India Post has selected Infosys, a global leader in consulting and technology, to upgradefinancial services at the country’s 150,000 post offices as part of its overall modernisation
strategy.The contract is worth Rs 7 billion (€103 million) and is part of the ‘India Post 2012’modernisation programme to achieve transparency, agility, flexibility and scalability for thecompany’s operations.
Under the project, Infosys aims to transform the banking and insurance operations of the Indianpostal operator covering more than 200 million banking customers across urban and rural India. Itclaimed that it will revolutionise its financial operations and end-user services comprising ‘Financial Services System Integration’.
As Financial Services System Integrator, Infosys will install 1,000 ATMs for India Post and anelectronic Content Management System to manage millions of documents generated as part of IndiaPost’s financial operations. Infosys will install and manage India Post’s hardware and softwareincluding its Finacle Core Banking and McCamish Insurance products. In addition, it will supportmulti-year managed services, application and infrastructure operations and provide training formore than 35,000 India Post employees across the country to enable them to use and deploy the newplatform and services.
AS Prasad, Deputy Director General, Financial Services at India Post, said: “We are confidentthat Infosys’ extensive global experience with transformational programmes in the financial andsystems integration space will be instrumental in rolling out this ambitious programme aimed atdriving technology superiority at India Post, by introducing key solutions like core banking. Thistransformational programme is expected to enhance India Post’s services, bringing us on par withthe best in the banking industry; and will help us expand the reach and effectiveness of ouroperations through technology enablement of India Post employees.”
“Infosys will be drawing upon its expertise and domain knowledge across the banking andfinancial sector, to transform India Post’s services to empower end-consumers. This project offersus rich scope to innovate and optimise the largest financial and insurance distribution channel inthe country and we look forward to deploying our strong capabilities across industries andtechnologies, in a role that has the potential to significantly impact millions of citizens in thecountry,” CN Raghupathi, VP and Head India Business, Infosys, added.
With 151,000 employees, Infosys provides business consulting, technology, engineering andoutsourcing services to clients in over 30 countries.
At the beginning of this year, India Post announced plans to launch banking and other servicesunder a new postal policy by the country’s government to speed up its modernisation anddiversification while establishing a new policy for the whole postal market. In a first movetowards diversification, India Post had already applied for a banking licence from the Reserve Bankof India to be permitted to offer more financial services through post offices.
The Indian courier, express and parcel (CEP) market has grown 20% on average in recent years andis now worth €1 billion with increasing internet usage to boost e-commerce in future, the Indiangovernment predicted.
