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Objectives of the research:

1. To select an organization based upon whether some BPR initiatives are possible
or not.

2. To identify the Business Processes in the Indian Postal Services.

3. To identify the core business processes.

4. To identify the problem areas where BPR initiatives may be applicable.

5. To apply BPR initiatives so as to bring about a radical change in the core business
processes to achieve the desired objectives.

Organization Selected:

Indian Postal Services, Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication & Technology,


India

Type of organization:

Service organization

Founded:

1764

Headquarters:

New Delhi, India

No. of post offices:

1, 55,000

Work force:

5, 20,000
About Indian Post

Founded in 1764, and headquartered in New Delhi India. It is the most widely distributed
postal system in the world where China is next with 57, 000 post offices. The large
numbers are a result of a long tradition of many disparate postal systems which were
unified in the Indian Union post-Independence. Owing to this far-flung reach and its
presence in remote areas, the Indian postal service is also involved in other services such
as small savings banking and financial services.

Governance and Organization

The postal service comes under the Department of Posts which is a part of the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology under the Government of India. The apex
body of the department is the Postal Service Board. The board consists of a chairman and
three members. The three members hold the portfolios of Operations & Marketing,
Infrastructure & Financial Services, and Personnel. The Joint Secretary and Financial
Advisor to the Board is also a permanent invitee to the Board.

India has been divided into 22 postal circles. Each circle is headed by a Chief Postmaster
General. Each Circle is further divided into Regions comprising field units, called
Divisions, headed by a Postmaster General. Other functional units like Circle Stamp
Depots, Postal Stores Depots and Mail Motor Service may exist in the Circles and
Regions.

Besides the 22 circles, there is a special Circle called the Base Circle to cater to the postal
services of the Armed Forces of India. The Base Circle is headed by an Additional
Director General, Army Postal Service holding the rank of a Major General.
Basic Services Provided by Indian Post

Indian Postal services provides two major kinds of services to their customers in various
fields, these services are as follows:

1. Postal Services
a. Ordinary Post
b. Speed Post
c. ePayment
d. Logistics Post
e. ePost
f. Business Post
g. Media Post
h. Direct Post
i. Postal Life Insurance
j. Instant Money Order Service
k. International Money Transfer

2. Non-Postal Services
a. Public Provident Fund
b. National Savings Certificate
c. Kisan Vikas Patra
d. Savings Bank Account
e. Monthly Income Scheme
f. Recurring Deposit Account
g. Post Office Time Deposit
h. Post Boxes for Mail Receipt
i. Address Proofs Cards

Speed Post

The high speed express service for letters and documents. Speed Post links more than
1200 towns in India, with 290 Speed Post Centres in the national network and around
1000 Speed Post Centres in the state network. For regular users, Speed Post provides
delivery ‘anywhere in India’ under contractual service. Speed Post offers a money-back
guarantee, under which the Speed Post fee will be refunded if the consignment is not
delivered within the published delivery norms.

ePayment

The most convenient way to pay your bills under one roof. With its tremendous reach and
expertise India Post specializes in acceptance of payments across the counter and their
consolidation. E-Payment is a ‘Many to One’ service through which bills (telephone,
electricity, etc.) paid by customers in post offices is electronically consolidated.
Logistics Post

A brand new service from India Post great for sending parcels and large consignments
across the nation and around the world. Logistics Post manages the entire distribution
side of the logistics infrastructure from collection to distribution, from storage to carriage,
from order preparation to order fulfillment. Logistics Post is an ideal service for sending
large consignments including multi-parcels, just-in-time parcels, bulk-break
consignments and goods of any weight. While Parcel Post offers weight up to 35 kg,
Logistics Post has no weight limit. Logistics Post offers not only physical logistics
services but also provides comprehensive supply chain management services, leading to
improvement in the service level efficiency.

E-Post

Documents and greetings sent online but delivered by mail.

Business Post

Total pre-mailing solutions including collection/printing, inserting, and addressing.

Media Post

Reach millions through advertisements on Post cards, Letters walls of post offices ,letter
boxes, post cards and stationary.

Direct Post

Distributing advertising materials directly to prospective customers


Postal Life Insurance

Postal Life Insurance was started in 1884 as a welfare measure for the employees of Posts
& Telegraphs Department under Government of India dispatch No. 299 dated 18-10-1882
to the Secretary of State. Due to popularity of its schemes, various departments of Central
and State Governments were extended its benefits. Now Postal Life Insurance is open for
employees of all central and state government departments, nationalized banks, public
sector undertakings, financial institutions, local municipalities and Zila Parisads an
Educational Institution aided by the Government.

Instant Money Order Service (iMO)

The instant domestic money is available in 717 post offices. However no International
Money Order facility is available.

International Money Transfer

As a result of the collaboration of the Department of Posts with the Western Union
Financial Services, state of the art international money transfer service is now available
through post offices in India. This enables instantaneous remittance of money from 185
countries to India. The recipients can in fact collect the money in minutes after the sender
has made the remittance. The service is targeted to particularly fulfill the needs of NRI
dependent families in India, visiting International tourists and foreign students studying
in India.

Other than these basic services Indian postal Services are very active in providing savings
accounts in post offices and various financial and savings and investment schemes. Post
offices have served as a traditional financial institution for rural areas.
SWOT Analysis:

The SWOT analysis on Indian Postal Services and on its working process is as follows:

Strength:

• Strong Network
• Cost Effective
• Security / Safety with respect to deposits
• Efficient Manpower

Weakness:

• Unchanged working culture


• Lack of feedback in communication process
• No Job Rotation
• Job Stress among employees
• Lower rate of interest on deposits as compare to competitors

Opportunity:

• Increasing number of customer


• Inflationary market
• Technological Advancement

Threat:

• Customer Dissatisfaction
• Increasing market share of competitors
Market Competitors

There are so many of local, national and international competitors for Indian Post that
day by day it is getting very hard for the organization to survive in this though market.
Indian post had almost a monopoly in the Indian market since 1999, after the launch and
widespread use of mobile network and internet services market has been flooded with
much cheap and easy to use services and communication methods. Other than that local
scale courier services, national scale couriers and international courier services are taking
u over Indian market and Indian Post’s share. The major competitors of Indian Post are:

1. DHL
2. FedEx
3. First Flight
4. DTDC
5. Blue Dart
6. Internet
7. Telecom Networks

Due to such increasing rate of competition and competitors Indian Post has started facing
losses and deficit problem. In the past years 2006-2007 Indian Post recorded the annual
deficit of Rs.1209.9 crores. Inspite of the fact that Indian post hold the longest and the
most widespread distributed network which can prove a cutting edge over their
competitors, Indian Post has various benefits of its network, huge capital base, huge
human resources, government support and subsidies, far enough than compared to their
local and national competitors but still they are continuously performing low. Indian Post
although is taking initiative to improve their output by providing various non postal
financial services but anyhow it is all not up to the mark.

Indian Post was established in 1764 in order to provide quick postal deliveries for the
EAST INDIA COMPANY in India, afterwards it as opened for common public too,
therefore it can be concluded that Indian Post’s basic core process is to provide with the
quick service of delivering posts and parcels around the country and globe. It is also
noticeable that Indian Postal services are not doing much good specially after the launch
of telecom services and internet in India therefore we can conclude that at various places
BPR initiatives can be applicable.

Core Business Processes

1. Delivery of post (logistics)


2. Availability of stamps
3. Sorting of post and parcels

In the above mentioned processes BPR initiatives can be taken and applied.
Why competitors are gaining a larger share in the market?

It is also noticeable that competitors of Indian Post are less but still they are gaining more
and more per year than compared to Indian Posts market share. There are some basic
reasons which are boon to local business and curse for Indian Post. They are as follows:

1. More widely distributed system in each city: local scale couriers such as First
flight and DTDC has a more outreached and easily available point of business in
cities, we can easily find these organisation’s franchisee in local stationary shop,
general stores everywhere it is easily available in your nearest down street.
Whereas if we look for post offices and even for post boxes we can analyze that
they been distributed on a very wide range of area. Every big block has one post
office and even post boxes are very far away from each point thus people avoid or
feel lazy about using postal services even if they have to pay more in local private
services.

2. Corrupt, traditional and bureaucratic way of work: bureaucracy and


corruption seems to be a part of government organizations, Indian Post is such a
example of organization where we can still find traditional way of work style no
matter how much they are technologically advanced. In Indian Post employees
know that they have a permanent income no matter if they work efficiently or not,
so they just loosely concentrate on their work which has brought down the image
of Indian Post like other government organisations. On the other side private
companies focus upon customer relationship and values that they follow in their
work. They know that more effectively and efficiently they work the more they
will earn rewards thus no corruption or bureaucracy follows here. They have
much effective working culture that helps employees to be more productive.

3. Time Effectiveness: Indian Post work on a large scale and which is barely
properly integrated thus loosing the benefit of time effectiveness in their work
which is the major key in postal services. Timely delivery of posts and parcels
brings customer satisfaction and company’s goodwill but here Indian Post most of
the times fails to do so their work on time (i.e. failing in making timely
deliveries). Whereas private postal and courier services work as fast as they can
using all means of transport they can arrange for therefore they are more popular
among the local customers and other business organisations.
4. Interconnection among small companies: For example a courier company with
limited network, makes a tie-up with another company and drops the mails to the
desired destination. Indian post work as an independent body thus sometimes it
becomes the root cause and a limitation for the organisation in deliveries delays
and non performance. Whereas private courier services have tie ups with other
companies which gave them a edge to compete effectively with Indian Post.

5. Provides higher rate of interest on deposits: Indian Post also provides the
service of a financial institution in urban and rural areas, providing a good amount
of interest on the investment made. Whereas private bankers and private lenders
in order to compete and be ahead in the market provide much more higher rate of
interest to the public which attracts and pulls from Post offices to them.

About Business Process Reengineering (B.P.R.)


It is essential to have a brief outlook about the process or method that we are going to
apply in our report, thus here is something valuable about B.P.R.

Business Reengineering is probably the most widely embraced approach to business


improvement in recent decades. Business reengineering has been describes as “not a
voyage of guided discovery but more like a walk in the fog”. B.P.R., sometimes called
business reengineering or simply reengineering, is radical way of enhancing the
capabilities of a business improving its performance and allowing it to achieve
sustainable competitive advantage.

Going in brief, B.P.R. consists of two basic but major set of models i.e.

1. As-If model and,


2. To-Be model

• As-If model defines the whole business process model or a particular set
of business process, analyzing the working of the present model whatever
as it is before us. It defines that presently how does the business model is
working and recognizes the faults that are hampering the output of the
organisation.

• To-Be model defines the whole or partial business process that had been
identified that has to be changed and a all new model is to be presented.
This to-be model is very much new and free from any faults and
shortcomings. It is the model that is presented to give maximum output
and desired result.

Initiatives Taken By Indian Posts


It is not the state that Indian Post is not taking any step to revive their state and
performance in the market, for example Indian Post has declared a Request for Proposal
(R.F.P.) for hiring of I.T. consultants. In which the following candidates were short listed:

1. Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd.


2. Emst and Young Pvt. Ltd.
3. KPMG
4. McKinsey and Company
5. PricewaterhouseCoopers

Technological Division Initiatives

1. Funds of Rs. 628.66 crores earmarked for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 and approval
of CCEA obtained.

2. Funds of Rs. 125.88 crores allotted to the Technology Division for supply of
hardware/software’s/equipments/peripherals to the circles.

Committee on IC technology for rural post offices

Committee constituted on 29/01/2009


Objectives: Rural Connectivity, Rural Devices & Public, Private
Partnership Models

Experts include Faculty from, IIIT Hyderabad, IIM Bangalore & Experts also include
from Industry like TCS, Intel, Infosys.
Reengineering Initiative for Indian Posts’ Core Processes

Problem 1 (As-If Model)


Misplacement/loss of posts in huge bundles and during sorting or transportation. Use of
traditional paper based stamps which are for single use. They increase cost as they are to
be produced on regular basis. Also customer needs to write all the information on the
envelope which makes it a boring task. And if same address is required for bulk post then
it becomes more hectic work.

Solution 1 (To-Be Model)

The above mentioned problem can be solved by using low frequency Radio Frequency
Identification Tags (RDIF) it is a very widespread technology across the globe
commonly known as Radio Tag Technology or Printed Smart RDIF labels.

Such radio tag chips are extremely small and are available in the size of grain of a dust.
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and
processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and
other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the
signal.

There are generally two types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery
and can transmit signals autonomously, and passive RFID tags, which have no battery
and require an external source to provoke signal transmission.

Due to technological advancement we have the benefit of polymer and paper electronics
in which we can stitch or bind such radio tags which are widely used to track, monitor
and identify using radio waves any person or thing we desire. These chips can hold 38
digits of number and 128 bit of memory which can be beneficial as a radio tagged stamps
for posts.

These chips are widely and heavily used in many fields across the globe, such as they are
used in:

1. Race timing
2. Passports
3. Transportation Payments
4. Currency notes
5. Product Tracking
6. Transportation and logistics
7. lap scoring
8. animal identification
9. Inventory systems
10. Human Implants
11. Libraries
12. Schools and universities
13. Museums
14. Social Retailing

In Indian Posts they can be used for:

1. Unique Identification of posts and parcels, preventing from misplacement


and loss: these chips are so minute that they can be in built in new stamps, which
can be reprogrammed as many times as possible but only through authentic code
and signatures. By using such radio tagged stamps the organisations can give
every post or parcel a unique identification which can be easily traced and
monitored by using radio waves no matter where ever in which ever bundle or
place they are in. they can be also useful in sorting process in post office which is
explained later.

2. No need for writing any thing on the envelope except sticking the e-stamp: by
using the e-stamp or radio tagged stamps the customer should not have to write
anything on their own on the envelope, they can just go to the Indian Posts
business point where they can buy e-stamps by just telling the recipients name
and address with optionally their own name and address if necessary. The
employee on the system can feed the information and on a press of a button
generate an e-stamp which holds the customer specified address and name with a
unique in built ID no. with an additional small slip with adhesive on which
recipients’ name and address is mentioned for postman’s reference.

3. Reduces cost of stamp production: due to the efficiency and reusability of e-


stamps it can be very cost effective and profitable for Indian Posts. As these e-
stamps when ordered on bulk can cost merely in some paise, also they can be
reused, irrespective they can be reprogrammed and re stick on new envelope.

4. Reduces the use of fake stamps: due to its unique radio tag system no one can
easily replicate the stamps therefore it can provide safety to Indian Post regarding
loss due to forgery etc.

Hitachi is one of the pioneer and leading company in the field of manufacturing and
providing RDIF chips.
Problem 2 (As-If Model)

There is a major difference of availability of stamps and postal services on a wider basis.
Post offices are only one in huge areas whereas same is with the post boxes. Now a days
due to technology major portion of people are very time saving and don’t like to search
for post boxes or post offices easily on first preference. On the other hand one can very
easily find business point of local courier services on one or another shop across the road.
This provides quick and easy access to the services.

Solution 2 (To-Be Model)

The following problem can be solved in two aspects:

1. constructing a whole new post office and operating them can be an extremely
costly and non performing process, therefore Indian Post can make small
Business Point Junctions like ATMS with sitting arrangements for one or two
employees equipped with all necessary equipments where the customers can
contact for e-stamps, submission of mails, parcels etc. also post office provides
money transfer on local and international basis and provides with account and
money deposit facility. All these financial services can also be carried out in these
Business Points. Here the customer can deal and transact with any kind of postal
or non postal services. These junctions can be set after each 5 kilometers. These
junctions can monitor the status of their areas’ post boxes coming under 5
kilometers, monitoring that which box is empty or full. Thus saving more time of
the delivery van, they can tell the van where to go first and where to not, as it may
happen that they can go to useless spot too.

2. Secondly, post boxes should be redesigned in square shape with a transparent lid
on the top to have a peek inside the box, it can give a insight to the customer that
his post or parcel is safe inside, and RDIF tag chips much powerful than e-stamps.
These boxes should be placed after every 1 or 2 kilometers of radius. The delivery
van can get radio signals from these boxes denoting about the status of the box
and whether to empty the box or not. It can also tell through radio waves in about
50-100 meters of radius that whether the box is empty or does hold any matter in
it without going very close to it. It will save time of the delivery employees as
they don’t have to stop and check each and every box, they have to stop only at
that box that tells them any useful information, therefore saving time and
increasing efficiency in terms of time and employee performance. For Example it
takes 15 minutes for a delivery van to stop at post box, open and check and
emptying the box if so. But by using RDIF enabled boxes the time can be reduced
to merely less than 5 minutes, where only they have to stop and collect the mails
and parcels.
3. On the other hand if legally signed, contracted or authorized then Indian Posts can
allow other courier services to use their Business Point Junctions and RDIF
enabled post boxes

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