Post Office transformation: TCS modernises 1.5 lakh post offices in Rs 1100-crore deal

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services company, said it has deployed an integrated solution for India Post that has helped modernise a network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices in the country. In 2013, the Mumbai-based company had announced receiving an over Rs 1,100- crore multi-year contract from the Department of Posts (DoP) for an end-to-end IT modernisation programme. The partnership was aimed at equipping India Post with modern technologies and systems to enable it to offer more services to the customers in an effective manner.

"At the heart of this transformation is the Core System Integration (CSI) program 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.

The integrated solution supports requirements of over five lakh employees, services over 40,000 concurrent users, and processes over three million postal transactions a day, making this one of the largest SAP implementations globally, it added.

On the front-end, TCS said, it has implemented its Point of Sale (PoS) solution across 24,000 post offices with over 80,000 PoS terminals and has also built a web portal with consignment tracking capabilities, and set up a multi-lingual call centre for customer support.

"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.

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TCS Business Group Head (Public Services) Debashis Ghosh said postal services across the world are reinventing themselves to stay relevant to a new generation in the digital era.

"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," he added.