TNEB on the job to implement collection center
Gemini Communications Ltd (GCL) is helping TNEB to become one of the few companies in India, which will have all their collection centers connected with the center server. People can now pay their bills in a collection center in their region/zone as per their convenience.Its customer base has reached 182.98 lakh (as on Jan 31, 2007). In a follow up of their commitment to render the highest standards of service to their customers, they roped in Gemini Communication Ltd (GCL) to connect all their collection centers across the state to the server center.GCL has a proven expertise to deliver complex turnkey solutions because of its partnerships from leading technology companies around the world in LAN/ WAN division, CTI, NetworkCARE services, NetworkCARE products, wireless and telecom and RFID. It all began in December 2005 when Gemini bagged the order for the first phase, but started the project implementation after they received PO in January 2006 and completed the first phase by June 2006. “We at GCL feel proud to be partnering with TNEB in this prestigious project,” said Vijay Kumar, Group Chairman, Gemini Communication Ltd.
During the first phase the whole of Tamil Nadu was divided into nine regions, Chennai (North), Chennai (South), Vellore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Erode, Madurai, Viluppuram and Tirunelveli. In this phase only Chennai (North) was connected fully with some connectivity happening in other eight regions as well. “It connected about 450 collection centers and it has acted as more of a test case,” informed Kumar.In the first phase, Gemini not only provided and deployed the servers and storage products for the network but also supplied thin clients. Nine regional datacenters were created and hence the data that is being typed in at the remote rural office today automatically gets saved in the server of the regional office. So now people can pay their bills as per their convenience in any one of the collection centers of their zone.
In the second phase TNEB had come out with a tender for the remaining eight regions catering to the remaining 1,725 collection centers. GCL being the least bidder in all the eight regions, again took the charge.“We bid for the second phase as we had in depth domain knowledge of the client and had an innovative solution which would bring down the cost to the client,” informed Kumar.After the completion of the second phase TNEB will become one of the few companies in India to have connected all their collection centers with the center server. Talking about the challenges faced during the project deployment, Kumar said, “There were a lot of challenges in the first phase as we were doing a huge network for an e-governance project and routing most of the data through wireless. The site condition was very different from our assumptions and we had to adjust and provide rugged products.”
Today, visitors stand in shorter queues along with the freedom of paying their bills in whichever collection center they choose. Approximately 1.5 crore consumers are expected to benefit out of this project after the second phase is also over.Gemini has started received PO's for the various eight regions. “We are confident we will complete the project within 90 days of the receipt of these PO's. This means that by May 2007 the second phase will also be over,” informed Kumar.Gemini's proposed solution is based on 95 percent wireless and five percent leased lines. The remote rural office of TNEB will be connected to a circle office and the circle office will be connected to the regional office.
As on date the regional offices have not been connected to one single datacenter, which could be taken up by TNEB after this project is completed.GCL did not share the complete details of the vendors whose products they will be using in the project. But, for the leased lines GCL has approached Railtel and other private service providers. Also, they are using PointRed wireless modems for this project.Though there is no official confirmation from TNEB, Kumar believes that the next step after the deployment of the second phase would be connecting all the nine regional offices to the central head office. This along with ERP could be termed as the third phase.
