How Postal Life Insurance marches into future with technology

The Directorate of Postal Life Insurance (PLI) under the Department of Posts is an  apex body for the formulation of all policies, products, and administration of the post office insurance fund. The procurement of business, after sales service, and all types of claims management are performed in the field, ie, circles. The Office of Director, PLI, Kolkata under the Directorate of PLI functions as the central accounting office. The Investment Division, PLI is headed by the Chief Investment Officer, PLI and is located at Mumbai.

EXPANDING VERTICALS

Over the years, PLI has grown substantially from a few hundred policies in 1884 to more than 6.4 mn policies as on March 31, 2015. It now covers employees of central and state governments, central and state public sector undertakings, universities, government aided educational institutions, nationalized banks, local and autonomous bodies, joint ventures having a minimum of 10% government/ PSU stake, credit co-operative societies, etc. PLI also extends insurance cover to the officers and staff of the defence services and para-military forces. Apart from single insurance policies, PLI also manages a group insurance scheme for the Extra Departmental Employees (Gramin Dak Sevaks) of the Department of Posts.

With 155,669 branches across the country, the post office is India’s largest retail and financial services provider and is among the most widely recognized and trusted brands in the country. PLI has the widest reach in India.

But to seamlessly offer its services and manage data, it requires robust infrastructure and applications. the customers increased, it started facing pressure on its systems. Real-time connectivity between all its branches through the country has been a challenge. In addition, the real-time updation of data was required. It also struggled in terms of offering better control on the PLI/RPLI fund investment.

CHALLENGES

PLI has used different applications and systems from time to time to run its day-to-day activities. But overtime as Besides, PLI was facing challenges in terms of keeping a record of all the internal communication and setting workflow and approval process for transparency in the system.

OTHER CHALLENGES PLI WAS FACING INCLUDE:

Support, enhance, and maintain the capabilities of the existing application software for PLI

and Rural Postal life Insurance (RPLI).

1. „„Ensure that the software can be accessed from 23 circles, 37 regions, 450 divisions, 22 DA(P) offices, DPLI, Kolkata, and 812 head post offices
   
   of the country. The database size of PLI/RPLI is around 400 GB having 30 mn policies with around 20,000 users accessing the server on a daily basis.
2. „„Provide better control on the PLI/RPLI fund investment by integrating the core PLI application and the investment module.
3. „„Record all the internal communication and set workflow and approval process.
4. „„Create role-based MIS reports.
5. „„Integrate the business functions of DAP & DPLI with core PLI/RPLI modules and help top management in their decision making process.

DEPLOYING THE RIGHT SOLUTION

PLI began to upgrade its systems and implemented DAP/ DPLI modules across the country for PLI to synchronize with fund investment. It deployed solutions to enhance productivity and increase visibility into the operations. PLI deployed three of Oracle solutions such as Oracle Database 10gR2, Oracle 10g Application server, and Oracle Application Server Web cache 10g. The solutions were integrated with its existing applications and other government software. It was integrated with the Department of Posts applications such as Meghdoot, ePost office. The deployment ensured handling of large size of database and minimum downtime in disaster cases. In addition, the new applications boasts of additional

security and better speed.

Here is how the solution was carried out and helped PLI: Implemented DAP/DPLI modules across the country for PLI/RPLI to interface with fund investment with Oracle database 10gR2, Oracle 10 g application server, Oracle application server web cache 10g. „„

• Helped with data reorganization for decision support system by aligning IT needs according to business process improvement.
• Handled the MIS reporting requirement and user training module.
• Integrated with other DOP applications like Meghdoot, ePost office with core PLI/DPLI modules. „„
• Provided a high availability solution in terms of RAC, dataguard, and various replication methods like logical standby, streams, golden gate. „„
• Made monitoring and troubleshooting easy as Oracle provide various tools inbuilt with database software. „„
• Ensured handling of large size of database like financial and minimum downtime in disaster cases. „„
• Provided critical patches in each quarter to enhance the security and efficiency of software.