Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys in a recent interview to the media, which to our good luck was not banned by the government, made a very telling statement. He clearly mentioned that Infosys always lost money on projects done for the Indian Government. Murthy, not being at the helm of affairs at Infosys in the present time, perhaps gave himself the opportunity to speak a little more freely. Being an industry veteran he probably sensed this was not an exclusive Infosys problem, but prevalent among the top IT companies of India.
According to Murthy the main reason Infosys lost money on government projects was government red tape and changing project requirement midstream. A company known to maintain healthy operating margins and yet lose money on government projects only shows that the government red tape is extraordinarily thick in India and changes in project requirement midstream, a sinister technique designed to frustrate genuine smart companies from doing business with the government. By the way, Infosys is a recipient of many awards, one of them being the ‘Hottest Government Contractor by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in the United States of America. While Infosys does an excellent job in dealing with governments around the world adding value to their services and also make money for themselves it is unable to replicate the same type of success with the Indian Government.
The above statement by Murthy was made soon after the launch of the Digital India campaign by Prime Minster Modi, and could be seen as a subtle message to the government, that unless they discard majority of the manual processes while digitizing only the vital ones, this Digital India campaign could turn out to be a mere flash in the pan. A government sincerely wanting to start a digital revolution has to learn to let go manual processes which has been the main cause of corruption. Also the purpose of digitizing India will be lost if the government does not retrench redundant staff that took care of these outdated processes.
Successive governments of Goa, being guilty of excessive government superfluous employment should be first of the blocks in taking part in the Indian digital experiment. For that to happen they might as well deal with IT companies at the top of the ladder, instead of giving chance to some unknown companies or depend on their own in house government IT departments. It’s always better to pay more and deal with the best, than to get your project stuck in companies who struggle midstream. Many top IT companies of India have their business ethics in place and might not be willing to indulge into corrupt practices to get business from the government and that should never be the reason the government decides not to deal with them.
Meantime the Government of Goa must not overestimate the capabilities of their in-house IT departments, arrogantly believing they are the best in the business. For example the online payment module of the Electricity Department is not only struggling to roll out to all Goans, but also a big drag on user friendliness. Why on earth should users enter the department’s internal division and subdivision codes just to view their bills? The bill should appear as soon as the user enters their login and password? No point rolling out online payment services if somebody in the electricity department is still stuck in the past. Another value addition could be to let the user enter the meter reading online, that will save their staff trip every month just to read the meter. Those who read the meter should also avail online bill which eliminates the staff visit completely. Of course an audit on the meter reading numbers could be done once a year. So the next time the government tom-toms on online bill payment, let’s check how much value they have created on that service.
These types of value additions are possible if we start dealing with top IT companies who are used to providing solutions to world class governments with their thorough system analysis. Of course the government must also learn to pay more to make sure these companies don’t make a project loss in dealing with the government. After all these companies are mostly listed companies with an obligation towards their shareholders. The government must not always use the patriotic India card and get work done from top companies and squeeze them of their rightful profits. Dealing with top IT companies might increase the project cost, but will more than compensate with the value they will create and make most of the staff free from mundane processes. It then depends on the government’s imagination how they absorb the excess staff into other government initiatives or use the golden handshake effectively. You cannot digitize Goa and still deal with unwanted manual registers.
The above scenario is not some mission impossible in Goa. The Goa Passport Office headed by Agnelo Fernandes, a man on a mission, uses technology to the hilt with the underlying goal to serve the customer, even if they are designed by the Central Government. It is time all government heads visit his offices to understand how processes are digitized and every bottleneck systematically eliminated. Guess who maintains their website, naturally India’s leading IT company Tata Consultancy Services.
(Plastino D’Costa is a business consultant)
