TCS, others in fray for BSNL project

The country's four leading IT players — TCS, Infosys, Satyam and HCL — have bid for a BSNL project worth Rs 400 crore which will make state-run telecom company a a paperless organisation.

BSNL is likely to select the player within the next three months for countrywide adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

"We have received bids from TCS, Infosys, Satyam and HCL for country-wide implementation of ERP which will make BSNL offices paperless," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal said.

TCS, the country's largest software exporter has bid for the project in tie-up with enterprise software company Oracle, while the other three players have bid for the project in tie-up with SAP.

The project is likely to be implemented in next 18 months after selection of the IT firm. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the planning of how business resources (materials, employees, customers) are acquired and moved from one state to another.

An ERP system supports most of the business system that maintains in a single database the data needed for a variety of business functions such as manufacturing, supply chain management, financial, projects, human resources and customer relationship management.

"The ERP will improve the efficiency of BSNL.... information will be available to the management as and when they require. It will also help in monitoring the performance of the company," Goyal said.

The main site for data back up would be in Hyderabad and the disaster recovery site would be in Kolkata.

The common database can allow every department of a business to store and retrieve information in real-time.

The ERP solution is expected to be cover modules such as financial accounting, project management, supply chain management and others.

BSNL is the world's seventh largest telecommunications company providing a comprehensive range of telecom services in India – wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM mobile, internet, broadband, carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN services.

BSNL would be the first telecom PSU to implement ERP. Other PSU's such as BHEL, NTPC and others had already implemented the module.

In order to keep pace with the new economy, the integration of BSNL's business processes has become a necessity, he added.

With the telecom sector growing exponentially, the major IT players are looking at telecom vertical with renewed vigour.