How IndianOil’s real-time centralised system connected its LPG distribution network to enable transfer of subsidy
New Delhi 06-Oct-2016
The Indian government rolled out its direct benefit transfer (DBT) program in 2012-13 for social-welfare initiatives like national child labour project, student scholarship and LPG subsidy.
The DBT program’s main purpose was to bring transparency and terminate pilferage in government led fund distribution by leveraging mechanisms like Aadhar cards and directly transfer subsidy into bank accounts of people.
Given LPG subsidy was part of the DBT program, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, which is India’s largest commercial enterprise also had to set up an online platform connecting its LPG distributors’ network and map their customers to enable the DBT initiative.
Need for an online centralised platform
“In order to achieve the direct transfer of subsidy to LPG customers, first of all our 9000 plus distributors had to get connected and brought together on a connected mode using a centralised server,” said Alok Khanna, IndianOil’s Executive Director – IS (Information Systems).
“We had to develop a centralise software because till than all the distributors were working on disconnected mode and the data was coming through various modes. So there was a need to develop an online software system,” added Khanna.
By 2013, IndianOil with the support of in-house IT team was ready with software connecting its LPG distributors’ network over a centralised online system to enable direct subsidy transfer.
Company made the deployment live in a phased manner that covered its wide distributor network spread across the India including remotest locations like Ladakh, Manipur and others.
The project went live first in those areas and locations which had internet connectivity because the distributors are required to feed customer related data into the system on a real-time using internet, informed Khanna.
The distributors had to feed the online centralised system with customer related data like refill booking order, cash memo, issuing new connection, transfer of connection, delivery confirmation and so forth.
Critical challenges
However with over 9000 distributors serving more than 9 crore customers, IndianOil had to over some critical challenges including internet connectivity, dual mode (online & offline) functioning of client end software as well as real-time data processing.
Its centralised system needed data processing capability so it can trigger actions like directing fund transfer into customers’ bank account. Basically, there was a need of ETL (extract, transform & load) tool to process the data on real-time basis.
“Data from distributors’ side are required to put into the central server on real-time or near real-time mode. Then those data needs to be analysed and processed through a software tool so it can trigger actions like direct transfer of subsidy into individual customer’s bank account,” commented Khanna.
Khanna pointed out internet connectivity and client end software were the two major challenges faced during the implementation.
“We are dealing with essential commodity, where we cannot afford to close down our distributorship in any corner of the country, for the reason of internet or software not working. Software is just an enable but at the ground level, public at large will not wait for it,” stated Khanna.
“Not only the internet connectivity, but also we had to enable the client end software in such a way that even if there was no internet, the software has to keep the data for 2 or 3 hours till the connectivity is back and then send the data to the central server for processing,” he explained.
Looking for solutions
Based on the requirement, company invited tenders from software vendors like Informatica, IBM and others via a public tendering process. And then, it selected Informatica’s ETL tool to integrate it with the centralised systems and server for real time data processing.
In addition, it company leveraged other Informatica products including Ultra messaging for low latency, Vibe Data Stream for managing high data volumes and its flow, PowerExchange Change Data Capture for capturing data changes. Also, it runs relational database on Sybase IQ.
“The client end software was built on Java framework, the second database is on Oracle, but Informatica acted as real data transfer platform for us and enabled us not only collect the data at central server but also its processing like data duplication and others processes,” informed Khanna.
With this new system, company is able to leverage historic data for more accurate forecasting. Also, the new system had been integrated with banking platforms covering some 340 banks across India that facilitates financial transactions and subsidiary transfer to bank accounts of individual customers.
Post the processing, these banks collect all the transaction records and details of every customer for verification by sending the data back to company’s central server and system.
Reaping benefits
In fact, the system processes around 12-13 lakh refilling requests at the distributors side and simultaneously it executes fund transfer requests directly to customer’s bank accounts.
Since then, over 90 percent of its customers today are DBT enabled plus it has also added new features to support with external platforms like UIDAI, NIC and other government schemes.
From the business perspective, the audited project savings was $470 million a year and the new system ensured that $90 million in subsidies reached the right consumer due to the availability of accurate collected data.
This deployment has been integral to the success of Indian government’s cash transfer benefit program that impacted over 80 million households, which Guinness Book of World Records recognised as the world’s largest direct benefit transfer program ever carried out.
Going ahead, IndianOil is all set to manage its wide base of dealers and customers through dealer management cum CRM system.
