evaluation study by indian institute of management (iim) lucknow for the dms

8/11/2019 Evaluation Study by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow for the DMS

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Prof, Susfiif tlpm^argtahrwt Ptasqnfit

Professorn Operations ManagementIndian Institute of ManagementPrabandh Nagar, Off. Sitapur RoadLucknow 226 013Ph: +91 522-669 6634 (O)

+91 s22-669 6s46 (R)+919936244264 (Cell)

Email: [email protected]

lndian lnstitute of ManagementPrabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur Road,

Lucknow-226 0 13 (U. P.) INDIA

July 28,2014

To,

The DirectorMid Day Meal AuthorityUttar Pradesh

SUB: Submission of the Interim Report on Evaluation Study for the 'DailyMonitoring System' as implemented and operational in monitoring of theMid-Day Meal Scheme in Uttar Pradesh

Dear Ma'am,

We are submitting an interim report on the above stated work. The work is almost

over except for a couple of day's involvement. At this juncture we would like to have

your suggestions and comments which would help us to improve the work further.

Thank you

With best regards,

Yours Sincerely


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INTERIM REPORT

EVALUATION OF DAILY MONTTORING SYSTEM

IN THE MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME

IN UTTAR PRADESH

Submitted to

Mid-Day Meal Authorityo Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow

by

TNDIAN INSTITUTEOF MANAGEMENT

Prabandh Nagar, Off. Sitapur RoadLucknow -226 013

July 2013


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Evaluation of Meal Scheme

Interim Report on Evaluation of 6Daily Monitoring System,in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Uttar Pradesh

INDEX

1.0 IIM - Lucknow and the evaluation of the Daily Monitoring System 2

2.0 The Processes Adopted by IIML for the evaluation 3

3.0 The Findings of IIM Lucknow 5

4.0 Annexure-I (Terms of Reference for the Evaluation of the Daily 25Monitoring System )

5.0 Annexure-Il (Why Cloud Framework solutions and Information 28Technology Services Delivery based on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS (SPDmodel is the best model for the User Organisations

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1.0 IIM - Lucknow and the evaluation of the oDailv Monitorinq Svstem'

The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML) is an autonomous and premier instituteof management research and education in India. The IIML was the fourth of the IIMs to beestablished in India.

The IIML has been entrusted with the evaluation of the Daily Monitoring System , a novelinitiative of the Mid-day Meal Authority, Uttar Pradesh for day to day monitoring of the mid-day Meal Scheme implementation in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Daily Monitoring System(DMS) has been implemented by Uttar Pradesh Development Systems Corporation Ltd.(UPDESCO), the nodal Information Technology organisation of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The terms of reference for the evaluation of the Daily Monitoring System as assigned to IIMLare enclosed at Annexure-1.

The brief TOR (terms of reference) is reproduced below:

1. The role of Daily Monitoring System in effective monitoring of the Mid-day MealScheme.

2. The strengths and weaknesses of Daily Monitoring System with suggestions onmaking it more effective.Operationalisation/ work done under Daily Monitoring System in last three and halfyears by UPDESCO and how UPDESCO has performed in its responsibilities.How the agreement between the Mid-day Meal Authority, U.P. and UPDESCO hasworked in practice in view of terms and conditions of the contract between the twoparties.

How the Daily Monitoring System has resulted in enhancing the efficiency andeffectiveness of the implementation of the Mid-day Meal scheme in the State andthereby contributed in achieving the objectives of the scheme.

aJ.

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Interim nglgIL nglyg:tion of Daity Monitorlng System,,of Mid-Day Meat Scheme;.-_@

2.0 The Process Adopted by IIML for the evaluation

The brief processes that have been adopted by the IIML for the evaluation of Daily MonitoringSystem (DMS) are summarised below:

o The study of the proposed system as it was envisioned in the year 2010 as well as theactivities and efforts undertaken by the Mid-day Meal Authority and UPDESCO (theexecuting agency for the Daily Monitoring System to introduce this monitoringsystem in the Mid-day Meal Scheme).

o The Detailed Project Report and the proposal of UPDESCO (the govt. undertaking ofthe Uttar Pradesh Government) which implemented the project

o The contract signed between the Mid-day Meal Authority Uttar Pradesh and theUPDESCO.

o Demonstrations by the Mid-day Meal Authority team and UPDESCO team on differentaspects of the DMS. (UPDESCO also demonstrated proposed MEIP (Monitoring,Evaluation, Impact Assessment and Performance Management Cloud Framework)

o The detailed study of the online Daily Monitoring System with each of its component.The study includes the analytics of the data being collected on various aspects of theMid-day Meal Scheme including various offrcials involved in the process, andgeneration of appropriate alerts for effective remedial action taking.

o The discussions and interviews with team of UPDESCO involved with the project.o The discussions and interviews with the ofhcials at the Mid-day Meal Authority. Mid-

day

o The correspondence that took place between the Mid-day Meal Authority and theUPDESCO from the inception of the project till date.

o The discussions and interviews with school teachers and shiksha-mitras (the para-teaching staff at the schools)

o Interactions with Gram Pradhans (the elected heads of the Gram Panchayats (the localbody at the Gram Panchayat level) who are responsible for the operationalisation of the

Mid-day Meal Schemes at the grass-roots level.o Interactions with members of the School Management Committees (who comprise ofthe guardians of the students)

o Interactions with the cooks at the schools.o Interactions with the students (the final beneficiary of the Mid-day Meal Scheme) at

the schools.o Interactions with social activists and representatives of the schools.o Interactions with district level and block level officials of the Basic Shiksha Department

who have been posted in the districts.o The Mid-day Meal Coordinators and the computer operators at the district level (whohave been appointed by the mid-day Meal Authority, Uttar Pradesh) for help inmonitoring the Mid-day Meal scheme implementation at the district level.

o The submitted documents to various institutions for awards by the Mid-day MealAuthority and the awards won.

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o Taking into consideration the recent trends in Information TechnologiesTelecommunications and Service Delivery Models in India and abroad.

The IIML team has tried to cover all the stakeholders of the Mid-day Meal Scheme and the

stakeholders concemed with the DMS. The IIML team has covered most of the above forpreparation of the interim report and intends to cover all the above before the final report isdeveloped and submitted.

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Interim Report- Evaluation of Daily Monitori of Mid-Day MeaI Scheme

3.0 The Findinss of the IJM Lucknow Team

The findings on the Daily Monitoring System of the IIM Lucknow point towards a very good

initiative implemented in a unique way in conformance with international trends of usage ofCloud solutions.

The findings of IIML team are grouped with reference to the Terms of Reference of the studyin this chapter. The IIM team has slightly changed the sequence of the five terms of referencesto bring them in a logical order.

1. Terms of Reference Para 1:

The IIML team has thoroughly gone through the sequence of events beginning from a note onmonitoring by the Finance Controller Mr. Sudhanshu Tripathi (in 2007) leading to theimplementation of the DMS in the Mid-day Meal.

The role of the DMS in effective monitoring of the scheme can be understood once the volumeand coverage of the scheme is understood and the issues in effective monitoring of such ascheme

being implemented on such a wide scale throughout the large and often remotegeographical arca of the state of Uttar Pradesh is understood. The following few paragraphsprovide the IIML team's perspective on the The role of 'Daily Monitoring System' in effectivemonitoring of the Mid-day Meal Scheme.

A) The Need of a effective Monitoring Mechanism for the Mid-day Meal Scheme andIIML Team Observation:

The quantum of the scheme in terms of each of its parameters is huge, and it necessitatedintroduction of a good monitoring mechanism.

The scale of the operations of the Mid-day Meal Scheme is reproduced below for providingthe context and perspective to the requirement of a good monitoring mechanism.

Number of Schools :o 169,470 Schools

Number of Students enrolled :o 19824273 enrolled students

Number of students served Mid-day Meals (peak data as per DMS) :o 12218594 students served Mid-day Meals

4. The geographical area of the state of Uttar Pradesh over which the schools are distributed :. 243,286 square kilometers

1.

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5.

Evaluation of Daily Mon of Mid Meal Scheme

The number of administrative units relevant to the operationalisation of the Mid-day MealScheme in the state of Uttar Pradesh :

o Districts : 75. Blocks: 822

The financial outlay of the Mid-day Meal Scheme :. Rs. 1813 crore (Rs. 18.130 Billion)in Financial year 2013-20T4

The number of cooks deployed in the state :o 400578 in the Financial Year 2013-14

The issues being faced in the scheme implementation before the introduction of the DMS canbe appreciated once the conventional book-keeping and reporting structure before theintroduction of DMS are considered :

o Monthly basis of reportingo MDM register at school/ block/ district level for monthly physical & hnancialinformation:

o The schools hll up the number of students availing mid-day meal on daily basisin the school level MDM register. This number is taken from the attendanceregister;

I The data provided by schools is supposed to be compiled at the block level andfurther at the district level;

o The district office submits the district-wise data so compiled to the MDMA onmonthly basis on www.upmdm.org

o QPR (Quarterly Progress Reports) generated through the system

The issues in the earlier conventional system were :) Spatial problem: School-wise report not available at the district/ state level) Temporal problem: The time lag in data flow leading to

o Scope for data manipulationo Chances of excess physical/financial reportingo Delay in remedial actiono Efficacy of the system jeopardizedo Defaulting schools' info in next month only

) Monitoring Problem: Physical inspection presently based on random selection - not onexception basis

The Mid-day Meal Authority decided to implement a novel'6Daily Monitoring Systembased on Cloud Computing and Cloud Telephony to collect the number of children fedMid-day Meals (ie lunch) in each of the school

ona

day to day basis through IVRS callssent to the mobiles of the teachers and para-teaching staff of each of the school just afterlunch hours each day. The teachers / para-teaching staff would punch the number ofchildren fed Mid-day Meals on their mobile on that particular day in response to theIVRS call on their mobile phone.

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Interim Report- Evaluation of Daily Monitoring System of Mid-Day Meal Scheme

The philosophy behind the DMS can be summarized as:o Making School as the basic unit for information flow & monitoring rather than districto Real time data collection and MISo Bridging gaps in monitoring due to problems inherent in conventional system of

monthly/ quarterly reporting

These issues have been largely addressed by the implementation of the DMS since lstJune,20t0.The major challenges and their solutions in the introduction of DMS were:

o Challengeso How to 'pull' data from teachers?o How to ensure that for providing data through their own mobile, no expenses

are involved?o How to motivate teachers?r Sustainability through local & administrative supporto Intervention required for specific schools not serving MDM

o Solutionso Outbound Dialingo Online demo/ training conducted in all blockso Teachers association taken into confidenceo Decision taken to call up SMCs (School Management Committee). (The SMCs

consists of guardians of the students enrolled in the school)o Log-ins to Commissioners/ DMs/ BSAs & Alerts

Observation and Findings of IIML:

The need for effective monitoring mechanisms cannot be over emphasized for the Mid-dayMeal Scheme. The scale of operationalization of the Mid-day Meal Scheme in each of itsparameters is very large and the efficacy of the scheme implementation did demand very good

monitoring mechanisms.

Further the issues of very late information availability lead to possible manipulations in thedata and consequent financial misappropriation necessitated an effective monitoringmechanism to be put in place. There was no method by which timely alerts on issues inimplementation of the Mid-day Meals in schools could be made available to the officials foreffective action taking. The introduction of the DMS solved these issues, and helped in betterimplementation of the Mid-day Meal Scheme.

In general, the monitoring mechanism should be based on real time and near real time datacollection from the source of data generation. Further, the monitoring mechanisms shouldprovide proper analytics and for knowing the state of the scheme implementation. Themonitoring mechanism should also generate timely alerts for effective remedial actions to theconcerned offrcials.

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The DMS which is a real time /near real-time monitoring system helped solve these problemsin a very successful manner.

2. Terms of Reference Para 5 : How the 'Daily Monitoring System' has resulted in enhancing the efficiency andeffectiveness of the implementation of the Mid-day Meal scheme in the State andthereby contributed in achieving the obiectives of the scheme.

The findings of the IIML team with regard to this terms of reference are provided as follows:

A) The impact of the introduction of DMS:

The IIML team acknowledges the substantial impact due to the introduction of the DMSfor monitoring and managing the Mid-day Meal Scheme in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The positive impact due to the DMS in the Mid-day Meal Scheme can be summarised as:

o Substantial Reduction in schools where Mid-day Meals were not getting served.o This has been made possible by immediate dataavailability to officials at various levels

who are then able to follow-up with relevant authorities timely.o Psychological deterrent of real time monitoring has put immense pressure on schools

to prepare and serve Mid-day Meals

o Reduction in leakageso This has been made possible by the comprehensive training and sensitization of

personnel conducted for the DMS whereby it was shown that the data given by anyteacher / shiksha-mitra is immediately available on Intemet for senior offrcials, andhence any surprise inspection can take place in less than an hour based on the dataprovided. This knowledge for a psychological barrier to give wrong data, and has beenresponsible for eliciting correct information from school personnel.

o Substuntial Datufor planning is now available

The fanctionality of DMS has been Extended to Funds and Food-grains Distribationandthis hus ulso helped in better implementation of the Mid-day Meol Schemeo Information delivery to school authorities on disbursement of funds and food grains

from districts is being done through DMS.This has enabled the school authorities to proactively follow up if funds and food grains

do not reach them as they now know when the release happened from district level.

o Monitoring and Collection of Very Important information from schools in addition tothe Mid-day Meal Schemeo Dress Distribution Monitoring

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o TextbooksDistributionMonitoringo Medium of cooking (Cooking Gas or Wood)o Number of Gas Cylinders used in the schools where Cooking Gas is used

oNumber of working Handpumps and Faucets for drinking water (in selected districts)

The DMS has provided a solid platfurmfor delivering important information to schoolauthorities in least amount of time, und it can be known whether they anderstood theinformationo Important Information can be relayed to school authorities in a single day in the whole

state of Uttar Pradesh.What is of particular importance is that feedback can immediately be taken on whetherthe particular school authority (teacher / shiksha-mitra) understood the informationrelayed.

o Unicef wanted to spread the message / recommendation of handwashing with soapbefore meal taking by the students to all school authorities. It could be accomplishedwith DMS easily, and the message reached to all school authorities in Uttar Pradesh.Unicef also took feedback on the number of children who did wash their hands withsoap after the message was relayed to school authorities 4 days later.

Providing a platformfor Voice to the school personnel and Creation of an eco-system ofsupport to them

o The DMS has initiated a process for providing a platform to the school personnel wherethey can voice their concems and have issues resolved. The call center and the relatedsoftware systems have facilitated feedback collection and issue solving.These systems and processes can be further enhanced in the form of 'Teacher SupportSystem'.

Successful Demonstration of a Unique and Novel method of Monitoring Schemeimplementations in far and geographically spreatl sreas involving large number ofpersonnel which can be replicated across schemes and sectors.o The DMS allowed for improving Mid-day Meal Scheme implementation in Uttar

Pradesh and provides for a model which can be replicated across schemes andsectors. Based on the success of the DMS in Mid-day Meal Scheme the stategovernment has implemented a similar Daily Monitoring System in the ICDS

' scheme.

Terms of Reference Para 3:

Operationalisation/ work done under oDaily Monitoring System' in last three andhalf vears bv UPDESQO and how UPDESCO has qerformed in its responsibilities.o'

The following few paragraphs provide the details with respect to this terms of reference:

3.

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lnterim Report- Evaluation of Daily Monitoring System of Mid-Day Meal Scheme

A) The Daily Monitoring System us the solution implementedfor the monitoring of the Mid-day Meal Scheme:

The Mid-dayMeal Authority, Uttar Pradesh decided to implement the Daily MonitoringSystem proposed by the UPDESCO on SPI Model (Software as a Service (SaaS), PaaS

(Platform as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)).

The DMS is based on a Cloud Computing framework and platform for data collection fromremote locations using cloud telephony, IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) and textto speech. The DMS pushes more than 300,000 telephone calls in vemacular language (usingHindi text to speech) per day in a span of few hours to collect the data on the children fed Mid-dayMeals from around 169,000 schools in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The calls are sent to themobiles of the teachers and par-teaching staff of the schools. The DMS also collects theenrolment data of the children in each of the 169,000 schools per month through IVRS calls

sent to the mobiles of the teaching and para-teaching staff in the schools. The enrolment datais used as a baseline to assess on what is the percentage of school children who are getting theMid-day Meals on a day to day basis. The DMS is real time lnear real time data collection,analytics and alerts generation Management Information / Decision Support System. The IVRS

telephony calls to the mobiles of the teachers and para-teaching staff are sent as soon as thelunch hours are over in the schools, and the data collection on the number of children whoreceived hot cooked Mid-day Meals (i.e., lunch) is collected from almost all the 169,000schools in a few hours. This data gets collected on each day when the schools are open.

Thereafter, the system runs analytics and generates alerts to officials concemed about theschools which did not disburse the Mid-day Meals on a particular day (teachers from suchschools would have punched 0 on their mobiles in response to the IVRS calls sent by the DMS

to their mobiles). The DMS provides access to more than 920 officials spread throughout the

state of Uttar Pradesh. Each official gets to view analytics dashboards and other relevant datafor the schools falling under his jurisdiction. The functionality of the DMS has been expanded

to cover the planning of release of funds (called conversion cost) and food-grains to schools at

the district level. The alert messages sentto schools (to teachers of the schools on their mobiles

through SMS) as soon as the districts release funds and food-grains to the schools. These alerts

help the teachers and Gram Pradhans get the funds released from the banks and collect food-

grains from Public Distribution Shops (the delivery centers for the food-grains allocated) in a

timely manner.

B) Components of the'Daily Monitoring System'of UPDESCO as the solution implemented

for the monitoring of the Mid-day Meal Scheme:

This DMS framework and platform of UPDESCO is based on many management concepts and

the coordinated deployment of a set of unique and complex technologies whichinclude

amongst other things:

. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)o New processes introduced for Missed Call System

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o New processes introduced for completing Information loop with schools (makingavailable to them information received through the system)

oNew processes introduced for School definition for categorizingit under constructionetc.

o New process introduced for Enrolment collection through the system. Unique SPI model of service delivery ( SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a

Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service))o State of the art infrastructure (Tier III Datacenter)o A comprehensive Enterprise Data Management Framework in the Cloudo Cloud Computing. Cloud Telephony Stackso Telephony Cluster Infrastucture with capacity to send million callso Hindi Text to Speecho IVRS (Interactive Voice Response) Management Frameworko Sound Recording Studioo CRM Call Center Management Systemo Cloud Computing based Analyics and Decision Support Framework and Platformo Firewall and Intrusion Detection Systemo VoIP (Voice over IP) enabled Call Center (which supports both inbound and outbound

calls). SMS gateways integrationo Email Gateways integration etc.o An application layer customised for Mid-day Meal provides the analyics and data

monitoring in an intuitive manner to decision makers at the state level (Mid-day MealAuthority, Sarv Skhiksha Abhiyaan), at the Divisional level (Mid-day Meal Coordinators)at the District Level (District Magistrate, BSA, Mid-day Meal Coordinator), at the Blocklevel (BEOs / BRCs).

r Trained Call Center Executiveo Continuous Operation, Maintenance, Upgradation and Enhancements by a highly capabletechnical and managerial team

. Day to Day technical and managerial monitoring of the DMS solution by senior membersof UPDESCO

C) Operationalisation of the 'Daily Monitoring System' of UPDESCO as the solutionimplementedfor the monitoring of the Mid-day Meul Scheme:

The details have been provided by the UPDESCO and the Mid-day Meal Authority officialson how the DMS was implemented from April 1st, 2010 till date:

o The details of the schools and the staff deputed in the schools (names, designations andmobile numbers of teachers / shiksha-mitras) initially provided by the districts werecollated and digitised by the Mid-day Meal Authority and UPDESCO

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This huge database creation was completed in a few weeks in April with extensivemanpower deployed for checking and re-checking the details.This database was utilised during the huge capacity building and training workshopsconducted at block level by UPDESCO. The names of teachers were used to conduct calls

on theme with their names being spoken using Text to Speech technologies. This broughtthe element of surprise and fun for the teachers and shiksa-mitras and made the capacitybuilding and training exercise interesting for themThe operationlisation involved a thorough training and capacity building exercise.o Training and Capacity Building was conducted during April, May and June, 2010 in

around 9I2 locations covering most of the personnel concerned with theimplementation of the Mid-day Meal (teachers, shiksha-mitras and basic educationofficials)

o IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) content was developed for trainingthe teachers and shiksha-mitras.

o Handy booklets which can be easily stored in pockets were developed. The bookletswere laminated to protect them from water and wear and tear.

The details of the teachers, shiksha-mitras and their names and designations were againcollected during the Capacity Building and Training exercise. This data collected wascollated and digitised, and matched with the prq-existing data, and necessary correctionswere carried out.

Calls were placed using the Cloud Telephony Clusters (part of the system) to verify thedetails available in the system (whether the name, designation and the posting detail i.e. thename of the school, etc.) were correct or not. In case of incorrect data, manual calling wasconducted to the people reporting that their data was incorrect. Access was provided to thedistrict authorities in the Basic Shiksha department / directorate and the Mid-day Meal staffdeployed in the districts to correct the details available in the system.

The data on enrolment and the number of children being provided Mid-day Meals startedto flow in from the third month of the project. The first six months were also devoted to thehuge exercise ofcorrecting and re-correcting the data.

UPDESCO met the data expectations of the Meal Authority as provided in the contract forthe first six months of the contract.UPDESCO had met the data expectations of the Mid-day Meal Authority as provided inthe contract for the 0-6 months, 7- 1 8 months, 1 9-3 Oth months and 3 1 st to 42nd months ofoperations of the project.

The system has been working satisfactorily for close to four years and three months.The initial contract period of three and half years expired on September 30th,2013.However the contract was extended by one year i.e., up to September 30,2014There were several large delays in the payments being made to UPDESCO from the Mid-day Meal Authority. Despite that the system has seen downtime ofjust one day during thefirst three and half years of operation, that too due to funds crisis with UPDESCO in viewof payments having not been released to UPDESCO. This is a remarkable achievement by

the service provider UPDESCO. There have been several days of downtime during January,

a

o

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-a,Interim Report- Evaluation of Daily Monitoring System of Mid-Day MeaI Scheme

2014 which was again attributable to firnds crisis with UPDESCO in view of paymentshaving not been released to UPDESCO by the Mid-day Meal Authority.While going through the correspondence between the Mid-day Meal Authority and

UPDESCO a clear view emerges that the direction and fate of the project has dependedupon the leadership in the Mid-day Meal Authority with variance detectable on this count.This indicates a potential threat to the DMS from the perceptions of the leaders the Mid-day Meal Authority, Uttar Pradesh as the leadership changes in the Mid-day MealAuthority, Uttar Pradesh and perhaps at UPDESCO.The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India picked up interest in theproject in 2010 itself, and over a period of years decided to implement similar project forthe whole of India. The IIML team has gone through the two public attempts of tenderingby the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Gort. of India (GoI) duringpast three years and notes the faihue of such attempt. the IIML team has gone through thedocuments floated for the RFP for the same by Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India and wouldlike to bring several issues in their attempt to replicate the system throughout India whiledeciding it centrally :o The DMS from UPDESCO has gone through enhancements over the past few years

which would be extremely difficult to match by any new service provider as attemptedby the RFP of MHRD

o The scope of the RFP by MHRD broke the project into project portion to be handledby the service provider and project portion to be handled by NIC.

o The IIML team has gone through the existing MIS system developed by NIC and notesthat it lacks finesses as opposed to the DMS from UPDESCO.

o The spirit of DMS could not be captured in the said RFP, and it is worthwhile to notethat the original implementation of DMS as modified and enhanced over the years isvery difficult to be copied.

o It would have been better that the DMS from UPDESCO would have been given a tryby the MHRD in other states.

o Local changes in processes and local owning up of the system has to be an integral partof any large scale MIS (Management Information System) - DSS (Decision SupportSystem) roll-out. The DMS in Uttar Pradesh was rolled out successfully as the thenmanagement team at the Mid-day Meal Authority won the confidence of the teachers'unions by calling their leaders and explaining them the concept and the benefitsaccruing to all the stakeholders because of the proposed DMS implementations.

It has.been brought to the knowledge of the IIML team that the DMS has been replicatedin the ICDS Scheme for day to day monitoring of the hot cooked food delivery to childrenin 3-6 years age group by the state govemment which is a positive step.

D) Innovations in DMS:

The DMS consists of numerous innovations which need to be put in perspective.

o A Paradigm shift in Reporting System

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- Interim Report- Evaluation of Daily Monitoring System of Mid-Day Meal Scheme

IVRS technology used for the first time in the world at such a large scale for datacollection and MIS instead of information dissemination

o Hallmark of the New Tool: Process InnovationRemoves time-lag in data-flowMonitoring based on Exception reports rather than Random selectionQuick & Pointed Remedial actionData manipulation done away withData'pull' vis-d-vis data'push'

o Teacher not to spend a single paisa/ No mobile phones required to be given to teacherso Completelyoutsourced. Complete risk passed on to the Service Provider (UPDESCO). Pay per data instead of pay per call (clearly identifiable unit of payment)o No investment for hardware, software, maintenance, etc. (SPI Model of Information

Technology services delivery), i.e. no CAPEX, and freedom from technologicalobsolescence

. Training, call centers are also responsibile of the service provider /

. Very Fast roll-out due to selection of Cloud Computing based solution (2 months)

. System of repeat calls/ reminder SMS/ calling other teachers of the school/ call escalationo Auto Alert generation through SMS on daily basis to BSA, DMs & MDMA for defaulting

schools not serving meals; auto mails to DMs

o Summary ofimportant Analytics Dashboards to District Magistrates sent through

E-Mailand SMSo User of Info controlling the information flow instead of sendero Direct & instant info mechanism from grass-root to the State without intermediate levelso Transparency & neatness of data resulting into truthful informationo GOI can directly monitor without any reports from State Govt.o From Info-paucity to Info-wealtho Objective inputs for Policy Makingo Simple/ Feasible/ Scalable/ Replicable

The IIML team positively acknowledges and appreciates the stream of innovations introducedin the DMS. The IIML team also recommends for implementation of the DMS in monitoringof other schemes and departments in the government.

IIML Team Observations and Suggestions:It is the view of the IIML team that the UPDESCO's performance during the projectperiod can be termed as excellent and remarkable despite several large delays in

payments being released to UPDESCO by the Mid-day Meal Authority. The IIMLteam records its appreciation for the numerous innovations brought by UPDESCO inits DMS solution along with the appreciation for the Mid-day Meal Authority teamwhich conceputalised and oversaw the successful roll-out of the DMS in monitoringof the Mid-day Meal Scheme and was responsible for the suggestions which resultedin continuous enhancements in the DMS over the past years.

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There are clear and discernible advantages accruing to the Mid-day Meal SchemeImplementation, and hence to the Mid-day Meal Scheme through the successful operationsof the DMS.

IIML team wishes to place it on record that for any project to be successful, the project hasto be treated like a partnership by the user organisation as well as the service provider. Theusual bureaucratic approach and treating the DMS project as a 'vendor' project would harmthe interests of the Mid-day Meal Scheme and its effective monitoring, and thereby itseffective implementation in the state of Uttar Pradesh. We came to know that the delays onpayments to UPDESCO virtually closed the project during the very first year of operations.Thereafter also, the delays in payments derailed the project in January, 2014.

We hope that this report would be able to remove any apprehensions and clear any doubtswhatsoever about the efficacy of the DMS. With a positive mindset and approach of theauthorities at the helm of affairs in the Mid-day Meal Authority and Basic ShikshaDepartment, DMS would continue to be a successful operation substantially benefitting theMid-day Meal Scheme implementation in the state of Uttar Pradesh).

IIML team strongly recommends that the DMS project be given a longer time-horizonand should be renewed for at least five years and the payments to the service provider

must be released timely as the DMS provides a solid monitoring mechanism foreffective implementation of the Mid-day Meal Scheme in the state of Uttar Pradesh.Even if the MHRD, GOI goes in for another try for roll-out of a similar project on a pan-India basis (despite the two failures in the both its two attempts in past three years) werecommend that the state of Uttar Pradesh should first opt out of such roll-out clearlyinforming the MHRD, GoI that the DMS in Uttar Pradesh is running successfully for thepast several years; and being a pioneer, the DMS in Uttar Pradesh should be used as abenchmark and referral implementation for other states rather than the current DMS beingsubsumed and phased out for a newer and untried system.

The IIML team positively acknowledges and appreciates the stream of innovationsintroduced in the DMS and the innovations which have been thought of, and are nowpart of documents of the Mid-day Meal Authorify and UPDESCO. The need is to roll-out these innovations. We have discussed these as part of our recommendations forthe Terms of reference para 2'. The strengths and weaknesses of 'Daily MonitoringSystem' with suggestions on making it more effective . The IIML team alsorecommends for the implementation of the DMS in monitoring of other schemes anddepartments in the government.

4, Terms of Reference Para 3: How the aereement between the Mid-dav Meal Authority. U.P. and UPDESCO hasworked in practice in view of terms and conditions of the contract between the twoparties

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The contract between the Mid-day Meal Authority and UPDESCO has been thoroughly readby the IIML team and discussed with the Mid-day Meal team and UPDESCO officials.

The basic theme of the contract is that it is based on the concepts of Information TechnologyServices delivery on the Software as a Service model with payments being made to the serviceprovider on per transaction basis.The contract is based on the UPDESCO's proposal for the pre-existing Daily MonitoringSystem on Software As A Service basis, and the DPR prepared by the Mid-day Meal Authorityfor the customization of this pre-existing Daily Monitoring System to the needs of themonitoring of the Mid-day Meal Scheme subsequent to the demonstration of the working Daily Monitoring System as available with UPDESCO to the Mid-day Meal Officials.

UPDESCO provided the IIML team a document titled Why Cloud Framework solutions andInformation Technology Services Delivery based on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS (SPl model is thebest modelfor the User Organisations which is annexed to this interim report which providessummary insights into the benefits and advantages of Cloud solutions on SPI model of servicesdelivery.

This document discusses in brief the various concepts related to the SPI model, and theadvantages of the SPI model and Cloud computing based solutions. The features and theadvantages of the SPI model are reproduced below:Features Advantages to the User Organisations from the SPI Model of IT services:

a. No CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) on hardwale, software, equipments required fromUser Organisation except regular PCs or tablets.

b. No requirement of technical personnel managing the solution from the UserOrganisation

c; Freedom from technological obsolescenced. Availability of complex solutions in a readymade form, i.e., little time required for

rolling-out solutions for immediate retums to the User Organsations.

e. Multi-Tenancy inherent in this model allows for the improvements brought to a specificSPI model Cloud computing solution by the service provider (e.g., from the learningfrom one User Organisation) to immediately benefit all user organisations using thesame cloud based solution on SPI model

f. IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) and all rights of the solution rests with the serviceprovider and data remains the property of the user organisation. This allows the serviceprovider large incentives to bring continuous improvements without any fear of losingcontrol on the IPR or the solution while at the same time protecting the UserOrganisation by providing easy exit routes if the specific solution is not workingsatisfactorily.

g. This model, with payments being based on subscriptions and/or transactions literallyforces the service provider to make continuous improvements to the offered solution soas to make the interests ofthe User Organisation continuously alive in using, and hencepaying for that specific solution.

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Observations and Findines of IIML:

The IIML team positively acknowledgespayment model of the 'Daily Monitoringdelivery of a Cloud computing solutiontransaction is uniquely quantifiable, anddelivered.

and appreciates the delivery model and theSystem' which is the SPI model of service

and payments based on per transaction. Aleads to transparent pricing of the service

It is of relevance to note the world-wide trends in Information Technology sector. Theyaretowards buying of software services rather than the software and the hardware. Thetechnological breakthroughs in terms of large datacenters and development of specializedplatforms for enterprise computing and Cloud computing with intemet and bandwidth beingavailable have allowed the delivery of software systems through browsers which are chargedon subscription basis (per user per month) and / or transaction basis.

We see these trends emerging in reaching out even to a stand-alone individual customer by oneof the most popular organizations like Microsoft. It is worthwhile to acknowledge some of theworldwide successes in various sectors for Cloud computing based SPI service delivery whichare noted below as a ready reference:

1. Customer Relationship Management, Marketing and Sales Force Automation:

o Salesforce.com: Salesforce.com is a huge success. With revenues approaching 4 billionUS Dollars the company is valued around 25 billion US dollars.Its most successful CRM and Sales Cloud solution is priced at25-300 US Dollars per

user per month (billed annually)2. Customer Service Management :

. Zendesk: Used by more than 40,000 companies all over the world today. It chargesbetween USD 25 per user per month to USD 195 per user per month (billed annually)

o Uservoice: Used by more than 160,000 orgartizations in 170 countries.Its price is between 20 USD to 95 USD per user per month

o Service Cloud of Salesforce.com: It has a revenue of more than USD 600 million perannum. The pricing is between USD 65 per user per month to USD 300 per user per

month (billed annually)3. Contact.Center Management

o LiveOps: Liveops has a revenue of more than I20 million USD. It prices its productsfrom USD 95 to USD 190 per user per month.

4. Human Capital Management (Human Resource Management)

. Successfactors: SAP has purchased SuccessFactors in view ofits success. The Pricing

is USD 895 per annum for 5 users.. Workday: Workday recently went in for its IPO and is currently valued at USD 9

Billion.5. Project Management

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and para-teaching staff cooperating in providing the datato the DMS through their ownmobile phones. The sensitizationhas also worked in that the teaching and para-teachingstaff also put pressure on the Gram Pradhans (the elected representatives of the localbody, the Gram Panchayat) for proper operationlisation of the Mid-day Meal Scheme.

The system of keeping the teachers and para-teaching staff in the loop on what thesystem has recorded has worked. This has instilled confidence in the teachers that thesystem does record the same data which has been provided by them, and the systemdoes record the data that they provide on a daily basis. This also brings transparencyinto the working of the monitoring mechanism deployed (i.e., the DMS).

The System of data changes into the system through Missed Calls has worked. This hasallowed the teachers and the para-teaching staff, the necessary convenience of havingtheir mobile number changed into the system easily.The dual verification (verification from self and then through a peer in the same schoolor a superior in the same school or a superior official) after getting the changed mobilenumber through missed calls is a very effective process for preventing wrong mobilenumber to be included into the system.

The system of monitoring of logins (who logged in when and who did not login) haspressured the officials to log into the system.

The SPI model of service delivery and the payment on per data collected has worked.The continuous changes and enhancements into the system, since its inception has been

primarily to the SPI model of service delivery where the service provider had theincentive to continuously enhance the system to make it relevant and usable for theeffective monitoring of the Mid-day Meal Scheme.

The incentivisation for the rates per data collected if the data percentage is above 90o/ohas worked.

This has ensured that UPDESCO has tried hard to keep the system up and running andusing various methods for sensitising and coaxing teachers I para-teaching staff to givedata on adaily basis to the DMS

. The Call center with human agents and use of a toll free number for the call center hasworked.This has provided a human touch to the overall monitoring mechanism introducedthrough DMS. The toll free number has ensured that teachers and para-teaching staffdoes not hesitate in calling the call center.

What could be improved (related to DMS):o The numbers of schools reported to the Mid-day Meal Authority, Uttar Pradesh by

district officials are higher than the number of schools in the DMS.

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o The call center is a vital part of the whole system, and the CRM system being usedcurrently by UPDESCO is good. The CRM system had a direct linkage with CloudContact Center, and as soon as the call lands the agent knows who is calling.However the Call Center gets flooded with calls especially in the start of the academicseason as many teachers get retired and the postings of the teachers also change.UPDESCO is currently working with 15-17 call center agents.

Recommendation:The number of agents in the call center should be increased specially in the first fewmonths of the academic session. This is especially true for the months of July, August,September when large number of teachers join their new postings after the transfers andlarge number of teachers have retired.

The effect of the initial large scale training and sensitization workshops at block levelconducted by UPDESCO team is one of the main reasons behind the success of theDMS. The real life demonstration of the technology, its simplicity in usage and the factthat the moment the concemed teacher / shiksha-mitra provides the required databypunching the digits on his mobile phone, the data is immediately available for higher-ups to see in the DMS on internet definitely created the psychological barier againstdeliberate / false reporting.

oEgggmmendation:_o Sensitization is a continuous process and requires repeated hammering in

diverse ways to keep the novelty and the interests of the concerned alive. IIMLsuggests that the Sensitization and feedback workshops should be conductedfor the schools staff for both the older staff as well as the new hires in aninteractive manner. These workshops can be used for information disseminationon other important aspects of the Mid-day Meal and education sector,dovetailing other initiatives etc.

What needs to be done further (in addition to the DMS and its current functionalities):The data collection for the day to day monitoring has been based on primarily one performanceindicator which is the number of children fed Mid-day Meals on a specific day in a particularschool.

There is a need for introduction of further monitoring as well as introduction of enablingprocesses and systems:

1. Monitoring of the quality and quantity of the Mid-day MealsThe Mid-day Meals being served should be monitored for the quality and quantity of themeals being served to the children.

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2. Involving the members of the School Management Committees into the monitoring loopThe SMC members are chosen from the guardians of the students enrolled in the school,and hence, it is in their vested interests that the schools deliver quality Mid-day Meals totheir wards studying in the school. If the DMS succeeds in coopting these guardians then itwould have salubrious effect on the regularity of delivery of the Mid-day Meals as well ason the quality and quantity of the meals being delivered to the children.

3. The elected representatives (Gram Pradhans) should also be brought into the monitoringloopThey can be informed through SMS if a school under their jurisdiction did not serve Mid-day Meals on a particular day.

4. The data of the DMS can be made availablefor public viewingThis would enable the NGOs, social activists and local villagers to effectively monitor theMid-day Meal Scheme.

5. The system should be extended to monitor the remuneration of the cooksThe cooks are a vital resource for the Mid-day Meal Scheme. The honorarium released tothem should be monitored effectively to incentivize them for cooking quality foods.

6. A comprehensive feedbuck, suggestion antl grievance monito,ring system shouhl be

implemented

7. A knowledgebase of best practices, processes and innovations adopted by other districtsshould be implemented

8. Capucity Building and Training of Cooks as well as teuching and para-teaching stuff oncleanliness, tlisaster management (in view of the poisoning incident in the Mid-day Mealin the state of Bihar), cooking better quality food, etc.Web based training system comprising of Videos and expert video conferencing can help

in this regard.

g. A related suggestion forfurther improving scheme implementution :Management techniques for monitoring based on KPI (Key perfornance Indicators),Balanced Scorecard, Strategy Maps leading to performance measurement and relatedenabling systems like Work Execution / Project Management Cloud platforms could beintroduced. The remedial action taking can be recorded into the Work Execution Platform

by the concerned officials based on tasks assigned to them.

We were demonstrated a system Monitoring, Evaluation, Impact assessment andPerformance Monitoring by the Mid-day Meal Officials and UPDESCO which is beingplanned for introduction into the monitoring of the Mid-day Meal and other educationschemes like the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, Right to Education etc. .

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This MEIP system once introducedwould complement the DMS and couldbe game changer

in scheme implementation in the state of Uttar Pradesh

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-


ANNEXURE-I

Terms of Reference for a study of the Daily Monitoring Systemof Mid-day Meal Scheme in Uttar Pradesh

Background

Mid-day Meal Scheme:The Mid-day Meal Scheme is an ambitious scheme which provides free hot cooked

lunches to the children studying in the primary and upper primary schools (Government,Government Aided and Local bodies), National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools,EGS/AIE centres and Madrasas and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in thewhole of the country. It is the largest programme of its kind in the world. It targets around104.4 million students (10.44 crore students) enrolled in more than 12lakh primary and upperprimary schools and other covered schools in the country.

Mid-day Meal Authority, Uttar Pradesh,and the Micl-dav Meal Sqheme Onerationlisationin fhe state qf-Ujtar llr?desh:

Each state has its own mechanism of implementing Mid-day Meal scheme. In UttarPradesh a society called Mid-day Meal Authority has been constituted to oversee theimplementation of Mid-day Meal Scheme in the state as well as monitoring of theimplementation. It has a governing body which is headed by the Chief Secretary of the Stateas the Chairman. The Secretary of Basic Shiksha Department is the Vice-Chairman of thesociety. The day to day functioning of the society is handled by the Director, Mid-day MealSociety who is inturn is assisted by ateam of officers from Finance and Education departments.

Littar Fradesh Svsterns Developrnent Corporation Ltd. (LIPDESCO):Uttar Pradesh Systems Development Corporation (UPDESCO) is the nodal Information

Technology organisation of the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is a government undertaking of theGovt. of Uttar Pradesh and has been constituted a company under the Companies Act, 1956.The mandate of UPDESCO is to help govemment entities in Uttar Pradesh gainfully utilise theInformation and Communication Technologies while generating revenues for itself.UPDESCO helps other state government entities as well as Central Government entities also.

'l'he Monitoring of the l\{id-dav Meal Scheme an,t,I the Daily Monitoring System

A programme of such a large scale and magnitude like the Mid-day Meal Schemerequires close monitoring for effective implementation of the scheme. The system of reviewand monitoring was earlier manual in nature and it involved significant time lag leaving scopefor manipulation/ distortion of the information. Also, there was an absence of detailed and

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-

exception reports required by the State to help find reasons of shortcomings in schemeimplementation and timely resolving the same.

To address the gaps in the prevalent manual monitoring system and ensure real timemonitoring of Mid-day Meal Scheme, the Mid-day Meal Authority decided to monitor thescheme implementation on real time I near real time basis.

The UPDESCO came up with its Cloud computing and Cloud Telephony based DailyMonitoring System solution on SIP Model (Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as aService (IaaS)) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), which could be rolled out immediately in thewhole of State. The Mid-day Meal Authority decided to implement this system from April 1st,2010 in the state of Uttar Pradesh after signing a contract with upDESCo.

The Daily Monitoring System is a Decision Support System and ManagementInformation System with analytics built-in with many innovative processes for effectiv e datacollection in real time / near real time from personnel located in widely dispersed geographicand remote areas using cloud telepony. This system involves daily data collection on numberof children served hot cooked meals through Pull Method of information collection. Theinformation is collected through cloud telephony based calls (around three lakh calls daily) onthe personal mobile phones of the teachers and para-teaching staff of the schools which asksthe concerned teacher I para-teaching staff to provide the data by punching in the keys of his

mobile phone. This system has been collecting more than 90-92% data from the schools on adaily basis currently.

The Daily Monitoring System has won seven national and intemational awards tilldate including Gold in the National e-Governance Awards, 2012 from Govt. of India andNASSCOM and UNICEF awards. This system has won wide acclaim and praise across Indiaand across different fora including media. In view of the success of this project the Gor,'t. ofIndia has decided to roll-out similar system in all the states in India for effective monitoring ofthe Mid-day Meal Scheme. The state govemment of Uttar Pradesh also decided to replicate the

Daily Monitoring System in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme forreal time monitoring of disbursal of hot cooked meals to children (in 3-6 years age group)enrolled in around 1,88,000 Anganwadi / mini-Anganwadi centers in the whole of the state.

Study oJ thg Daily Vlcnitoring SystemThe Mid-day Meal Authority intends to get a study done on this novel project

implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The study would be geared towards variousinnovations taken under the scheme and the work done under the project. Accordingly, thescope of the study would cover

l. The role of Daily Monitoring System in effective monitoring of the Mid-day MealScheme.

2. The strengths and weaknesses of Daily Monitoring System with suggestions onmaking it more effective,

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3. Operationalisation/ work done under Daily Monitoring System in last three and halfyears by UPDESCO and how UPDESCO hasperformed in its responsibilities.

4. How the agreement between the Mid-day Meal Authority, U.P. and UPDESCO hasworked in practice in view of terms and conditions of the contract between the twoparties.

5. How the Daily Monitoring System has resuhed in enhancing the efficiency andeffectiveness of the implementation of the Mid-day Meal scheme in the State andthereby contributed in achieving the objectives of the scheme.

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- Evqluation Daily Moni stem of Mid Meal Scheme

ANNEXURE.II

A Note onwhy is the Cloud Framework solutions and Information Technology Services Deliverybased on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS (SPD model the best model for the user organisations

The Information Technology systems service the informational and analysis requirements ofits users. The quality IT system enables its users to gain insights into their workingenvironments and equips them with right information and sharp analytics to help them takedecisions and discharge their responsibilities efficiently, effectively and timely. In todays, fastchanging world and the society, the only constant is Change . Newer technological andprocess are emerging regularly which change the environs of the users of IT systems therebyresulting into continuously changing informational and analysis requirements of users of theIT systems.

The IT systems are precise and are sensitive to changes in its environment. Software being thecontrolling part (brain) of the IT systems is even more sensitive to changes. The continuously

changing informational and analysis needs of the users require a continuous changing andevolving IT systems to enable the users of the IT system perform their roles and shoulder theirresponsibilities efficiently and effectively. Hence the software and the IT systems (hardwareetc.) require continuous changes and enhancements to not only service the changinginformational and analytical needs of the users of the IT systems but to remain useful theseneed to adapt to the changes in the technologic al arena (e.g. newer operating systems, databases

, database management paradigms etc.). The IT systems including software continuouslyrequire lifecycle management. In large IT systems, even a small change in software requireslarge efforts to ensure that the working of the IT systems do not get perturbed by the smallchange introduced. The SPI model of software services recognizes this basic tenet ofcontinuous change in IT systems a basic fact and provides the users of the lT systems aneffective and simple model of using the Informational and Analytical services resulting from a

well-designed and well maintained IT systems without worrying about the underlyingcomplexities in design, operation and maintenance.

The SPI model recognizes that keeping track of software compatibility, malware updates,application patches, license management and everything else that goes with owning software

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is troublesome and costly and insulates the users ofthe IT systems from worry and management

of such nitty-gritty.

The SPI model is collectively based on Saas (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as aService), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The XaaS model is 'Anything and Everything' as

a Service. SPI model and XaaS model have become possible due to rise of a set of web coupled

technologies often termed as Web 2.0 and the latest Web 3.0, rise of processing powers ofspecialized server components and availability of large datacenters (eg. AmazonWeb Services

(AWS) Platform and Datacenters).

In the SaaS / PaaS model the client does not have to invest into costly IT infrastructure and the

regular computers already deployed with the client are able to run the software provided on the

SaaS and PaaS model in most of the cases. The client only pays subscription fees per user per

month or an on a transaction fee basis (eg. Cost per data etc.). The obsolescence of the costly

IT infrastructure with the client is hence prevented in the SaaS / PaaS models. The IaaSprovides the computing infrastructure and environment of the PaaS and SaaS solution relieving

the client of the issues of managing Datacenter, Disaster Recovery, Backup and Restore etc.

Worldover the IT industry is rapidly moving for the solutions on the Iaas, PaaS and SaaSmodels.

Hence the SPI model relates to availability of software services in terms of usage rights which

are expressed mostly in terms of per user per month and are paid accordingly. There are no

capital costs involved, no developmental costs involved, no maintenance costs, no manpower

costs for managing the IT infrastructure etc. for the user organisation Hence the SPI model

removes the risks of obsolescence and non-usefulness for the user organization. The user

orgarization does not need to worry about upgrades in hardware infrastructure, upgrades and

changes in operation systems, middleware, software stacks, security stacks and firnctionality

upgrades. Further, the user organization gets access to complex technologies (like Cloud

Computing GIS Framework, workflow, transactional platforms / frameworks, cloud storage,

cloud telephony etc.) which are very difficult to maintain, while these when available through

simple access in browsers available on any computer which makes the software useful with

much lesser training and by even by users with preliminary expertise in computers operations.

In the SaaS and PaaS model, the service provider also has the incentive to make improvements

so that the clients continue the subscription and hence the SaaS and PaaS models creates a win-

win situation for the client as well as the service provider. In the SaaS / PaaS model the

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software, its IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) etc. rests with the service provider and

allows the service provider to deploy the cutting edge of the technologies withoutcompromises.

Some current trends and facts are worth mentioning for the SPI model or Cloud based

subscription services model. The Microsoft has launched Microsoft Office on Cloud on a cloud

based subscription model. The success of the Office on cloud based subscription model can be

gauged from the fact that it has crossed US Dollars One billion (Apprxo. Rs. 5,500 crores) for

the Microsoft. Other notable examples are Salesforce.com, which has a market capitalisation

of US Dollars 19 Billion with revenues exceeding a US Dollars 3 billion mark recently. Overall

the cloud computing based subscription services have now occupied the center-stage in usageof Information Technology solutions in enterprise as well as consumer segments.

The user organization also gets the benefits of fast upgrade cycle possible in SPI model and

adopted by the leading service providers as opposed to yearly upgrade cycle of traditional

software delivery. The user organization also derives any functionality upgrades introduced by

the service provider for which it may not even have requested as the SaaS service providers

continuously upgrade their offering based on the experience of other user organizations using

the same solution.

this

any

evaluation study by indian institute of management (iim) lucknow for the dms

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