Ten firms short-listed for Rs 200 crore project.
The Karnataka government has short-listed 10 IT firms for an eGovernance project aiming to automate the functions of the treasuries across 218 locations. The project, estimated around Rs 200 crore, to replace the existing treasury application software known as “Khajane” which has become obsolete in terms of functional features and technological capabilities.
According to highly placed industry sources, about 14 IT services and consulting firms responded to an Expression of Interest (EoI) floated by the Department of Treasuries, Karnataka, for developing and implementing an integrated financial management system which will be christened 'Khajane II’. After initial evaluation, the government short-listed 10 firms based on the technical and financial specifications laid down in the tender document. The firms short-listed include most of the leading global and Indian IT services firms including HP, Accenture, Capgemini, IBM, Siemens, Infosys, Wipro and TCS.
Karnataka had restricted wider participation of IT firms in this project as companies with a minimum annual turnover of Rs 400 crore and with a skilled manpower of 500 engineers alone were eligible to participate in the bidding process. It is also understood that the government is in the process of floating a request for proposals (RFP) from these bidding companies.
“By implementing the project, Karnataka is setting an example before other Indian states how IT systems can be used to eliminate the complex functions of a treasury department to increase the efficiency with a high degree of accuracy. This is a fairly big and complex project which will automate back-end systems, all revenue functions, deposits and payments made by and for the government,” said the country head of a bidding firm.
Karnataka was the pioneer in implementing application software in the treasury department way back in 2001. The system 'Khajane’, though has won accolades including the ‘Silver Icon’ award at the 9th eGovernance conference in 2006, it has become technologically and functionally obsolete as it does not support certain functions. The old system focuses only on the automation of internal functions. It also has serious security gaps like absence of audit trails, use of only password for access and unencrypted management of passwords. Besides, it relies only on the usage of floppies and related media devices for the transfer of data as critical as budgets.
“With the passage of time and advancement of technology, the requirements of the user departments and stakeholders of the treasuries have increased immeasurably. Keeping these in view, the department now wishes to enhance the application in terms of functionality and replace the technology as well while incorporating important business process re-engineering and address the lacunae in the present system,” said state government sources.
With the development and deployment of the new application software ‘Khajane II’, the government intends to generate daily accounts of the state with a high degree of accuracy and accurate monthly accounts in 2-3 days towards the end of the month. The new system will help generate daily cash position of the state, including payments and receipts; centralising pensioners database and online generation and submission of bills. It will also be useful in issuing of government orders online, web-based submission of challans and electronic fund transfers for making payments.
The IT firms that win the bid will be responsible for development, implementation and hosting of the core application software apart from deploying the underlying hardware infrastructure such as server, networking equipment. The partner will also be responsible for the migration of data from the existing system to the new system and providing training for the end users among others.
