When it comes to the e-governance space in India, Wipro Infotech is a name
one cant skip, simply because of the sheer enormity at which the company has
done e-governance projects. Wipro has developed the e-governance roadmap, and
helped build capacity for over thirteen state governments across India. Overseas
expansion is also on the map. Gopalakrishnan PK, vice president, government and
defence vertical, Wipro Infotech, popularly known as PKG in the industry, spoke
exclusively with Dataquest about a range of issues. Excerpts
Can you give a sense of Wipros areas of focus, and what the company is
doing and in the e-governance space in India?
There are broadly three things that we are currently focused onconsulting
and advisory services, software development and implementation, and finally
everything to do with infrastructure: designing, building, provisioning and
operating. So, when we offer consultancy we provide advisory services on how to
program a manage a project from the government side. Our e-governance advisory
service has the capability to deliver end-to-end service. Our consultants have a
combination of experience and expertise to design strategic roadmaps and
implementation blueprints. We basically do everything right from accomplishing
detailed initial analyses to architecting application solutions through
selection of appropriate technology, to implementation and maintenance.
Tamil Nadus MCD projects, Madhya Pradeshs project with the finance
department, and the recently bagged Municipal Corporation of Delhis project are
some examples of this. On the software development and implementation side we
are doing projects with the Central Board of Excise, land records, police, and
some other central ministries, and more importantly ministry of finance. We have
developed the e-governance roadmap, and also capacity building for over thirteen
state governments across India. So there is a lot happening there.
Then of course we are also doing the state data centers and the network
projects, right from designing to managing it. Rajasthan government and Gujarat
SWAN, some central ministries and defense projects can be counted among the
significant bunch of projects that we are doing.
Gopalakrishnan PK vice president, government & defence vertical, Wipro Infotech |
Now, under this e-governance space we have categorized how we go for
consultancy, software development and implementation or infrastructure projects.
Though the parameters have been decided internally. By and large, we look at the
customers and their requirements and then we decide whether to go for
consultancy or bid for the project. Some other state governments that we
associated with are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, HP, and Haryana.
Internally, how are you structured to handle e-governance projects?
In the government vertical we have a team of 100 consultants, however, in
the software development and implementation side the teams depend on the project
size. So we draw resources depending on project requirements, we could draw
resources from large central government projects or work out something.
Implementation of three to four projects is going on and also we are
currently setting up infrastructure for the Army and the Air Force. The value of
each of these projects varies from anywhere between Rs 5-10 crore. Most of the
other projects that we are implementing for the ministries range somewhere
between Rs 5-20 crore.
In fact, that is one of our biggest areas of concern because most vendors are
looking at large turnkey projects, whereas the government. tries to outsource
multiple vendors. There is clearly a problem with the conceptualization of
projects. The projects are much smaller, and lack of capacity to execute large
projects, that fear factor, whether the project will be a success is something
that has to be overcome. When it comes to conceptualizing project of big size,
the government has failed.
So far, in terms of value, which have been the top three projects for
Wipro?
There are a couple of them, I recall. There is a networking project with the
railways, worth Rs 25-30 crore. Then there is another railway optimization
project of Rs 40-50 crore. All Ministry of Finance projects are worth close to
Rs 40 crore.
Under the Government of Indias NeGP, what is the model that you are
following to build infrastructure as far as CSCs go?
On the CSC front, we are partnering with SREI, as the IT consultants. We are
responsible for the designing and development of portals, some backend
applications, backend data center, and front end kiosks; in other words the
complete IT backbone of the state. We did it for Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and
Assam among others. Although we are not doing it directly with IL&FS, because we
dont have that kind of business model. We dont think it is best suited for a
pure IT player. The whole CSC is like a BPO, and it is best suited for BPO
companies. We felt this really wasnt our core competency. Also one has to look
at the viability of the CSC project, whatever little success has been achieved,
it is because of private services. Government services are yet to be delivered.
What are the three primary focus areas during the ongoing financial year?
We plan to focus on state data centers, big passport size projects, and also
infrastructure management projects to support infrastructure.
And what is the revenue target for the financial year?
The target is anything upward of Rs 500 crore. Also I would like to mention
that if horizontal connectivity in SWAN comes up, we would be interested in
going for it.
Is there any plan to increase focus on government vertical overseas?
We are going to increase our focus on the government market overseas, but
not right now. We are eyeing Middle the East countries, specifically Dubai than
Western Europe. If the government overseas wants the services model than we
could think of going at it aggressively anytime.
In the Middle East, we already are focusing on some very special projects,
which include RTA in Dubai, and a couple of university projects. Some other key
projects include developing and implementing an overall IT plan and a roadmap
for ERP/LAN/Messaging/DMS/RIMS for the Saudi Electricity Regulatory Authority,
than we also have created and executed a framework for document management
system implementation for the Bahrain Monetary Agency.
Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in