Tech giant IBM, Indian Oil Corporation collaborate for digital services

Tech giant IBM on Thursday said it has collaborated with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) to transform the latter's customer experience using digital tools.

Around 12,400 IOCL distributors covering about 130 million consumers can now use the IndianOil One mobile app and portal, developed by IBM Services, a statement said.

The IndianOil One mobile app and portal are part of Indian Oil's Project ePIC, an integrated platform for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Distribution Management System (DMS).

This platform ensures real-time updates to inventory, orders, and invoices, thereby reducing the time to order fulfillment.

Indian Oil can respond more quickly to customer service requests, including grievances using the platform. The platform also presents a unified customer experience across various access devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and desktops, the statement said.

"It has been a privilege for IBM to strategically partner with Indian Oil on this path-breaking digital transformation journey to build customer experiences in its downstream business operations.

"Christened 'Project ePIC' (Electronic Platform for Indian Oil customers) is the most prominent digital transformation project managed by IBM globally, in terms of its scale, in the C&P (chemicals and petroleum) industry," Kamal Singhani, Country Managing Partner, Global Business Services at IBM India/South Asia said.

Gurmeet Singh, Director (Marketing) at Indian Oil, said Project ePIC promises to transform the company's front office a crucial interface with customers and business partners - by infusing 'customer-centricity' as a primary philosophy and take the company to the next level in ensuring customer service excellence.

This will ensure quick adaptation to business processes to the requirement of customers, he added.

"Digital transformation is driving the creation of new business models. Avoiding it would only be delaying the inevitable risk of exposing our business to disruption by new players with radically innovative business models.

"It is, therefore, imperative to digitally transform ourselves to offer superior experiences to our customers, providing them a seamless journey across our company's products and services," Sandeep K Gupta, Director (Finance) Indian Oil said.