the country were aligned through its single integrated solution, which was designed to modernise operations across the country. The objective was to achieve a streamlined and efficient postal system in the country, for which TCS was selected in 2013.
Under the deal, TCS – the world’s fastest growing IT services firm – would develop end-to-end solutions for the postal system, ensuring smooth movement through the integration of technology. The deal was worth more than Rs.1000 crore, and was agreed wit the Department of Posts to help make the Indian postal system future ready.
So far, TCS has modernised as many as 150,000 post offices across the country, orimarily through the development of a SAP Enterprise Resource Planning application. TCS’ ERP system has the capacity to coordinate the activities of as many as 500,000 employees on a daily basis.
Simultaneously, the system can accommodate 40,000 users, which translates into the capacity to handle 3 million transactions daily. As per TCS, this is among the most substantial SAP applications in the world. This is alongside other major solutions introduced by the country’s largest IT services firm.
TCS has developed what it terms as a Point of Sale application, which allows for the coordination of activities in 80,000 terminals in 24,000 post offices across the country. The operations are all housed on an online portal, where the tracking and customer services operations are housed.
A statement from the firm read, “An important objective of the transformation is to use the department's nation-wide reach to drive financial inclusion and accessibility of citizen services in remote areas.This is being accomplished through over 1.3 lakh DARPAN 1 hand-held devices that Gramin Dak Sevaks use to provide postal, banking, insurance, and cash management services in remote villages, even those without network connectivity.”
Group Head for Public Services at TCS Debashish Ghosh said, “We are proud to have partnered with the Department of Posts in this pioneering, mission mode initiative to build a world class, future-ready digital platform that the nation can be proud of. With this, the department can offer smart postal services, enriched customer experiences, and innovative value-added services to the citizens of India.”