TCS to Manage Government e-Marketplace (GeM) for Public Procurement

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced on Tuesday that it had been selected to operate the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a platform for public procurement. The six-year agreement intends to meet particular milestones depending on the platform's gross merchandise value (GMV) throughout that time. However, the financial terms of the transaction have yet to be disclosed.

GeM platform allows transactions

Currently, the GeM platform allows transactions with a GMV of over $2 trillion, including over 70,000 buyer organisations and over 6.5 million sellers and service providers. This consists of a significant contribution from over 800,000 mid and small businesses.

Tej Paul Bhatla, the head of TCS' public services division in India, noted that this accomplishment was made possible by collaboration among multiple teams specialising in retail solutions, procurement platforms, AWS cloud services, and the MasterCraft platform.

He regarded the transaction as a perfect example of TCS' collaborative efforts, in which diverse solution teams collaborated. Bhatla estimated that the transfer from the present platform supplier and subsequent modification implementation would take 18 to 21 months. TCS will administer and support the platform for five years following the handover.

The GeM marketplace went live on 9 August 2016 and is managed by a government-owned firm named GeM Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which is part of the Department of Commerce. The platform is now managed by a partnership of Intellect Design Arena, Infibeam, and Tata Communications.

Why is the new platform built by the Goverment?

The new platform will be built for interoperability and cloud neutrality, making it technology and vendor agnostic. Its extensive configurability will make integrating varied buyer organisations with local norms easier, allowing them to trade on the national platform while retaining their local taste.

In addition, the organisation will work to improve the user experience for all stakeholders. GeM will receive a new flexible design to facilitate the onboarding of new vendors, leading to more involvement from a more diversified vendor base, particularly SMEs/MSMEs, and therefore improved inclusiveness and democratised access to the public sector market. The new platform will leverage data analytics to estimate forecasts and enhance supply chain management and powerful AI/ML technologies to detect possible fraud and make operations more transparent.

"We are honoured to collaborate with the Government of India on the digital transformation of the GeM platform, adding to our long list of contributions to Digital India." TCS' Business Head of Public Services, Tej Paul Bhatla, stated, "Our extensive experience in delivering large-scale transformation projects, technology expertise, deep domain knowledge in public services, and world-class delivery governance will help GeM achieve its vision for the next decade."

"The new GeM platform will transform public procurement by improving user experience, transparency, and inclusivity," Bhatla added.