Information Technology (IT) can lead to phenomenal improvement in work efficiency and response speed. Hence, to compete successfully in the emerging high speed business world, e-Strategy is a necessity for decision making.
GAIL made significant investments in IT infrastructure and software over the last five years in view of the current developments in the industry and GAIL's growth plans. In the last two years, GAIL has taken significant steps to leverage its strength of existing robust IT infrastructure. An IT Policy and an IT Strategy have been put in place.
GAIL’s IT strategy is an Integrated Approach. In today’s competitive world, IT strategy can provide the real competitive edge to companies. The company's IT initiatives are spread across all its functional areas and the objective is to use IT to the best possible extent. Thus, we have evolved the motto: Squeeze technology to its limit.
IT contributes directly to work efficiency and transactional efficiency, leading to cost reduction and increased customer satisfaction. Thus, GAIL has undertaken a number of IT initiatives which have significantly contributed to cost reduction and operational efficiency. Rather than relying on reams of papers and files and loads of unclassified information, one must develop a system of electronic exchange of classified and appropriate information. GAIL’s IT strategy borders on these principles in an effort to become a techno savvy and efficient company.
e-Banking at GAIL is an attempt to enable safe and easy handling of employee’s salary accounts and miscellaneous claims. Personal e-Banking has been introduced in the corporate office and Noida wherein the salary and other payments get credited to employee’s account by electronic transfer. ATM facilities have been provided at corporate office and Noida office for facilitating transactions.
GAIL is also in the process of introducing organizational e-Banking covering e-Receivables and e-Payments, for our customers and vendors. An integrated system is being developed to enable efficient and speedy transactions involving GAIL, banks, customers and vendors. Besides better operational efficiency, lesser paper work and better utilization of manpower, there will also be reduction in transaction cycle time leading to financial advantages.
An online system for investing surplus funds has been developed, wherein the banks are able to quote their rates online, the transactions are compared and processed electronically before the final investment is made. This e-investment system has resulted in process cycle time reduction and cost effectiveness for both GAIL and the banks, besides better returns.
We have made a shift from the traditional FAX rooms to Paperless FAX System based on Fax servers, which is an e-mail-based system through which employees can conveniently send and/or receive fax messages through their messaging system mailbox internally or by accessing the messaging system from anywhere in India and abroad with the help of the Internet. The IT department has estimates that by adopting this practice on a company-wide basis, a saving of around Rs 25 lakh per annum can be achieved, excluding the STD charges, which register a higher amount when a fax message is sent through an ordinary fax machine, the fax server.
Processing of the suppliers’ bills has been a major area of concern for business organisations and their suppliers. GAIL has made a sincere effort to overcome delay in processing of bills by introducing an online Bill Watch System, by which suppliers, vendors and contractors are enabled through GAIL website to track the status of their pending bills. All they have to do is enter the ‘receipt number’ given at the time of submission of the bills and the system informs them instantly about the detailed status of their bills and at which level the bills are pending, if applicable. This is an important step towards strengthening our partnership with our suppliers, vendors and contractors, and creates the needed supply chain efficiency.
There are significant results achieved at some of our locations wherein more than 75% of our bills are cleared within 15 days after introduction of the Bill Watch System. It would be important for all locations to adopt and implement the BTS to derive the maximum benefits, help vendors in tracking their payments and ensure timely payments.
GAIL has one of the best Video Conferencing facilities connecting 23 major work centers and sites so far, which will be extended to other locations as well. This facility is being used for conference inaugurations, key presentations and quick business reviews, internally. It also helps in cost-efficient conferencing with foreign vendors and suppliers to discuss key commercial issues.
One of the key factors of success of a progressive organization is fast and
transparent decision making. To enable this we have introduced ‘File
Watch System’ which is a web based centralized system, wherein
brief information, about all the files, including dates of entry and exit, are
necessarily being entered at initiation level as well at all the transaction
levels where the file moves.
File watch system helps users, track the movement and status of the files, as well as the time taken by the individual officers to clear the files and the total time taken for approvals. The inbuilt aspect of accountability in this system, cuts down the decision making time, which is a major cause of concern, especially in PSUs. “Reshaping” our organisation entails a fresh perspective of things which is why we have the File Movement System and the Bill Watch System in place.
Reaching Employees (Corporate Intranet /100 % e-Mail Access / Internet Access to Executives)
In today’s era of knowledge workers, it is of paramount importance to
be well informed about all the happenings in the micro and macro business environment,
on time. To facilitate this, we have achieved our milestone of providing e-mail
access to each and every employee of our company and further to enhance
external orientation, all executives of the company have Internet access.
Banking upon this extensive reach of computers and e-mail facility to all the
employees, we have developed a Corporate Intranet, which is
a dedicated and a powerful medium of information sharing between all the employees
and the different business functions of GAIL. The intranet is constantly updated
and this sharing of information is on a continuous basis.
GAIL is in the process of implementing the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. ERP implementation would improve the operational efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction levels, besides optimization of cost, inventory and manpower utilization. This will also lead to efficient Supply Chain Management. ERP implementation would also lead to Integrated business & process control systems, Standardized processes by adopting best industry practices across locations and functions, Efficient and timely provision of Management Information for better decision support and operational control, and Enabling internal performance measurement and Improved responsiveness to changing market conditions,
The major benefits of GAIL's IT initiatives include cost reduction, operational efficiency, faster decision making, better service to customers, better vendor management, seamless and faster information sharing, quick response time with better and faster communication.