Digital transformation is inevitable in Today’s business scenario whether it is public or private sectors. Covid-19 has been accelerated the space of adoption technology and its usage.
Digital transformation is inevitable in today’s business scenario whether it is public or private sectors. Covid-19 has been accelerated the space of adoption technology and its usage. The time is now, for India’s government undertakings – Maharatnas, Navratnas, and Miniratnas – to make a switch and to become digitally-enabled enterprises.
Realising the need of the hour for a complete transition of digitisation in PSUs, ETGovernment brings a special session on ‘Digital transformation of CPSEs for New India 2022; during the 2nd edition of ‘National PSU Virtual Summit’, where technology leaders from various PSUs shared their journeys of digital transformation within their organisations.
The panel discussion explored the digital transformation of PSUs in their modernisation process and how various PSUs are using technology for the continuity of business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Digital transformation to integrity platforms for continuity of business during Covid-19 pandemic
“Various PSUs are taking ‘Digital First’ approach to relook their business reengineering, and process simplification, and workflow optimisation, in sync with the advanced technological intervention, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital transformation is not only helping PSUs for operational excellence in their units and plants but also mitigating the risk of spreading Covid-19 infection through multiple options of work from home and remote access solutions, etc,” said Vartika Shukla, Director – Technical, Engineers India Ltd.
Union government has launched Digital India in 2015, which was impacted all aspects of life and industries – whether it is manufacturing, education, healthcare, healthcare, retail, defence, finance, banking, or PSU. The journey has enabled to create newer workforce and brought younger workforce into the workflow, Shukla added.
Speaking on the occasion, Nirlep Singh Rai, Director (Technical), National Fertilizers Ltd, said, “While most of the PSUs have adopted digital transformation in an early stage, the current pandemic has enhanced the pace of digital transformation and the awareness of impact creation in the day-to-day function and enterprise value of PSUs.”
The current pandemic situation has forced us to harness a lot of data, leading to quick decision making, creation of policy. Data transformation is not only promoting innovation in business but also empower society as well, Rai added.
Also, the pandemic has brought remote maintenance and commissioning and monitoring of plants and units with the help of digital technologies, Rai said.
Alok Khanna, Executive Director – Information Systems, IOCL, said, “The Maharatna journey of digital transformation was started a way back. As part of the technology adoption at IOCL, we have implemented the latest software and IT-enabled services in the early 1990s. In 2000, we implemented ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) technology at our various refineries and units.”
Implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) to LPG customers in 2015 was the real game-changer for the entire oil & gas industry. The initiative serves about 15-20 crores customers by digitally transferring the subsidy within the stipulated time, Khanna added.
Jayant Gupta, CGM-IS (Technical), Infrastructure and Development, HPCL, said, “The pandemic has created a lot of opportunities for HPCL in terms of technology adoption in the value chain in order to enhance energy efficiency in our refineries, marketing strategies and consumer engagement processes.”
Gupta further added that digital transformation offers organisations an opportunity to understand the customer experience. Consumers in now getting services like filling up their vehicles, LPG booking and subsidy, etc through their digital devices.
With our existing digital technology in place, we have not only been ensuring continuity of business as well as the health and well-being of its employees and their family members during the COVID-19 pandemic but also managing the uninterrupted supply of petroleum products, Gupta said.
Expressing his view on working with the public and government sector, Ganesh Iyer, Head of Government Business, Nutanix, Inc, said, “With our experience in working with government, we have learned that PSUs are in the first line adopting technology in the government space because of their risk-taking ability factor rather than the private players.
The Indian government and government-led entities are creating a mammoth level of data and we, as a company, are helping them in order to manage the data, derive intelligent output out of it and translate it into business output, Iyer added.
“In today’s covid-19 pandemic situation where employees are working from home and remotely, we provide digital signature solution for the public sector which is legally valid in helping payroll and customer support, etc,” Rajesh Ganesan, Vice President – Products, ManageEngine.
Against the backdrop of Covid-19, we ensure authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation of digitally signed documents for governments and business houses, a modern alternative to the traditional method of signing documents, Ganesan added.
IT priorities in PSUs for future
“As part of EIL digital transformation journey, we have developed in-house, workflow-based IT systems like digital signature, integrating various inter and intra departmental workflow, digital board meeting, remote inspection of equipment and several sites, etc,” said Shukla, EIL.
Looking at the future and long-term business as-usual, EIL is committed to enhancing its in-house IT capabilities, emphasis under Digital India Initiative, and working towards a complete digital base and platform in encompassing the whole workflow, Shukla added.
As a company of detailed engineering and project implementation, we are looking at new technologies like AI, ML, cloud computing, IoT solution to enhance operational excellence and optmise the entire workflow, Shukla said.
In terms of services and product we offer, we use digital platforms to interact with the outer world including clients, contractors, suppliers, retired employees and under Digital India Initiative, our vision is proposed to be extended and further strengthened.
“With our existing digital infrastructure, NFL has implemented various dashboards which are IT-enabled. One is production dashboard for managing the real-time manufacturing process, the second is HR dashboard for employees and another is video conferencing system for meeting and recruitment process,” said Nirlep Singh Rai, NFL.
In addition to that, NFL has developed control management system to reduce effluent and emission footprint through IT-enabled monitoring system, which is also helping us to upload the carbon footprint on the website of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), added Rai.
In our digital transformation journey, we are now developing our township into ‘Smart Township’ by installing CCTV, WiFi, surveillance mechanism, etc, Rai said.
For the payment of our contractors, customer, etc, NFL has developed fertiliser management system (FMS), which is further extending it service to 12 crore framers to purchase of fertiliser in a digital mode as well as getting their subsidy, Rai informed.
“As a part of the digital journey of IOCL, we are now upgrading our existing technology and software solutions. We are now integrating our refining supply chain and developing our pricing tools for efficient pricing for our direct customers, etc,” said Alok Khanna, IOCL.
We are developing AI- and ML-based models for analytics solutions to enhance drift maintenance, bottom-line improvement, yield optimisation in refineries, inventory optimisation in distribution plants, etc, Khanna added.
We are working on enterprise data management platform to enhance the marketing, distribution management system and integrated all the platforms into a central platform, Khanna said.
“In order to harness the potential of data and business analytics, HPCL has digital technologies like refinery management system, terminal automation system, pipeline management system, etc in place,” said Jayant Gupta, HPCL.
HPCL has platforms like the Distributed Control System (DCS) that has been seamlessly integrated with all ERP data to derive the business value using desired analytics. Through the control system, we are able to collect data across the business value chain to optimise production processes and generate superior analytics for improved performance monitoring of refineries, Gupta added.
Replying to a question of expectation from PSUs in terms of deploying technology players in their digital transformation strategy, Ganesh Iyer, Nutnix, said, “Any transition has to happen that needs process, people and technology. However, in public or government sector, procurement for any transition or transformation, they have to follow the transparency and government norms like security, resilience and data sovereignty.”
“As a digital first and digitally-enabled company, we are working towards to enable employees and common people digitally empowering in the remote areas,” said Rajesh Ganesan of ManageEngine.
Our priority is to access technology to everybody around across the country and take 4G and 5G technology available to everyone, said Ganesan.
While the government mission of ‘Digital First’ to access technology to everyone, our mission is to build IT infrastructure in the rural areas, which we called ‘technology-enabled rural revival’, Ganesan added.
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