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Post Office goes electronic

Gone are the days, when people dropped a letter in a box expecting it to get delivered after a month or more. Malabika Sarkar takes a look on how IT has helped build a better postal service

As an on-going effort, IT has made a difference to every field, and the same goes for the postal service too. With the introduction of electronic postal services, India Post the official postal service of India, has implemented Web-based services. These services include Instant Money Order, which is the fastest method for remittance of money up to a specific amount, e-Payment, which is ideal for collection of utility bills and payment in a single check to the service provider, and the ePost, wherein a mail is electronically transmitted and manually delivered like a letter. This has been achieved by the efforts of the government through National Informatics Center that has developed most of these solutions.

Express Computer takes a snapshot on these new initiatives from India Post in this regard. Sunita Trivedi, Chief General Manager, India Post, said, “The Internet revolution supports the rapid exchange of communication through e-mail. However, the Internet has not reached most of rural India and other remote areas. To bridge this digital divide, and to bring the benefit of Internet technology to people living in these areas, the Department of Posts has introduced these services so that people in the interior can have a easy life in terms of transferring money, delivering letters and bill payments.”

ePost

The ePost application has been built on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux using a three-tier architecture consisting of the PostgreSQL database, Tomcat Application Server and Open LDAP with an application written in Java. The affordable nature of Linux and its immunity to viruses determined its choice. A mail sent by ePost is routed to the ePost center that’s closest to the recipient where a printout is taken. Then, the message is sent as a normal piece of physical mail.

Any hand-written message, photograph or simple text message can be sent between ePost centers (post office) all across the country to be downloaded at the ePost center and delivered by the postman to the recipient. The service can also be availed by an individual from their home or office or by purchasing a prepaid card from the post office.

Elaborating on this Trivedi said, “ePost is a service through which printed or even handwritten messages are scanned and transmitted as e-mail over the Internet. At the destination post offices, these messages are printed, enveloped and delivered by postmen like other letters to the postal addresses. For this purpose, ePost centers have been set up in the post offices, covering all the districts and major towns. These ePost centers are equipped with an Internet connection, computers, printers and other necessary equipment.” However, the ePost service is not limited to the ePost centers. It can be availed of from any post office. Irrespective of whether a customer is in a metropolis or in a remote village, he can send and receive ePost messages. The messages booked at post offices which are not the ePost centers, are sent to the centers for scanning and dispatch. Similarly, messages received at centers for areas beyond their delivery jurisdiction are printed and sent to concern post offices for delivery.

Besides availing ePost service through post offices, it can also be accessed from a customer’s home or office if he has a computer and Internet access. The customer can make payment through a prepaid card that is available from selected post offices and other outlets. The customer has to register as a user, and can access the service at the ePost portal. At present, only text messages can be sent in this mode.

ePayment

ePayment is another service that leverages the tremendous reach of India Post. The department specializes in accepting across the counter payments and consolidating the same. It is a ‘Many to One’ service through which bills like telephone, electricity etc. paid by customers in post offices are electronically consolidated.

Here the post office collects bill payments from customers on the behalf of service providers or billers such as BSNL, Airtel, RTOs, etc. A post office then issues a receipt to the customer and accounts for the transaction.

The collection data is updated into a central server and is accessible to the biller through a Web interface. The accounts are consolidated electronically and amount paid to the service provider at one point, which is convenient.

Biller can also upload details of bills, which allows the customer to pay the bill amount at the post office even if a physical bill has not been received. Billers also have the option of downloading the collection details in formats required by them.

The service provider category includes almost the entire range of billing services across the verticals of education, finance, telecommunications, electricity, water supply and government (land revenue, property tax, income tax, police, etc).

The frequency of payment could be fortnightly to annual.

Instant Money Orders

Instant Money Order (iMO) is one of the most important services that India Post offers. This instant on-line money transfer service is a speedy, safe and reliable option for transferring money. IMO is an instant Web-based money transfer service through post offices (iMO Center) in India between two resident individuals in Indian Territory. You can transfer money in amounts ranging from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 50,000 from designated iMO Post Offices.

India Post has revamped the money order service and introduced an electronic mode for the faster remittance of money. This move would reduce transmission of vouchers from one place to another and provide for a centralized information system on the money order service.

Here, after the form is filled and submitted with money at iMO post office counter, the counter clerk books the iMO immediately and hands over a printed receipt with a computer generated confidential 16-digit iMO number in a sealed condition. Even the 16-digit iMO number will not be known to the booking clerk. The customer is required to tear off the seal and convey the confidential 16-digit iMO number to the receiver over phone, SMS, e-mail, etc. at his means and risk.

The booking facilities for this instant money order would be available at post offices where Wide Area Connectivity or Broadband connectivity is available. Once the process stabilizes, department may consider enhancing the maximum limit of remittance. However, the present service of conventional domestic money orders will also remain.

Commenting on the same Trivedi stated, “The benefit of this product is that it supports an instant, safe, reliable and convenient mechanism to transfer money between Indian citizens within the country up to Rs. 50,000.”

Postal Training Center

The software for ePayment named Meghdoot has been developed by India Post’s in-house training center, named as the Postal Training center, which is located in Mysore. This training center is a premier training center of the Department of Posts that runs high quality training programs for postal personnel. In keeping with the mandate of the department to introduce large-scale computerization and automation in postal operations, the Postal training Center (PTC) has equipped itself with state-of-the-art computer training facilities and it trains a large number of personnel in IT-related activities.

The center for postal technology and excellence is a part of the Postal Training Center. It is fully equipped with the latest technology and a team of software developers. In addition to software development, testing of software developed by other vendors is also being done. This center develops software, which is run both in India and abroad.

Focusing on the security part, Trivedi said that the site is accessed through SSL. Smart Cards (Digital signature Certificate) are being used for securing transactions made by operating staff. Machine registration is mandatory for any transaction. “The stages of development of these products were based on the user requirements. A prototype site was developed and given to user for its testing and acceptance. After rigorous testing, it was implemented across the country. Operational training was conducted for the field offices through Video Conferencing and e-Learning,” she said.

With a mission to provide high quality mail and related services in India and throughout the world, India Post has already geared up to offer complete electronic solutions to its customers. The prime focus of India Post is to be recognized as an efficient and excellent organization exceeding the expectations of the customers, employees and the society; to perform the task by total dedication to understanding and fulfilling customer’s needs, and to provide efficient and reliable services, which customers consider value for money.

malabika.sarkar@expressindia.com