Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s top IT services provider, has deployed end-to-end IT solutions for India Post, thereby helping to modernise more than 1.5 lakh post offices across the country.
The Department of Posts (DoP) had, in 2013, awarded Mumbai-based TCS an over Rs 1,100-crore multi-year contract for integrating the postal services network in the country through an effective technology-backed system.
The aim was to transform India Post from its century-old physical mail delivery system to a technology-backed digital powerhouse and help it offer more services to the customers in an effective manner.
“At the heart of this transformation is the Core System Integration (CSI) programme designed and implemented by TCS. This involved deploying an integrated ERP solution that caters to mail operations, finance and accounting, and HR functions, and connects its vast network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices, making this the largest distributed e-postal network in the world,” TCS said in a statement.
TCS said, the SAP-backed integrated solution enable over five lakh employees, serves over 40,000 concurrent users, and processes over three million postal transactions a day, making it one of the largest globally.
The India Post IT network include Point of Sale (PoS) solution across 24,000 post offices with over 80,000 PoS terminals and a web portal with consignment tracking capabilities, besides a multi-lingual call centre for customer support, TCS added.
“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,” TCS said.
“Postal services across the world are reinventing themselves to stay relevant to a new generation in the digital era, said TCS Business Group Head (Public Services) Debashis Ghosh, adding, “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.”