India Post ATMs to dot Thiruvananthapuram landscape.

A model of the Automated Teller Machine centre to be opened by the Postal Department.

Automated teller machines (ATMs) are no longer the monopoly of the banking sector. A year ago, the Postal Department too introduced the machine to its customers as part of a modernisation programme. The district will shortly join a select group of places in the country to house ATMs of the department.

In the initial phase, ATMs will be installed at the GPO in the city and sub post offices at Poojappura, Neyyattinkara, and Attingal. The facility will be provided in some other post offices in the city and also at Kottarakara, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kannur later. Work had commenced to set up the machines at the GPO and Neyyattinkara, Assistant Postmaster General, Kerala Circle, K.V Vijayakumar told The Hindu. The machine would become functional within a month, he added

Initially the facility would benefit 11.77 lakh postal savings account holders in the city and after the ongoing Core Bank Solution process initiated by the department gets integrated with other banks, it would become interoperable giving access to bank account holders too.

The core banking facility enables customers to operate their accounts and avail themselves of account-elated services from any of the networked post offices. It would also provide postal saving account holders online banking and mobile banking facilities, Officer on Special Duty, Kerala Circle, Ravindranath, said.

The department’s scheme of transferring money instantly through mobile phone, he said, was getting good patronage with nearly 200 people using the facility monthly. “When we launched the scheme a year ago, there were not many takers. In the first three months, the number of people opted to use the facility was below 10. Now, we were able to carryout more than 200 transactions every month,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.

courtesy: thehindu.com

MESSAGE FROM SECRETARY(POSTS) TO STAFF AND OFFICERS OF DEPARTMENT.

Dear colleagues,

It gives me immense pleasure to update you about the ambitious IT Modernization project of the Department of Posts. As you know, with this project we have embarked upon a transformational journey. I take this opportunity to congratulate and thank each one of you for your dedication and hard work to bring about this historic transformation.

At this point in time, we have already networked close to 23,000 locations, making our the largest WAN in the country. Implementation of our Core Banking System and PLI solutions have attained a critical mass, which will enable us to undertake performance testing & certification before further roll outs. Core SI solutions relating to Mail Operations, Human Resources and F&A are in the UAT stage; and we are nearing identification of a vendor for the Rural Hardware program to support the modernization of our rural post offices.

Implementation of the CBS and Core-PLI solutions has been gradual by design so that we can pinpoint errors/ defects in the solutions and address them appropriately, before graduating to an exponential roll-out phase. As expected, officers and staff are facing some challenges during the initial implementation phase. While we continue to strengthen the solutions based on these valuable experiences, the extra mile that you all have traversed in order to manage these challenges is commendable.

As the implementation gathers steam, I would request each one of you to keep up the energy & commitment you have demonstrated so far. We will make sure that the required technical and administrative support for success is made available.

The primary objective of the IT modernization project has been to enhance customer, satisfaction through better service delivery. The project will enhance the Post Offices capabilities, and enable it to deliver more efficient services, and more add-on services & products. Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has also urged the Department to fast-track the IT-modernization project and improve the quality of service. Thus, being sensitive and responsive to the customer is the need of the hour.

You will agree that it is a matter of great pride for each one of us to be associated with this huge transformational project. We must now work hand in hand to make this historical transformation happen quickly.

Together we can, and we will do it!!

Kavery Banerjee
Secretary (Posts)

Reasons for non transmission of COD Delivered amount from Delivery Office to the Payment Office .

1) Submit Account not done in Postman module:  In Postman module, the Supervisor has to perform Submit Account for each Postman beat.  This process will cross check as to whether the amount of all COD articles delivered by that beat postman has been credited to the Treasurer or not.  COD delivered data in r/o the beats for which submit account has been done, will be transmitted to ePayment server for further transmission to Payment office.  It is further to state that Postman module will not allow to perform day end without completing the Submit Account of all the beats.

Solution:  The case has to be reported to CEPT for providing suitable solution.

2) BO Verification not done in Postman module:  In Postman module, Supervisor has to perform verification of the amount in r/o all the COD articles delivered by the Branch Post Offices attached to the HO/SO.  This is similar to the Submit Account for the local delivered articles.   The BO Verification process will cross check as to whether the amount of all COD articles delivered by each Branch Post Office has been credited to the Accounts w.r.t. the SO Summary in Sub Accounts module.  COD delivered data in r/o the Branch Post offices for which verification has been done, will be transmitted to ePayment server for further transmission to Payment office.  It is further to state that Postman module will not allow to perform day end, if BO Verification is pending against any particular Branch Post Office.

Solution:  BO Verification can be done at any later date also by the Postman Supervisor, by selecting the concerned Account Date i.e., BO Summary Date.

3) Office became inactive in ePayment:   The delivery office might have become inactive in ePayment server.  This may be due to the change of the ePayment communication machine  by the Post Office, for one reason or the other.  The ePayment server will take the data being communicated by the registered communication machine only.  If the earlier registered ePayment communication machine is changed by the Post Office, then the COD articles delivered by that Post Offices will not be taken as authenticated by the ePayment Server.   

Solution: The Divisional System Administrator has to re-register the office in ePayment website using the same machine which has transmitted the COD data.   Then the ePayment server will re-process the data earlier received by it again.

4) Configuration in Treasury module at Payment Post Office:   If the payment office is newly identified for making payment to any COD payments, then configuration of PoS server name and Service Tax details is to be done in Treasury module at Payment office.   Further, the work distribution to the treasurer for making COD payment is to be done. In some cases, it is observed that these configurations are not done resulting issue of non availability of Payment data in Treasury module for the COD billers.

Solution:  The configuration as mentioned above has to be done in Treasury module of the Payment Office.

5) Last Call status in ePayment:  Many offices are not running the ePayment Communication application on daily basis, without which the data will not get transmitted to ePayment server, even though entire delivery process is completed as per the procedure.  An MIS report viz.,”Offices Not Called” is available in the ePayment Website which shows the list of Post Offices which have not run the ePayment communication since last 24 hours.   The ePayment Communication application can be either scheduled OR run manually.

Solution: The ePayment Communication application need to be scheduled atleast twice a day.   The above mentioned MIS report is available division wise.  The Divisional heads have to ensure that all the ePayment offices in their division are running the ePayment Communication application on daily basis.