Anticipating foreign competition, General Insurance Corporation (GIC) has taken the initiative to computerise operations in all its four subsidiaries.
Its eastern region arm, National Insurance Company (NIC), has selected PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to formulate an information technology and programme management strategy. NIC has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 30 crore for its software and IT requirements.
NIC's move to appoint a consultancy firm is a part of the comprehensive software plan of its parent company.
As per the plan, GIC envisages all its services going online by early 2000. This, the company feels, will help prepare to take on foreign competition and put in place a software infrastructure which would enhance the speed and quality of services.
"PwC has been selected as the consultant to advise and help NIC to expedite implementation of its computerisation and information technology programme which was taken up two years ago," NIC chairman-cum-managing director, A N Poddar, said. "NIC has also developed in-house software mainly for the purpose of issuing documents at its front office," he added.
"The software is currently being made more versatile through in-house efforts and expertise. The improved software will go in for backward integration following which front offices and back offices will be integrated," Poddar pointed out.
NIC had rolled out a computerisation programme two years ago which involved purchases of Rs 40-crore worth of hardware alone. Since then, the company has computerised 775 of its total 955 offices. "Through the computerisation programme, 55 lakh policies were issued last year. The total number of policies issued being 73 lakh," the NIC chairman-cum-managing director said.
All the offices of National Insurance would be computerised by December 31, 1998.
All the 11 major policies would be issued through computers, he added.
National Insurance has also decided to set up a three-member advisory committee on computers and IT implementation.
The committee members will be drawn from the Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Institute of Management and the Indian Institute of Technology.
