Newgen makes Digital App for BJP

Digital India initiative program has changed the way our country works today. Political parties now highly depend upon social media campaigns. Apart from using social media, the parties need a platform wherein every kind of information for the party is available to maintain the unity and dignity of the party. Newgen Software Technologies known for digital transformation space took the initiative and built an application called ‘DigitalBJP’ in August 2016. It is a cloud based mobile application for the party to connect office-bearers and party workers across the country down to a central information repository platform.

The DigitalBJP is a single central source for all related information of the party, right from its day to day activities to its historical background. This application is integrated with all social media platforms to quickly spread information and messages. For instance, any press release or a press conference can be uploaded with relevant pictures and this information can be used by the members in future for reference. Similarly, any newspaper clipping pertaining to the party can be tagged or indexed which can help them to gain knowledge on the data collected. With all material available at one place, it ascends the understanding of members in regard to the party’s progressive alliance and futuristic plans.

Newgen Software provides a dashboard of information which gives them a real-time view of what is happening on the ground. One of the objective of this app is to record the amount of work karyakartas (volunteers and members) have done, and through this each will be responsible to answer relevant question if asked by the party. Currently, the system has more than 1200 members of BJP. By this app, everything will be monitored from right information at one place to assigned tasks for every worker responsible. This way everyone would be empowered with the digital information.

How did Newgen get this project

“Newgen got this project only on the basis of the content we were offering. Though big names like Oracle and TCS were in the race but it went in our favor due to our content management, business and enterprise process management.” quoted Arpan Bansal, Head of Center of Excellence for Enterprise Content Management and Government Vertical at Newgen Software Technologies Ltd. He also added that from technology point of view their company Newgen was a preferred choice.

DigitalBJP App

The app has the capacity to hold confidential data meant to be used only by certain members. So, though all the information is available on public domain, this data is hidden from public view. Apart from this any party member who uploads any information is proofread by a maker checker which ensures the quality of the content. Next to this is a central team which also keeps an eye on the material uploaded. This way certain checks and balances keep the things moving in a smooth manner with all the latest updates in place.

This app comes in handy to upload any issue which may have come up in a press briefing in some other state but since everyone can see it, it can be addressed and every member would have the information.

The complete server is hosted on cloud with access through mobility and the base is content management technology. This helps in accessing the data on the app from anywhere with safety.

The company has taken all the security measurements for DigitalBJP as it is on the cloud so they have encryptions, firewall, digital signature and password protection. It is the core part of anything that they do for government and are very confident that it is much more secured than paper. To make it more strong, they generally get audits done from third party for every implementation so that there is a security audit and vulnerability audit. All those things are often part of the project. SQL injections, OTP based authentication, single sign, etc are generally taken care of.

“DigitalBJP has given us a lot of experience and it was an adventurous experience as we met Modi ji, Amit Shah, CMs of a couple of states and also the Karya Kartas. It was a very unique experience as we conducted training mostly with people from blue chip companies like Accenture, Infosys, TCS, etc.These people were volunteers and were working for them so it was a very good experience for us.” said Arpan.

Newgen's Broader Perspective

Newgen is not only involved with this project but also handling some big deals in states. They are implementing complete secretariat automation in Jharkhand. They would also be automating all the scholarship schemes right from the students applying for scholarships under various categories to transferring the amount in their account linked to Aadhar Card through public finance system. The company has also done e-office, smart cities, enterprise content management in PSUs, health, education along with handling large scale municipal automation work.

They are also working with semi-government agencies on integrated transport management system. This primarily means that all public mode of transport will be enabled with sensors which will highlight the loops in the system so that they can be rectified and time-saving for commuters. This would not only help in counting the actual tickets sold but also bring down corruption. The system would plug the loopholes and help in its smooth operation.

As of now all these projects are under construction stage and the final blueprint may come out in a couple of months.

“We have done work for Income Tax department, CAG and many other government agencies and the other set of services are for internal processes. The software we are using is Newgen e-governance office. We have the offering which is probably the most successful offering for the government. We have about 40+ implementations in India and this is now being implemented in Secretariat also. So, when it goes to secretariat, it becomes very massive and the user base becomes very large. This is the time when the traditional office becomes e-office paperless office for all government departments. It has a very close resemblance with ‘Digital India’ initiative where Modi ji is saying go paperless, go cashless. We did some work with DRPG department. It is a department responsible for drafting all the standard operating procedures for any government department. Our software is made on that compliance. So, it becomes very easy for the departments to adopt it because it is almost like a replica of their manual system,” he added.

We are implementing a project for Ministry of Health in Dubai, a favor of our paperless office which is managing the office for seven departments in the ministry including minister’s office.” he added.

According to the business strategy, Newgen Strategy is also focusing on other countries’ market. “We are strong in the terms of other customer references. So in terms of Middle east, Africa, Caribbean counties, India of course and some part of APAC region including Singapore. It is again a logical move for us – partner network is ready there, our sales team ready there, we have other customers, we are geared up to deliver the large-scale solutions in those countries. So, right now we are focusing on selected countries, where we already have good in-roads and India being our key focus area. So, everybody is very gung-ho about this digital India hype.”

From strategy perspective, the company is heavily focusing on building an ecosystem, so the essential part of their ecosystem is its consulting companies PwC and system integrator. So, it does not front-end any deal generally, but bid it through some system integrator.