With a population of more than a billion people and having enjoyed 65 years of freedom, India is one of the largest democracies in the world, with complex Government systems running it. At present, different sectors are controlled by independent systems and governing bodies. Given the fact that we are growing at a GDP of more than 7% per annum, the Central and State Governments have started recognizing the need for more dependable, efficient and accurate information systems. The complexity in governing more than a billion people requires high level of efficiency, accuracy and transparency for tracking and reporting information.
Implementing ERP solutions could be one answer to reduce the complexity and improve the efficiency of the Government Operations. Below mentioned are few benefits to the government by implementing ERP for Governance.
- One of the key issues with Government is Unemployment. Through implementing Human Capital Management solutions, the National Skills Registry (NSR) could be used very efficiently and unemployed youth can be provided suitable jobs based on their skill set and experience.
- Our Government has a demanding constituency. Hence there is a strong need for good Customer Relationship Management. The business solutions available with ERP right now, can be tuned to cater to Citizen Relationship Management (CRM again!).
- By centralizing data related the GDPs of individual sectors, five year plans can be worked out in a better manner to ensure resource allocation properly to sectors which requires more attention.
- Needless to say, accounts and finance can be centralized through a Financial Management solution. This ensures accurate data on day-to-day expenses, tax income, FDIs, debts, stock exchanges etc. The more efficient and robust the financial management solution, the more efficient the budget would be.
Above given are just few critical examples but there are lots of other processes that need equal attention. Setting up the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and issuing a 12-digit unique number for every citizen of India could be considered one of the initial steps towards centralizing data about every citizen. The Government claims that, the Unique Identity (UID) can be used to efficiently plan reforms in Healthcare, Education, Social Security, Employment and other miscellaneous purposes. But, implementing a centralized ERP system will ensure better decisions being taken by our leaders using the UID data.
