An IT company in the eGovernance space since 1994, RamInfo Ltd has been providing various solutions to take government services to people in an easy and transparent manner. In the coming times, the company would also like to be into operation and maintenance of projects, says Srinath Reddy, Managing Director, in an interaction with Akanki Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN)
Managing Director
Raminfo
What are the various initiatives undertaken by RamInfo in the e-Governance domain?
RamInfo redefined and revolutionised the service delivery system of the eGovernance initiative by the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Government in 2001. A top-notch information technology solution, eSeva, was designed, developed and deployed in the entire state of AP. The solution has been very helpful to AP citizens in interacting with various government departments and utilising their services including electricity, municipal administration, transport, tax authorities, and police. The main motto behind eSeva is convenience and transparency.
The core channel was built on such architecture that the service offering grew to cover close to more than 140 services. The system build provided for enhancing the scope to cover various Business to Consumer (B2C), Business to Business (B2B) and Government to Business (G2B) services. We have extended the reach of this system by embedding mobile technology concepts to cater the needs of millions of Smartphone users. RamInfo is proud to be the creator of this innovative and disruptive technology solution.Constant upgrade to this solution is made to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural users by introducing all possible modes of delivery adapting to the technological advancements happening in the digital devices and communication standards.
RamInfo has also worked on various eGovernance projects for departments like Commercial Taxes, Tourism, Fire Services, Road Transport Authority (RTA) and more. We have also extended support to projects like eSuvidha and some others like online ticket booking, billing for the Tourism Department management, hotel management, etc. The recent rollout of MeeSeva mobile app is a new initiative as part of our mobile governance projects. MeeSeva enables citizens to use all the government services on their smartphone. We are currently serving the governments of AP,
We are currently serving the governments of AP, Telangana and Karnataka with our eGovernance solutions and are in plans to roll them out across pan-India.
RamInfo built robust IT solutions for various departments of the AP Government and which are serving the user needs as a backbone. These solutions were developed on scalable technology platforms and, therefore, continue to be in use even today and enabling the integration with frontend eGovernance solutions.
RamInfo has also established to be a truly integrated IT solution provider after successfully operating and managing the ‘MeeSeva’ operations totally.
RamInfo’s initiative is to productise the eGov solutions designed for AP, Telangana and Karnataka governments to meet any other state government requirements, by customising the applications in different languages, in order to achieve pan-India roll out.
We have worked with close to 45 state government departments on various projects related to citizen services, including prestigious eSeva, MeeSeva, eDistrict and Twin Cities Network Services (TWINS) projects of the AP Government, and Bangalore One and KarnatakaOne.
Apart from the government sector, do you have presence in any other sector?
RamInfo currently offers IT solutions to banking, retail, eCommerce and healthcare segments. Over 25 commercial banks, including Axis Bank and Andhra Bank, and other cooperative banks within Andhra Pradesh are using our services.
In healthcare, we are providing mobile services and health cards, health record digitisation and other services in collaboration with various healthcare providers. In the education sector, we are piloting digitisation of all student records, including their certificates and linking them with Aadhaar and Digital Locker. StudentOne is a service offered by us to track every record—from the time of admission to the day a student exits the institute—stored at one place.
Do you see any opportunity for RamInfo to participate in Digital India and Smart Cities programmes?
RamInfo is well-positioned with regard to Digital India because one of the core pillars of the programme is “delivering services at the citizens’ doorsteps” by creating a digital infrastructure, and simplification of the government processes. Our decades of experience in eGovernance and implementing automated solutions for over 40 government departments gives huge credibility to us.
We have taken a lead in rolling out mobile governance, so that delivery mechanism of the government services can be taken to the people’s doorsteps. Other projects like Digital Locker integration, ePragati and Aadhaar linking with the government initiatives will take us a step further. Our mGov delivery platform will lead us into Smart City initiatives, like My City etc. We are also working and keenly exploring opportunities in projects like ePragati, Digital India, Mobile Governance and citizen services interface in Smart City initiatives.
In smart cities, RamInfo has been offering solutions for improving energy efficiency, and security and surveillance. For this, we are working with our international partners as well as partners in India, especially for bringing in Internet of Things (IoT) related solutions. We are working with companies to deliver smart city solutions, like multiutility card that can be utilised for paying utility bills, property tax, parking, etc., and the same card can be utilised for Metro rides as well. One more area that we are focussing on is the digital wallet space.
RamInfo has had a long stint in the industry. What are the challenges you come across while implementing solutions and how do you overcome those?
One of the challenges is the tendering process, wherein we need to follow certain norms, and most of the tendering evaluation criteria are based on lowest cost. So, delivering quality products at ‘lowest cost’ becomes a challenge. Our strength lies in our capability to sense the dynamic changes in technology front and the ability to learn and adapt to the changes quickly.
Another challenge is that people and leadership keep changing at various levels, which disrupts the process many a time. But, as we have been associated with many of these departments for long and understand the objective properly, in spite of the leadership change, we are able to deliver what is required.
SRINATH REDDY
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| RamInfo is now looking at system integration, and operations and management projects, which will improve our revenue and portfolio of services. We have also taken a lead in rolling out mobile governance and wallet management |
What is your vision for RamInfo in the coming years? Any expansion plans?
First of all, we would like to continue delivering innovative government services to the citizens. We intend to improve our presence by delivering services outside the southern states. We would like to carry forward our domain expertise to expand our services. We would like to expand our presence into O&M projects by constantly innovating and investing in mobile apps, through mobile governance, including digital wallet.
Secondly, we would like to see ourselves perform well in the Digital India programme in terms of providing capabilities in healthcare and education domains. Also, through our StudentOne concept, we would like to provide one-stop shop for students to track their entire history. When they move from one university to another, they can transfer the certificates in digital format.
We have also started our sales and business development processes in Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal, and more recently, in Uttarakhand and Haryana as well.