How Digital Transformation made eGovernance possible in India
Government and public service bodies were the late entrants into the digital world; slow and hesitant at the start they have now embraced digital with gusto. What started as online payment portals for electricity and phone bills has developed into a mission to provide digital access to all citizens.
The Digital Start
The first step to digitization started with online payment portals for public utilities, digitization of data such as land records, e-procurement projects and public sector banks sites.
The start was rocky, plagued with continuous downtime and untrained employees, but as Internet and digital technologies improved, these initial unwieldy digital platforms transformed into sophisticated Common Service Centers (CSC), access points connecting 2.5 lakh villages to a multitude of e-Services, from banking services to train ticketing and healthcare to agricultural information.
e-Governance matures – Aadhaar and India Stack
With Aadhaar and India Stack, the Government has finally incorporated Digital in its DNA. With more than a billion people registered – Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric identity project. Launched in 2010, it is the ultimate example of IT technology joining hands with the government to radically change public service delivery.
The India Stack consists of digitized layers built on top of Aadhaar:e-KYC, eSign, Digital Locker and Unified Payment Interface. Together they create an end-to-end digital architecture that enables a paperless, cashless and presence less system. And the Government has made this user base of over a billion people available as an open API, enabling organizations and developers to innovate and build on the robust foundation of the India Stack.
Vision of Digital India
In 2015, the Government has laid out a clear vision for the digital future of India – to provide good governance that leads to inclusive growth, better jobs and access to services for all citizens. The Digital India Campaign, with a slew of policy initiatives, products and excellence centers, aims to fulfill this vision of making India truly Digital.
e-Governance has certainly come a long way since its inception, successful implementation of digital technologies has ensured, that the days of unending queues and unresponsive services are long gone. The next step is to move beyond providing services and become an instrument for good governance, transforming into a two-way channel of communication between the Government and its Citizens.
Watch the video below to see how Sify helps India Post, one of the oldest communications provider touching every part of the country, transform itself to a services centers while retaining the post and logistics.
Journey to a digital platform – 5 challenges businesses need to overcome
The IT industry is no stranger to digital disruption, over the last 3 decades, new trends and technological leaps have time and again changed the direction of the industry. The first wave in 1990s permanently transformed industries such as music, photography and video rental and the 2000s saw major disruption in industries like television, travel and recruitment. We now face the third wave of digital disruption, brought on by the huge amounts of rich data produced by social media and mobile technologies.
How quickly and efficiently businesses respond to this challenge, will determine whether they will be competitive and profitable in the coming decades.
Challenges of Digital Transformation
State of existing IT
Business need to know where they stand in terms of their IT readiness.For digitally mature organizations the change is manageable, but some businesses might have to restructure and invest more deeply to embrace the digital environment.
Change Management
The digital way of working is based on openness and creativity; it promotes a flatter and less controlled organization. Enterprises need to embrace and incorporate this into their work culture and existing workforce must be motivated to join this new work culture with an open mind.
Digital Employees
For a business to succeed in a digital world, it needs to be staffed with people who live digital and breathe data. To fully understand the digital experience offered to customers, managers have to be comfortable with the technology themselves.
Customer is the king
Customer experience must remain the primary focus while designing and implementing digital systems. How you want to engage and service your customer? What are the business models that you offer? These are some of the questions that will drive your ultimate digital goal.
Leadership
Clear vision and strong leadership are two vital factors for long term Digital Success. Digital transformation is a top down process and a focused leader with a clear, detailed roadmap will successfully lead the organization through its digital journey.
Transformation, digital or otherwise, is crafted and enacted by people. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the success of digital transformation lies more with employees, managers and other stakeholders rather than implementing technologies. The right people will enable organizations to deal with, not just this wave of digital disruption, but all future changes that come their way.
We are Sify and we transform businesses for a digital world like no other. With our SMAC network, global inter-cloud connectivity, agile IT and seamless access across platforms, we transform the way enterprises do businesses providing a unified customer experience.
Introducing new lower Credit prices for Skype users in India, exclusively on Sify!
Skype users can now buy credit to pay for international Mobile and landline calls starting at just Rs.30 onwards!
Chennai, November 01, 2016: Sify Technologies Limited (NASDAQ: SIFY), a leader in Managed Enterprise, Network, IT and Applications services in India with global delivery capabilities today announced that Sify.com will facilitate the introduction of 3 new India exclusive price-points for purchasing Skype Credit. These new price-points of Rs. 30, Rs. 60 and Rs. 120 will be available exclusively on the website of Sify at http://www.sify.com/skype. Skype Credit can be used to make calls from Skype in India to mobiles and landlines across the world.
Until now, Skype users in India could only buy Skype credit starting at Rs. 300. Now, Skype users can start from Rs. 30, providing further opportunities to utilize Skype for connecting with friends and family abroad.
Earlier this year, Skype partnered with Sify to introduce local payments through Debit Cards and Net Banking in addition to Credit Card options.
Commenting on the new Skype offerings, Mr. Kamal Nath, Chief Executive Officer, Sify Technologies Limited, said, Sify is looking to help Skype tailor its offerings to the Indian consumer. To this end, these new price-points help to bring Skype to a much broader consumer audience in India.
We are always looking to find ways to make it easier for Skype users in India to purchase Skype credit and subscriptions through our continued partnership with Sify. We are committed to ensuring that Skype is accessible and provides an easy way for users in India to connect with friends and family.” said Judd Harcombe, Head of Emerging Market Business Development at Skype.
About Skype
Skype has been enabling the world’s conversations for more than 10 years. Skype is used by more than 300 million people and businesses every month to make free video and voice calls, send files, video and instant messages and to share both special occasions and everyday moments with the people who matter most. Skype is available in 32 languages and is one of the fastest growing voice communications offerings worldwide, with users spending as many as 3 billion minutes on Skype in a single day. Visit www.skype.com for more details.
About Sify Technologies
Sify is among the largest integrated ICT Solutions and Services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common telecom data network infrastructure reaching more than 1300 cities and towns in India. This telecom network today connects 45 Data Centers across India including Sify’s 6 concurrently maintainable Data Centers across the cities of Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Enterprise Services, comprised of Telecom services, Data Center services, Cloud and Managed services, Applications Integration services and Technology Integration services. Sify also provides services that cater to the burgeoning demands of the SMB community, much of it on its Cloud services platform.
Sify is ISO 9001:2008 certified for Enterprise Sales, Provisioning, support and customer relationship management of ICT solutions and services including VPN, Network, Voice, Data Center hosting, Integration services, security services and managed services. Sify has been certified in ISO / IEC 20000 – 1:2011 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified for Internet Data Center operations. Sify has been certified in SSAE16 SOC2 Type II for Cloud Infrastructure and in TL 9000 for Enterprise Network Services, Network Integration Services including Design, Implementation and Support services. The latter certification is telecommunication industry’s quality system standard that expands the requirements of the International Standards Organization’s ISO 9000 quality management standard in use by industries worldwide. Sify has Unified License to operate NLD (National Long Distance), ILD (International Long Distance) services and ISP services and offers VoIP backhaul for international carriers. With the Sify Cable landing station and partnerships with submarine cable companies globally, Sify is present in almost all the spheres of the ICT eco system.
Sify has an expanding base of Managed Services customers, both in India and overseas, and is India’s first enterprise managed services provider to launch a Security Operations Center (SOC) to deliver managed security services. The software team develops applications and offers services to improve business efficiencies of its current and prospective client bases. Sify also offers services in the specialized domains of eLearning, both in India and globally. For more information about Sify, visit www.sifytechnologies.com
For further information, please contact:
Sify Technologies Limited
Mr. Praveen Krishna
Investor Relations & Public Relations
+91 44 22540777 (ext.2055)
