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Project Arrow

Transforming India Post

Draft Confidential

Contents

Executive summary ........................................................................................................................................................... 1

1. India Post: A large complex postal network............................................................................................................... 4

1.1 An Overview ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

1.2 India Post’s Organizational Structure ................................................................................................................... 5

1.3 India Post’s Finances .............................................................................................................................................. 6

1.4 Competitive Landscape .......................................................................................................................................... 7

1.5 India Post’s Initiatives ............................................................................................................................................. 8

2. Project Arrow – Executing the Vision to Transform India Post ............................................................................ 10

2.1 Defining the Project’s Goal ................................................................................................................................. 10

2.2 Identifying the Key Issues to Address ............................................................................................................... 11

2.3 “High Impact and Easy to Implement” – Mantra for Choosing Focus Areas ............................................... 14

3. Project Implementation .............................................................................................................................................. 16

3.1 Selection and phasing of post offices for implementation .............................................................................. 16

3.2 Project team composition .................................................................................................................................... 17

3.2.1 Central-level Team – Structure and Composition .................................................................................... 17

3.2.2 Circle level ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

3.3 Communicating about the project ...................................................................................................................... 18

3.4 Preparing for Implementation ............................................................................................................................. 19

3.4.1 Training of employees .................................................................................................................................. 19

3.4.2 Procurement of raw materials required for implementation .................................................................... 19

3.4.3 Strengthening the IT organization .............................................................................................................. 19

3.5 Implementation Phases ....................................................................................................................................... 20

3.5.1 Phase I: A learning exercise that transformed post offices .................................................................... 20

3.5.2 Emergence of monitoring using KPIs ......................................................................................................... 21

3.5.3 Phase II: Reinforcing the standardized procedures for easy implementation and scalability ............ 21

3.5.4 Documentation of the project plan – “The Blue Book” ............................................................................. 22

3.5.5 Phase III: Uniform implementation of project over a larger scale .......................................................... 23

4. Monitoring the Performance – ‘You cannot improve what you do not measure’ .............................................. 24

4.1 Reporting Mechanism .......................................................................................................................................... 24

4.2 Performance Scorecard ...................................................................................................................................... 25

4.3 Driving Accountability .......................................................................................................................................... 26

4.4 The Results So Far… .......................................................................................................................................... 27

5. Sustainability ............................................................................................................................................................... 29

5.1 Leadership Focus ................................................................................................................................................. 29

5.2 Upgrading and Maintaining IT Infrastructure .................................................................................................... 29

5.3 Employee motivation and buy-in ........................................................................................................................ 30

5.4 Process Management Initiatives ........................................................................................................................ 31

6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Appendix .......................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Project Arrow – Transforming India Post 1

Executive summary

Project Arrow is a vision that was articulated and translated into action in a short period of time. This study

highlights that the process of change can be effectively executed in government enterprises that may often be

perceived as archaic, slow moving, and bureaucratic. This case study captures the essence of creating and

managing change in India Post, a government enterprise, with a view (a) to improve customer service and (b)

compete with private sector couriers to reestablish the preeminence of India Post. Most important, the case

study serves to highlight that leadership vision, employee commitment, proper planning, and execution focus

– even in a government enterprise – can result in a successful transformation.

Like any large government organization with a huge employee base, time-worn processes and systems,

frequently changing leadership and imposed social obligations, the process of change needs an across-the-

board buy-in. There are significant barriers to get a buy-in. These barriers range from entrenched vested

interests to human cynicism, which initially tend to stall change. This buy-in cannot be generated unless there

is a commitment from leadership with a clearly articulated vision, well-defined goals, and unflagging

commitment to execute in a time-bound manner and with a relentless focus on the end goals. However, at the

same time, not totally ignore the fact that changing mindsets and an entire work culture have to be given time

or takes time.

Project Arrow initially started off as an attempt, by the leadership to improve the ‘look and feel’ of Post Offices.

While planning this facelift, the leadership team discovered that it was equally, if not more, essential to launch

a comprehensive program to improve core operations. In the absence of operational improvements, cosmetic

changes’ impact would decrease in a short time, leaving the organization unchanged. This realization kick-

started the development of a comprehensive and integrated approach to improve the services of the post

office to more effectively fulfill its assigned mandate to the “Aam Aadmi” (the common man). The study looks

at the challenges faced in the process of evolving and implementing the strategy given the complexity and

history of a large 150-year-old public sector organization. Elements of creating a buy-in needed to address a

wide range of constituencies ranging from grassroot employees, officers (who could be apprehensive of the

impact this project would have on them), streamlining the Information Technology (IT) systems, getting the

right investments, improving employee capability through training, and above all, getting the trade unions to

understand and support the change.

The attempt to transform India Post is not the first attempt at improving a government-run organization. There

are enough examples of a revamp being successfully undertaken, such as Indian Railways, National Thermal

Power Corporation, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), and many of the public sector banks. What

makes this unique is that the transformation was being attempted over a very aggressive timeline. All the

government/public sector organizations, which were transformed and guided by leadership vision and

commitment, underwent the change and became more efficient and customer oriented. In a nutshell, the

improvement at India Post under Project Arrow can be seen in the larger context of ever increasing

capabilities of enterprises in the public sector under central government.


There are several audiences which will find this study useful. Broadly, they can be classified as follows:

Leaders of state and central government who understand the need to revitalize their organizations but are challenged by existing inefficient processes/procedures, leadership apathy, red tape, lack of employee commitment, and other socio-political issues

Large organizations in public and private sector, which employ a large number of unskilled or semi-skilled labor, need to respond to competitive pressures, but are unable to do so due to work force challenges, unionism, and lack of vision in their organization

People in the media who normally find enough content to highlight public sector apathy will access something that is different from the conventional image of public sector enterprises

People in the postal department who have not yet implemented Project Arrow can see through this study the issues involved when something new is kick-started

People in IT companies who are selling their software/hardware to public enterprises can use this study to influence senior leaders in client organizations by highlighting how application of IT can bring about transformational change in the functioning of the department through reduction in information arbitrage

Key Lessons Learnt

Change is possible even in a public sector enterprise

The cynicism of the public, fuelled by negative media stories on governance often eclipses some of the achievements of public sector. India Post is a good example of how one can bring about change in a public sector enterprise against the odds of widespread cynicism.

Leadership commitment ensures focus

Leadership focus and commitment are the main driving forces to bring about change. In the case of India Post, most employees and managers were aware of what the issues were, but did not feel the need to do anything about it because there had been no demand from leadership to improve. The role of leadership in this case can be summarized as follows:

Articulating clearly the project vision and goal, keeping in mind that the articulation must be such that even the “Lowest Common Denominator” should be able to understand and relate to it

Converting the vision into tangible Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on feedback from the employees as well as a demonstrated willingness to change the KPIs and/or measurement basis when warranted, provided the end goal/target remained unchanged. This proved to be a powerful catalyst through which the employees realized that this was not a top-down effort but a collective effort to improve the functioning of the unit. This proved to be a strong facilitator for enhancing buy-in

Ensuring accountability through robust monitoring systems. Regular video conferences were conducted to monitor performance on KPIs with the senior executives at the regional levels

Removing the barriers to low performance by getting the required investments

Employee involvement is critical for success

The project did not entail passing instructions from the senior management for execution at the ground level.

There was substantial two-way dialogue through workshops to get buy-in across all levels of the organization. This ensured ownership by the ground-level staff in the process of identifying and rectifying the issues. Illustratively, the Minister personally had structured interactions with beat postmen and communicated the rationale of why this exercise was being undertaken and how they would benefit from it

The dialogue helped overcome initial resistance and skepticism of the employees toward the change. It also helped shift the mindset of postal employees from being rule focused to being customer focused


An integrated approach is important to make a meaningful difference

Unlike the past initiatives, Project Arrow is an integrated approach to boost the performance of India Post, while ensuring a consistent look and feel across all locations. At a subliminal level, in a manner of speaking, this was an effort to restore the feeling of pride in working for India Posts.

Earlier, initiatives looked to address issues across a limited number of aspects, such as aesthetics, computerization, or adding a new service, while issues across other areas continued to remain unaddressed

Project Arrow simultaneously addresses the functional and infrastructural improvements across postal operations. It looked at issues from a customer standpoint as against the internal process standpoint. This invariably meant coordinating across multiple post offices

The effort was not directed at getting everything corrected, but more an application of the Paretto’s Principle or the 80:20 rule (20 percent of the activities that affect 80 percent of the operations)

Demonstrating and highlighting the effectiveness of the project in an unbiased manner is essential to building public confidence and acceptance in such projects. An independent body was engaged to conduct audits and customer surveys to demonstrate that the claims were not just being made internally but could also stand external scrutiny

Execution readiness is the foundation

Trained employees, clear operational procedures, and appropriate systems are critical for successful execution and long-term sustainability of the improvements from Project Arrow.

Focus on training is a major element of Project Arrow. The focus was on teaching computer skills and customer handling skills to the postal staff

Robust IT systems were used to extract performance data, thus eliminating possible human error and ensuring proper reporting. While in the initial stages there was a manual input to track performance, thereafter a Web extraction tool was introduced. Given the sensitivity for accurate data and more important its acceptance by the post offices and the regional offices, the manual data input and Web extraction was run parallel for an extended period of time, until the “field” accepted the accuracy of data and did not reject it along lines of “we know we are doing it right, but something must be wrong with the system which is not showing the true picture”

The project team came up with an implementation guide--‘Blue Book’. This document will help standardize implementation and monitor the process across all Project Arrow post offices. The “Blue Book” is an excellent example of how a complex organization and its requirements have been simplified so that the individual at the bottom of the pyramid is able to understand and implement it.

These learning are the crystallization derived from the context, thought process, and execution of the project,

which we will cover in the subsequent sections.

Institutionalizing change:

Under a visionary leader, it is possible for organizations to revamp processes to improve their services.

However, to sustain these gains, even if the prime mover moves on, it is imperative that the process is

institutionalized through process documents and sustained through continued leadership focus.


1. India Post: A large complex postal

network

1.1 An Overview

A simple and innocuous question was what triggered this case study.

“When was the last time you visited a post office?”

None of the individuals (outside the Department of Posts) associated with this case study could recollect their

last visit. This journey has been a revelation and an education.

Indian Postal Service (India Post), is the world’s largest postal network, and has 155,204 post offices:

139,046 in rural areas and 16,158 in urban areas. It employs over half a million employees (approximately

566,000 people). Its mandate is to provide services, such as mail delivery, money transfer, saving bank

operations, and life insurance products across the length and breadth of the country.

The Indian Post Office was established in 1837 by the British East India Company. In time, the Indian postal

system developed into an extensive, dependable, and robust network providing mail services to almost all

parts of India, Burma, the Straits Settlements, and other areas controlled by the East India Company.

India Post, apart from railways, and more recently, mobile telephone operators, is the only institution in

private/public sector that connects the remote parts of India to the rest of the world. Rural India, with a low

penetration of mobile telephony (13 percent) and Internet (less than 2 percent), still depends on postal mail as

a preferred, nonsubstitutable medium of communication. In addition, India Post also acts as a financial

intermediary to large parts of rural India by providing services, such as savings account, money transfer, and

insurance. These areas would have remained untouched by ‘formal financial services’ provided by public and

private financial players due to commercial considerations. Hence, meeting social obligations of providing

services to “Aam Aadmi” (the common man) is an important component of the post office charter.

In 2006-07 India Post handled:

217 million registered articles and 6.5 billion unregistered articles

99 million money orders involving transfer of Rs.7,760 crores ($1.55 billion) – an average ticket size of Rs. 780 (~USD 16) each

Under its saving schemes and deposits accounts, around Rs.5,63,000 crores ($112.7 billion) in funds

It managed 174 million customers through accounts and certificates

It had 3.3 million insurance policies and collected Rs.1,210 crores in premium ($242.6 million) – an average monthly ticket size of Rs. 300 (~USD 6)


1.2 India Post’s Organizational Structure

Ministry of Communications &

Information Technology

Department of Telecommunications

Department of PostsDepartment of

Information Technology


India Post geographically divides the country into circles, which typically correspond to the individual Indian

states, except for the North East Circle, which includes all the northeastern states apart from Assam.

Some basic statistics relating to this structure are:

Total Number of Postal Circles 22

Total Number of Postal Regions 37

Total Number of Postal Divisions 442

Total Number of Circle Stamp Depots 19

Total Number of Postal Store Depots 46

Total Number of Postal Training Centers 6

Total Number of post offices in the Country 1,55,204

Total Number of post offices in Rural Areas 1,39,046

Total Number of post offices in Urban Areas 16,158

Number of Head Post Offices 816

Number of Sub-post offices 24,835

Total Number of GPO 17

1.3 India Post’s Finances

India Post gets government subsidy as it plays a significant role as a conduit for the government’s social

obligations, that is, it provides essential services to the public at moderate costs. There are fewer

opportunities for maximizing profits at the post office, given the obligations.

As a result, in corporate terms, India Post with revenue that just exceeds a billion dollar does not appear to be

a very large organization. However, the outreach of the organization to every part of the country makes it a

significant contributor to the country’s connectivity and efforts toward inclusive growth. Statistics and ticket

sizes for 2006-07 are testimony of the outreach of India Post to the rural populace where disposable incomes

are meager.

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09***

Revenues 4,010*

(801.9)**

4,260

(851.4)

4,430

(886.4)

5,020

(1,004.7)

5,320

(1,064.5)

5,760

(1,152.2)

5,880

(1,175.2)

Expenditure 5,370

(1,074.5)

5,630

(1,126.4)

5,810

(1,162.7)

6,230

(1,246.7)

6,570

(1,310.4)

7,270

(1,454.4)

9,800#

(1,959.2)

Net Deficit

(Revenue-Expenditure)

1,360

(272.6)

1,370

(275.4)

1,380

(276.3)

1,210

(242.0)

1,250

(246.9)

1,510

(302.2)

3,920

(784)

*All values in Rs. crores

** Values in bracket are in $USD million

*** Unaudited data

# Steep increase was on account of additional wage payouts on account of the Sixth Pay Commission


India Post’s deficit is largely due to costs of salaries of personnel deployed at commercially unviable post

offices, pensions paid to superannuated employees, as well as other costs toward the social obligation of

providing most services at affordable fixed rates to the “Aam Aadmi”. While volumes of business dip, India

Post does not have many options for downsizing and letting its employees go. Offering employees options for

voluntary exit is a popular way of reducing manpower, but it too has very little scope. This not only adds to the

salary expenses but also to the pension payouts.

India Post’s revenue growth was 6.6 percent (CAGR: 2002-08), while expenditure grew at a rate of 10.5 percent (CAGR: 2002-08).

Given the mandate under which it operates, India Post is likely to continue to face a net deficit in the future

due to the increased expenditure on account of higher salary and pension charges implemented by the Sixth

Pay Commission. The social obligation of India Post precludes passing on this increase in salaries and

pensions to the consumers. Also India Post is making USD 421 million worth of IT investments from 2007-

2012. The pay offs of these investments will come post 2012. As a result, the organization is expected to run

a deficit of Rs.5,390 billion ($USD 1.08 billion) in 2009-10, compared to Rs.3,830 billion ($USD 766 million) in

2008-09, and Rs.1,200 billion ($USD 240 million) in 2007-08.

1.4 Competitive Landscape

The organization’s traditional business of mail and parcel delivery is facing intense competition from private

courier companies and new communication channels – emails, social networking sites, and mobile telephony.

The last decade has seen a telecom revolution in India and telecom services have now made inroads into

regions of India where India Posts was traditionally the only means of communication for the citizens. Over

2000-2009, there has been a proliferation of private courier services, which provide faster and more reliable

delivery of mail, predominantly across major cities.

India Post’s competitive or operating terrains can be distinctly segregated as urban and rural. Competition in

these regions is vastly different.

There is intense competition in urban markets for all the service segments of India Post. Strong brands, good customer service, and efficient functioning of the private service providers constantly challenge India Post. Courier services attract urban customers with reliable, efficient, and customer-centric mailing services, while the private banks and financial services firms rely on better ambience, ease of access (online banking and ATMs), and single-point access to a wide portfolio of services, to attract urban clients. Although expensive, private players use robust IT systems to offer more convenient and customer-focused services

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General's 2007 report on the Department of Post, mail traffic declined by 10 percent annually during 2001 to 2006, an aggregate decline of 48.12 percent. In contrast, private courier services registered a 25 percent annual growth

Rural markets, given their low customer base and lower profits, do not attract private players in large numbers. As a result, India Post with its vast rural presence is almost a monopoly. However, the slowly increasing penetration of mobile telephony (13 percent in rural India) is replacing mail as a significant communication channel in rural markets


1.5 India Post’s Initiatives

India Post has undertaken numerous initiatives to ensure its relevance in the changing landscape. Its major

initiatives – over the past decade – were focused on building IT infrastructure, improving efficiency, enhancing

service offerings, and tying-up with other service providers.

1) Leveraging technology and new methods for enhancing customer services

India Post invested in IT to drive operational efficiency, speed up the process/operations, and strengthen

connectivity across offices. A detailed snapshot of the computerization effort is shown below:

Computerization of the postal

operations was first started in

1994-95, under the 8th Five

Year Plan, but there was no

structured plan for it.

Later, under the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-07),

there was extensive computerization of post

offices. As a result, by 2003, approximately

7,290 urban post offices (45% of total urban post

offices) and 2,403 in rural areas (1.7 % of total

rural post offices), were computerized.

In the 11th Plan (2007-12), the remaining 17,878

departmental offices, and another 64,000 branch

post offices would be computerized and

networked. Rs. 2,110 billion ($421.2 million) has

been earmarked in the 11th Plan.

In the past 10 years, India Post started utilizing Internet connectivity to offer services, such as ePost (2004), ePayment (2006), and instant money order (iMO) (2006). While ePost and iMO are faster and safer online mail and money order delivery modes, ePayment is a new service that allows customers to pay all their bills, such as electricity bills and telephone bills, through post offices. These services have seen rapid acceptance in the past two years as evidenced in the table below:

Service 2007-08 2008-09 Growth 08-09 over 07-08

iMO 660*

(132)**

950

(190)

52%

ePayment 3,540

(708)

10,400

(2,080)

294%

*All values in Rs. crores

** Values in bracket are in $USD million

To cut down the transmission time for sending money orders within the country, India Post now uses a VSAT satellite network of 150 VSAT stations and 1485 extended satellite money order stations. This has resulted in faster delivery of money orders to customers

The pick-up mail facility was launched in July 2005. The number of speed post articles collected from the premises of customers has increased from 2,59,209 in June 2006 to 5,20,322 in March 2007 – an annualized growth rate of 267 percent

All in all, the new services launched by India Posts have received good response in the market and have

shown an upward trajectory in volumes year after year.


2) Increasing service offerings through tie-ups

With rural economic growth, there has been an increase in the demand for financial services. India Post’s vast

network in the rural markets is an effective, ready-made channel for public and private sector banks and

service providers, who are trying to expand their reach in the rural areas. India Post has increased the range

of its financial offerings by collaborating with different banks and financial institutions. Its partners are

attracted by the opportunity to leverage India Post’s mammoth network and skilled staff to reach customers in

areas that are outside their geographic network or are unviable on a stand-alone basis.

Several nonfinancial public sector units (PSUs) and multinational companies (MNCs) have also expressed

interest in using India Post’s wide network in the country. These joint ventures can help India Post become a

commercially sustaining self-sufficient organization that acts as a one-stop, cost–effective, multiservices

provider. The table below shows some of the public/private sector organizations that have tried to tap the

unparalleled reach of the India Post organization.

Partner Service Details

State Bank of India

Sell its asset products

Initially, the scheme was started in five states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. A pilot scheme was later extended to 10 states and India Post plans to implement it in 5000 post offices throughout the country.

ICICI Prudential Insurance

Insurance India Post will sell the company’s pension products in select post offices. ICICI Prudential Insurance will train India Post’s employees and also provide the sales collateral.

NABARD Provide microcredit to self- help groups

India Post gives microcredit to self help groups (SHGs) through post offices in five districts involving seven divisions of the Tamil Nadu circle. The fund for this project comes from NABARD in installments. So far, loans worth Rs.15.9 million have been given to 662 SHGs.

Deutsche Post International delivery service

The organization provides international express delivery service, WorldNet Express (WNX), in 220 countries. Customers can send documents and parcels on a courier mode (delivery duty unpaid shipments) from 237 post offices located in 21 state capitals to 220 countries, with a maximum transit time of four days. India Post plans to expand this service to more locations in the near term or short term.

Western Union Money transfer service

India Post provides a network for the reliable transfer of money to urban, rural, and remote areas.

Indian Railways Selling railway tickets

Recently, the Railway Minister, announced as a part of her budget proposals that the facility of booking railway tickets will be extended to 5,000 post offices.

Most of these initiatives, although successful, were isolated and their effect was restricted to only specific

postal services, though the booking of Rail tickets is the first step in offering nonpostal services through the

portals of India Post. There was limited focus on improving customer services and the overall efficiency of the

postal systems, which remains the main competitive factors in the urban markets.


2. Project Arrow – Executing the Vision

to Transform India Post

2.1 Defining the Project’s Goal

The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, wanted to

transform India Post into a world-class organization. This vision acted as the strategic driving force for the

initiation of Project Arrow.

Project Arrow’s initial focus was on improving the ‘look and feel’ of the post offices’ infrastructure. A team of

India Post’s senior officers were asked to suggest ideas to make post offices aesthetically more pleasing and

customer friendly. The department involved an external consultant to facilitate the process. As the process of

improving the ‘look and feel’ unfolded, the team also decided to focus on core operations of the post office.

Based on their assessment, the team came to the conclusion that:

There are significant areas within core operations, which, if improved, will allow the organization to deliver improved quality of services to customers

The added focus on operational excellence will also enable India Post handle competition and regain market share

Thus, the leadership came to the conclusion that while the ‘look and feel’ is important, the core operations of

a post office are equally, if not more, important.

Therefore, what started out as a project to give a facelift to the external look of post office buildings and

physical infrastructure, transformed into an exercise to improve core performance and make India Post a

“Window to the World” for the ‘Aam Aadmi’ (common man). For the first time, an integrated approach was

used to overcome the service issues at post offices by attempting improvements in all key facets of the

operational and customer experience dimensions of the post office.

Given the complexity and scale of India Post, Project Arrow stands out as an execution activity of integrated

initiatives involving employees from all levels and functions. The following factors make this a unique project:

Integrated project that covers

Technology

Processes

Aesthetics

Paradigm shift in the employees’ mindset (making them both technologically savvy as well as customer/service oriented). The added challenge was that a large proportion of these employees were close to superannuation and did not have either the drive or interest to learn new “tricks” just before their retirement


Driving a strong customer focus. It is being emphasized consistently that the duty of the staff is to ensure proper service to customer rather than only following the post office rules and procedures

Leadership will – postal department and ministerial – to ensure that there was sufficient funding and guidance thereby ensuring that there was unwavering commitment to the end goals

Effective, regular monitoring in a transparent manner – this increases the probability of sustaining the project’s impact and drives accountability across the organization. Approbations and opprobrium were dispensed publicly and accepted for replication and corrective action because they were based on mutually accepted data and facts

Proper implementation and adherence to new improved service levels (aesthetics, efficiency, and customer

services) on a large scale will create improved post offices with increased focus on customer satisfaction.

This would enable India Post to compete on equal terms, from a service perspective, with private players, and

given its low price of services use it as a significant differentiator to attract more urban customers.

At the rural level, given the low concentration of competitors, these improvements may not have any

immediate impact on competition. However, in the long term, when rural economies start to grow, post offices

will be better prepared to serve growing customer needs and compete effectively against new players. India

Post will have, in many ways, a first mover advantage in rural areas and has the scope to become the center

of economic and business activity in the rural arena.

2.2 Identifying the Key Issues to Address

Project Arrow’s first step was to identify key areas to improve, set performance metrics for these areas,

establish a method to measure performance, and provide a mechanism for course correction. To identify the

focus areas for improvement, senior India Post officers undertook a self-assessment exercise.

Initially, before the start of the project, at Delhi, few meetings were conducted where the senior officials were divided into five groups to assess exhaustively the basic functional groups of the postal services, which include:

Mails

Remittances

Savings bank

Infrastructure (renovation of post offices)

Technology

These groups did not have a fixed size or composition, but were formed with the functional divisions and their officers along the lines described above. These officers deliberated on the objectives of each group with the unit post office as the context, and also determined the KPIs for the project. Subsequently, the groups were expanded into eight silos based on the deliberations of the five groups.

Thirty Directors visited 50 post offices as part of Phase I and observed their operations for five days. They spent time evaluating across-the-board functioning of the post offices and performed:

Process mapping of various operations silo wise of the post office

Documentation of process deviations and corrective action needed

A few Directors even accompanied the beat postmen to experience, firsthand, the issues that the postmen face while delivering mail articles and money orders. Not only did this help the senior members understand the issues, it helped engage the junior members in the process of issue identification and at a later stage, in executing the Project Arrow initiatives. In many ways, this also created a strong impression that this time the effort for change was wide ranging and had the commitment of senior officers in addition to executives.


After the inauguration of Phase I, three workshops involving one or two external consultants, directors, and regional officers of Department of Post were held at Mysore, Saharanpur, and Vadodara. These workshops were brainstorming sessions with grassroot/junior-level staff and gave them the chance to point the issues that different functions face, prioritize the issues, and validate some of the problems already identified by the directors and department’s senior officers. The workshops were successful in the following:

Involving employees across all levels in identifying key issues and eliciting suggestion for improvement. Some important suggestions received were:

Postmen multitasking: Since the postman has direct interaction with customers he could be given some responsibility in business development and marketing. Apart from his regular duty of mail delivery, he could also help the post office staff in sorting and making data entry in the computers, among other things. Normally, the postman remains idle as it is the post office staff who sort and enter data in the computer. Multitasking will ensure effective utilization of a postman’s time leading to higher productivity

Deceased Claim: Delay in settling deceased claim and account transfer requests were another key area of improvement which required immediate attention

Increase cash withdrawal limit: Cash withdrawal limit was increased from 2000 to 5000, which gave consumers more flexibility

Getting buy-in of post office staff for executing on Project Arrow recommendations. This interaction also served to address some issues which would have remained hidden and possibly stymied the project. For example, the back office employees at post offices (who sort out mails to give to the beat postmen) commented that all the face lift and improvement was directed at the front office and their lot would remain unchanged. This prompted suitable action to be taken so that their work areas were also refurbished. The very fact that “someone” had listened to their woes and taken corrective action galvanized them into action and ensured their commitment.

The results of the self assessment were summarized by the various teams working on this and are presented

below.

Self-assessment’s results

1. Ineffective and archaic operational guidelines: Legacy planning and operations guidelines resulted in

inefficient service.

Low-cash authorization limit for post masters resulted in:

Insufficient funds to allow for same day delivery of money orders

Shortage of cash resulting in delay in payments

The procedure for opening, transfer, or closing the saving account was a time-consuming activity for the customers

In case of death of the account holder, it took, on an average, two to three months to pay the beneficiary

In case a customer wanted to transfer his or her account, it took, on an average, two to three months for the process to be completed

In many cases, the mail arrived after the postmen had left for their beats. This resulted in delayed delivery of mail and money orders

Decisions had to be routed through a maze of approvals. This, at times, resulted in delays in purchase of basic items, such as chairs, lighting fixtures, and antivirus software


2. Non-optimal resource utilization: India Post was not able to effectively leverage available resources for

improving core operations and ‘look and feel’.

Despite being computerized for more than 10 years, the use of the system was not efficient. This led to customer spending longer time queuing at the counters

Savings bank data were not complete and comprehensive:

The signatures were not scanned properly

The entries in the passbook were still manual

In some cases, employees were not able to use the new equipment due to lack of training, for example low typing speed resulted in abysmally low inputs of records into the system

Money was spent on creating infrastructure that, in many cases, did not enhance either employee or customer comfort

In many cases, the renovation resulted in creating a poorly coordinated office space and also led to disparity in ‘look and feel’ across post offices, for example money was spent on creating alum inum and glass partitions/offices without looking at effectively using available space

Employees were not skilled to handle the complete slew of counter activities, such as mail booking, iMOs, eMOs, and savings bank activities

3. Lack of monitoring and accountability: The lack of proper monitoring and tracking resulted in low

accountability across the postal staff.

There was no system in place to monitor the performance of postmen. During the workshops and director’s visit to post offices, some postmen pointed out that no one ever asked them about their performance or coached them on how to do their job more efficiently

There were also no measures to ensure same day delivery, collection, and dispatch of mail and money orders

4. Poor maintenance of infrastructure: India Post is the world’s largest network of post offices, but lacks a

standard look.

Most of the post offices’ buildings and infrastructure were old and unkempt

Post offices lacked basic infrastructure, such as chairs for waiting customers

Cleanliness was an issue

Lack of signage on available services at the post office

The findings above did not surprise many employees; these issues were already known, but there was no

common platform or concerted effort to address them. Project Arrow was a good opportunity to make that

platform available to employees, which could form the basis of concerted and sustained effort.


2.3 “High Impact and Easy to Implement” – Mantra for Choosing Focus Areas

The assessment led to two themes – “Get the Core Right” and “Modernize Look and Feel”. These simple

catch phrases served to drive the point home across the entire spectrum of what the intent of Project Arrow

was. The ‘Get the Core Right’ theme seeks to improve service levels so that citizens can get efficient, faster,

and consistent service. The ‘Modernize Look and Feel’ theme seeks to address the customers’ experience

whenever they visit a post office. If post office standardizes the physical infrastructure in customer centric

ways, then probability is high that customers will get a consistent experience. This means that post offices

have a similar look and feel, which creates a brand that is easily identifiable and ensures consistent

expectations from post offices.

The large number of issues identified during self-assessment, coupled with the large size of the India Post

organization, meant that the project team needed to prioritize the issues which it would address first. The

mantra to choose an action item was “high impact, easy to implement.” The team started to assess issues

which would be ‘easy to implement’ and yet were expected to have a relatively higher impact on achieving the

project goals. Easy-to-implement issues were defined as those which did not require significant investment of

money or time in training, technology, or processes and required limited organization-wide coordination.

Get the core right: The core team prioritized the

processes that were “high impact, easy to

implement”.

Modernize look and feel: The look and feel team

acted upon the recommendations of external

agencies and focused on customer convenience,

cleanliness, and aesthetics.

The activities under ‘Get the Core Right’ were classified under

four silos (subsegment or functional areas under the theme).

The core team’s members, directors, and postal staff facilitated

identification of key issues that plague operational performance.

As a next step, measures to address these issues, along with

implementation timelines, were designed by the team working

on getting the core right.

The activities under ‘Look and Feel’ were classified under four

silos. These four silos were identified with the help of a leading

advertising agency, which also designed a new logo for India

Post. The School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) designed

the infrastructure prototypes (benches and counters), and after

a number of revisions, the final design was selected for mass

reproduction by the India Post’s leadership team.

Get the

Core Right

Savings

Bank

Service

Levels

Mail Delivery

Remittances

Modernize

“Look &

Feel”

InfrastructureTechnology

Branding

Human

Resources

Executing the ‘Look and Feel’ was relatively easy, as comprehensive branding guidelines were developed

centrally, for implementation. This did not require significant coordination across multiple offices and people in

different locations. Its execution was outsourced to vendors, for example benches, signage, and touch-screen

machines.


The improvement in core areas posed the following challenges:

Alignment of the organization from the highest to the lowest levels and improvement of the operational core are not easy given the bureaucratic history and culture of this public sector giant

Additional workload on the staff and officers, while improving the core operations

Significant investments required in training and changing the mindset

These challenges were accentuated due to cultural issues associated with public sector enterprises; the

leadership themselves described the existing system as “archaic and fossilized”.

Notwithstanding these challenges, a separate, detailed preassessment exercise had to be conducted for each

of the post offices covered under Project Arrow to identify areas where actual performance metrics lagged set

benchmarks. In addition to common issues identified under the theme ‘Get the Core Right’, each post office

had its own unique challenges, such as lack of backup postman, delayed arrival of mail, addressee being

unavailable during the postman beat schedule, and large volume of mails. To address these local-level

challenges, a team led by a director tried to identify the major problems at preoperative stage and suggested

solutions to improve performance.


3. Project Implementation

3.1 Selection and phasing of post offices for implementation

Project Arrow was planned in phases, with the number of post offices increasing in every subsequent phase.

Each stage was treated as a learning opportunity and the learning used to improve planning and

implementation for the subsequent phases. Thus, each phase not only saw an increase in number of post

offices being converted, but also witnessed a change in the way the project was being implemented.

Phase I, which started on May 1, 2008, covered 50 post offices. Greater emphasis was placed on the ‘Look

and Feel’ aspect during this phase aimed at standardized branding across the system and more pride among

the staff. In addition, the project team continued to assess the core activities of post offices and identify ways

to improve operational efficiency. The team noted that there were no standard measures or goals in place to

evaluate whether the project was actually resulting in increased efficiencies at post offices. Based on the

learning of Phase I, the project team identified focus areas and KPIs to measure the efficiency of the post

office operations. These focus areas and the KPIs were standardized in Phase II and subsequently the

performance of all post offices under Project Arrow was measured using these KPIs.

Beautification of

post offices

Studying

processes at post

offices and ad-hoc

improvement of

operations

Inauguration of

phase-I post

offices on

August 15, 2008

after

beautification

was completed

Identification

and

standardization

of key focus

areas and

creation of KPIs

Ongoing

Monitoring performance of post offices to ensure

that the KPIs are met consistently in the long

term at each post office

P

H

A

S

E

1

Start: August 15,

2008.

Renovation and

improvement based

on the standard

focus (silos) areas.

Monitoring KPIs.

Ongoing

Monitoring performance of the post

offices to ensure that the KPIs are

met consistently over the long term at

each post office

P

H

A

S

E

2

Inauguration of

phase-II post

offices on

December 31,

2008, after

beautification

was completed

Start: January 1,

2009.

Renovation and

improvement based

on the standard

focus (silos) areas.

Monitoring KPIs.

P

H

A

S

E

3

Ongoing

Monitoring performance

of KPIs at post offices.

Planned inauguration of

renovated post offices

on June 30, 2009


3.2 Project team composition

As a first step to implementation, cross-functional project teams were established at the central and the circle

levels to ensure proper execution and monitoring of Project Arrow. Officers and staff were encouraged to

provide feedback and suggestions to improve the overall achievement of goals and targets. This effectively

broke down the “fear” of approaching central office and enabled constructive suggestions to pour in, as well

as doubts about the methodology of data collation and analysis. Open communication channels to the central

office and lack of rigid bureaucracy significantly increased the buy-in. These are described below.

3.2.1 Central-level Team – Structure and Composition

At the central level, the Minister of State (Communications and IT), Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, was the

project sponsor and led the Steering Committee of the project, while the core team functioned at the postal

department level with the Secretary (Posts) leading it.

For implementation, eight teams (as shown in the chart below) were formed at the department level

corresponding to each silo. Each of these teams included a large number of senior officials, covering all

functions of post office.

Jyotiraditya M Scindia, MoS (C & IT)

(Programme Sponsor)

Radhika Doraiswamy, Secretary (Posts)

(Programme Leader)

Work Stream Leader—“Get the Core Right”

(Member Development)

Change Agent—Mail Delivery

CGM (Mail Business Development)

Change Agent—Office Service Level

GM (Speed Post)

Change Agent—Remittances

Director (Financial Services)

Change Agent—Saving Bank

Deputy Director General (FS)

Work Stream Leader—“Look and Feel”

(Member Personnel)

Change Agent—Branding

AGM (M)

Change Agent—Technology

Director (Tech)

(Change Agent —Human Resources

Deputy Director General (Training)

Change Agent—Infrastructure

Deputy Director General (Personnel)

Programme Office

Steering Committee

CoreTeam

The program office and core team were responsible for execution of the project and monitoring its progress.

The program office played a major role in functioning as:

A single point of control to monitor the project

A point of contact at New Delhi (location of both the India Post headquarters and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) for the staff in different circles and offices

Various problems of the postal staff could be addressed by the program office

Complex issues could be communicated to the office of minister or the Secretary (Posts) for clarification


3.2.2 Circle level

The team structure at the circle level has constantly changed since the kick-off of Project Arrow. Initially, the

circles had their own program office comprising of the Chief Post Master General (CPMG) and a few other

senior officials. The role of the program office involved monitoring the project progress at the post offices and

reporting it to the central team (program office and change agents) at New Delhi.

Chief Post Master

General (CPMG)

Post Master

General (PMG)

Directors and then the junior staff

(few superintendents and division

superintendents, who were the

“change agents”)

In the later stages of Phase II, the team structure at the circle was a replica of the central core team. This was

meant to ensure streamlined and systematic revamp of post offices in the circles. Even though change agents

were introduced at the circle level, they did not report directly to the change agents at the central

directorate/core team. Change agents at the circle level reported to the program office and the CPMG, who in

turn reported to the central core team.

Change agents were domain experts holding key positions in the functional divisions corresponding to the silo

they handle. For example, the officers in the marketing department were made change agents in the

“Branding” silo of the “Look and Feel” theme. Their role was to lead the operational transformation process for

their respective silos by setting objectives, evolving KPIs, identifying existing gaps in achieving

objectives/KPIs, suggesting process improvements, ensuring standardization of processes, and monitoring

the overall implementation for their silos. They play an active role in driving the execution of the project at

both the central and the field levels by directly engaging with the staff at a post office.

3.3 Communicating about the project

The communication of Project Arrow’s objectives and expectations was important to get the employees’ buy-

in.

This was done by the postal division’s superintendent, who was then stationed at the post office until the revamp was completed

The training team conducted the awareness training to get the staff on board

Mrs. Radhika Doraiswamy’s (Secretary Posts) newsletter included information about Project Arrow and was circulated to all the post offices of India in September 2008. In this newsletter, the great work at Phase I post offices was acknowledged, while emphasizing on improving core activities at the post offices


3.4 Preparing for Implementation

3.4.1 Training of employees

There are seven main training centers for postal staff.

Postal Training Center (PTC): There are six PTCs all over India: Guwahati, Madurai, Vadodra, Saharanpur,

Darbhanga, and Mysore. The PTCs were more involved in interactions and training of the staff at junior level.

The target audiences for the PTCs were supervisors, post masters, and assistant superintendent of post

offices (ASPs). PTC Mysore created the module for soft skills training. To execute Project Arrow, different

postal offices gave their training requirements. These requirements were segmented and training modules

were conducted depending on the need. Initially, these training programs were not welcomed by the staff,

who considered them an extra burden. However, as time passed with continuous and consistent

communication from the leadership, members started to be more receptive to training. As a result, the training

offerings expanded and training needs evolved, putting even greater pressure on PTCs to meet training

requirements arising out of Project Arrow.

Postal Staff College India (PSCI): PSCI, based in Ghaziabad, is responsible for training Group B officers

and above (around 1,500 to 2,000 employees all over India). Group B officers are gazetted officers of the rank

of ASPs and superintendents of post offices. PSCI has the same function as the PTCs, but its scope, delivery,

and audience are geared to meet requirements of middle- and senior-level members of India Post.

3.4.2 Procurement of raw materials required for implementation

The procurement process consisted of four stages.

Identify standard requirements depending on the size of a post office and the customer base that it serves

Work orders were given through competitive bid process among the preferred set of vendors

Depending on the requirement of each post office, certain items were procured locally and some at the central level

Exteriors, interior, and floors were done by the local vendors

Hardware, software, and certain other items had centralized vendors

3.4.3 Strengthening the IT organization

India Post has been investing in the hardware and connectivity aspects of its IT backbone since 1994 as

indicated in section 1.5 of this report. However, the gains realized from these investments have been below

expectations as the postal staff was unable to efficiently utilize this infrastructure. For Project Arrow, a strong

IT system was a critical requirement, given its role in monitoring and integrating the operations of the postal

department. India Post partially tried to solve this by creating the post of system administrators for its post

offices. The employees chosen for this post were picked from a pool of postal assistants for their aptitude and

skills in IT. They were designated as system managers or system administrator. These members received

training at the PTCs or from reputed external computer training agencies.


Areas of concern indicated were:

Many members are reluctant to take this role as it may involve additional work at odd hours

Many members believe that they may not be recognized or compensated for additional work and skills

3.5 Implementation Phases

3.5.1 Phase I: A learning exercise that transformed post offices

The first phase was an important phase of Project Arrow, which attracted the attention of both the central-

level and the division-level teams. This phase also set the benchmark for the subsequent phases, and

additionally, helped in course correction in project implementation and monitoring.

Details of Phase I:

Duration Number of Post Offices Cost Incurred

May 1, 2008 to

August 15, 2008 50

Rs.12.74 Cr.

($2.55M)

50 post offices were randomly selected:

They were a mixture of rural, semiurban, and urban post offices. As rural post offices cover much larger areas, transformation of these post offices was expected to have a greater impact, while, the urban post offices, covering a smaller area, had much larger volumes. In addition, it was expected that a revamp of urban post offices would give Project Arrow the maximum and necessary visibility

These post offices were regionally diversified, spread all over India covering 10 circles out of a total of 22. Preference was given to the constituencies of the ministers of communication and information technology

The size of the post offices varied from a three-member post office to a 150-member post office

As it was the first phase, the level of involvement of the leaders, core team, and senior officials in implementing the project was quite high. The Minister of State, Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, personally met the post masters of all the 50 post offices to impress upon them the importance of this project. The change agents and other core members visited the post offices several times during Phase I. Directors visited the post offices to:

Motivate staff

Increase staff participation

Look at processes and improvement measures

Post masters were given awareness training on Project Arrow so that they, in turn, could motivate their staff and keep them informed of the rationale and progress of Project Arrow

Apart from the efforts of the senior officials, around 9,900 employees received training at the PTCs. In Phase I, the trainings were focused on creating managerial skills, customer handling skills, and an awareness of Project Arrow. These trainings were conducted at the circle level by post masters and directors, with the involvement of the PTCs

The initial stages of Phase I predominantly focused on improving the ‘Look and Feel’ and preoperative assessment of core operations of post offices. After the completion of the ‘Look and Feel’ aspects of post offices, they were inaugurated on August 15, 2008. However, the initiatives on core activities were still under review, with a goal to ensure consistent high performance at post offices


3.5.2 Emergence of monitoring using KPIs

During the initial part of Phase II, the discussions involving the change agents, CPMGs, and post master

generals of Project Arrow circles and the three workshops at different locations resulted in the formulization of

objectives and various KPIs for the post office. In fact, the name of the project came up in one of the forums

after debates on various other names. These were followed by meetings at Saharanpur (postal training

center) to suggest various interventions required to attain the project objectives. The members developed a

number of KPIs that became a part of the project in Phase II and are now being used to monitor the

performance of all post offices under Project Arrow.

3.5.3 Phase II: Reinforcing the standardized procedures for easy implementation and scalability

The learning from Phase I was translated into standard procedures and measures for each of the silos, which

could be uniformly implemented in all post offices in the subsequent phases. As a result, Phase II had a set

platform for effective implementation. Unlike Phase I, post offices in Phase II were better aware of the

objectives of Project Arrow and the means of achieving them.

Details of Phase II


August 16, 2008 to

December 31, 2008 450

Rs.73.0 Cr.

($14.6M)

Coverage under Phase II was expanded to cover 450 post offices:

This phase too included a mix of rural and urban post offices, and 60 head post offices (nodal post offices). A head post office (HPO) has 20 sub-post offices attached to it, so covering HPOs has a wider impact

The number of circles increased to 12 in Phase II from 10 in Phase I

Apart from the big rented post offices, all department post offices with their own building were considered while selecting post offices

Staff from the post offices covered in Phase II visited post offices converted in Phase I to understand the conversion process. Directors at the divisional level continued their visits to these post offices to ensure proper implementation and boost staff morale

As part of improving the ‘Look and Feel’, India Post launched its new postal logo on September 23, 2008. In this phase, people from the civil department of national telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), were involved in executing the ‘Look and Feel’ activities of the post offices. As BSNL is under the same ministry as Indian Post, it was relatively easy for the two entities to coordinate. This also offered potential opportunities for the convergence of IT and other communication channels between the two

Around 20,000 employees were trained in this phase due to the increase in the number of post offices. Unlike Phase I, trainees in Phase II were more aware of Project Arrow. They were also more aware of the kind of training they would undergo. The trainees of Phase I acted like the ambassadors for Project Arrow

Additional areas of training, such as soft skills and computer skills, were introduced in Phase II. Modules were created for uniform training in all the post offices

Training was also provided by external agencies, especially for soft skills. For IT training, external vendors were involved in a few regions


3.5.4 Documentation of the project plan – “The Blue Book”

The project details and the execution plan were comprehensively documented in the Blue Book, which was

developed at the end of Phase II. This document incorporated the learning from the first two phases. The first

draft of Blue Book went through a lot of iterations and reviews before the final draft was released in January

2009. It highlighted project activities and the people responsible for it. This document is expected to help

standardize implementation and monitor the process across all Project Arrow post offices.

The ‘Blue Book’ clearly identifies end-goals that should be attained across focus areas for the eight identified

silos.

Against the goals, there is a prioritized list of issues that need to be addressed

All issues have KPIs that are nonnegotiable and tracked in all monitoring meetings (see monitoring section for details)

The ‘Blue Book’ identifies issue drivers and the resultant key activities that need to be executed to ensure that the KPI is met

Against each of the key activities, there are suggested improvement initiatives that all post offices can implement to improve their performance

All activities have a well-defined timeline and responsibility matrix

A sample entry in the blue book is described below:

Some fundamental guidelines followed while formulating the final draft are as follows:

The language used in the Blue Book should be user-friendly as it is meant for staff at all levels. The key users would be:

CPMGs of all circles and PMGs of all regions

All training centers of the Department of Posts

Superintendents, postmasters, officers, and staff involved with Project Arrow

Any other officer and staff of postal department who could use this document as a ‘Ready Reckoner’

It is comprehensive and exhaustive as it contains all the answers to any question that the execution team could have


The future intent is to publish the Blue Book in regional languages. The purpose of the document is:

To provide post offices covered under Project Arrow a structured approach for implementation of Project Arrow objectives

To list series of improvement initiatives so that all post offices can implement them to improve their performance

To standardize processes for rollout of Project Arrow post offices

3.5.5 Phase III: Uniform implementation of project over a larger scale

After two phases of implementation, the processes were standardized and documented, thereby creating a

reference tool that acts as a guide for the implementation in the subsequent phases. Post offices in phase III

have utilized the Blue Book for uniform implementation.

Details of Phase III (Stage I)


January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009

1,100 Rs. 525 Cr.

($105M)

Phase III started by covering around 1,100 post offices, including 470 head post offices, thus ensuring that all the head post offices were covered under Project Arrow. Twelve circles were covered during the first two phases and the start of phase III now includes all the 22 circles under Project Arrow. The aim of this phase was to convert 4,500 post office, but given the scale of implementation, it has been split into three stages

During this phase, 1,099 post offices (out of 1,100) were visited by directors, who are the immediate supervisors for implementing this project. With the implementation plan documented in the form of the Blue Book, educating the staff and monitoring the results were easier

Training programs had clear objectives. Given the large number of trainees, the training was conducted in three batches

In the ‘Look and Feel’ aspect, many activities have been initiated across these post offices, such as site preparation, supply of computers, and training (postmasters and postal assistants)


4. Monitoring the Performance – ‘You

cannot improve what you do not

measure’

Project Arrow highlighted the absence of a standardized monitoring mechanism to evaluate the performance

of a post office. As a result, special emphasis was placed on having an effective, regular, and extensive

monitoring mechanism. Technology plays a key role in both the extraction of KPI data and facilitating the pan-

India meeting of monitoring team and implementation team.

4.1 Reporting Mechanism

Initially, postal department developed a Web-based data entry application where post offices uploaded

operations and financial data. This required employees to manually enter data and that, at times, resulted in

data integrity issues.

Then, a new upgraded data extraction tool was developed that allowed data extraction from existing

databases. This process enabled the core team members to verify the data that are manually entered. The

new tool allows for:

Select KPIs to be directly extracted from existing post office database, such as Meghdoot

Mail not sent out for delivery (speed and registered post)

Mail undelivered (speed and registered)

Money orders undelivered

While some of the other KPIs could be directly extracted from Web-based data entry application, for instance:

eMOs booked

Number of ordinary letters sent out for delivery and undelivered

Number of deceased claims case pending

Initially, there was resistance to using the new tool as there were significant variations in the data extracted

manually and that extracted using the tool. Over time, as people got better at using the system and inputting

correct data, the deviation between the two data sources decreased (below 10%) for most of the post offices.


Snapshots of Various Tools Used for Monitoring

Online Web-based Tool Meghdoot

4.2 Performance Scorecard

These scorecards report on performance against the KPIs and are focused on driving performance

improvement. The intention was to provide a snapshot of performance that is represented in an easy-to-read

manner – using color codes, easy-to-read layout, and ability to analyze the data.

Key attributes of the scorecard:

Linked to priorities and scope of organization/department, for example number of registered articles received, number of registered articles not delivered, and number of money orders not delivered

Prioritize and report select areas and KPIs to direct employee priorities to high issues that have a high impact on performance

Variances clearly highlighted and tracked

Can be easily integrated into larger performance management framework

Below is a typical sample dashboard which is used to measure achievement of KPIs and to drive

accountability. It is worth highlighting that these sample dashboards are tabled and discussed in reviews one

week after generating the dashboard.

Sample Dashboard

Data Extraction Tool Report


Web-based Tool Report

81.8 82.1 84.2 84.3 84.686.4 86.7 87.8 90.9 91

92.4 96.4

MP NE Uttrakhand Maharashtra Orissa Gujrat Rajasthan UP AP TN Jharkhand Bihar

79 79.5 80 80.3 84.3 84.3 84.9 85.5 88.189.5

89.896.2

Rajasthan Orissa NE MP Maharashtra TN Uttrakhand UP AP Gujarat Jharkhand Bihar

Week ending February 14

Week ending February 7

4.3 Driving Accountability

The performance against KPIs is regularly tracked by both central and local leadership of India Post.

Video conference: A steering committee headed by Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and consisting of Secretary (Posts) and other senior officers assesses and evaluates the progress made every 10 days through a videoconference. The chief postmaster general of the circle represents the post offices within the circle during these meetings. All the post offices get a performance scorecard based on the data gathered through a Web-based data extraction tool. The post offices, which score below a threshold, are required to explain the reasons for performance shortfall and the corrective measures that they would implement to resolve it. Usually, the time frame for initiating corrective action and demonstration of improved results is less than two weeks.

Earlier post offices used to get the scorecard before the meeting. Now, the upgrade of the monitoring software to a central network allows the post offices to check their scores on real-time basis, thereby ensuring that they are prepared for the performance reviews.

Recently, few circles also started video conferencing at the circle level every 15 days to understand the problems and progress at the level of a post office. This is in addition to the regular central leadership-level video conference. This enables the post offices to effectively share their implementation experiences and resolve local-level issues to improve performance before the review meeting with the central leadership.


Report from external agency: An external agency was hired to survey around 50 post offices to get inputs from employees and customers on how Project Arrow has affected operations of India Post. The objective of this survey was to hear directly from the customers whether the efforts of Project Arrow are translating into better customer experience.

Efficient implementation of the citizen’s charter: Every post office has a citizen’s charter. This is a statement that clearly states self-selected goals of quality and timely services. The charter describes the products, services, delivery standards, and the complaint mechanism to its customers. The post office evaluates and displays its own performance against these self-selected goals. The project team did not develop the charter as a monitoring mechanism; however, due to its characteristics, it has become one of the monitoring mechanisms.

As the operations of post offices implementing Project Arrow have stabilized, the responsibility for these post

offices is being transitioned to a single/nodal officer in each district, who has to ensure that the momentum for

change is not diluted.

4.4 The Results So Far…

Based on the data extraction and the Web-based tool, the national-level KPIs for the core post office functions

– registered mail, speed post, and money order – have registered significant improvements. The results

clearly point to improved performance since the launch of Project Arrow. As expected, post offices in Phase I

are performing better than the post offices in Phase II across delivery of registered mail, speed post, and

money order.

Registered mail delivery the same day – Performance against KPI of this core operation was inconsistent for post offices in both the phases. The performance levels had regularly fluctuated above and below the tolerance level – 95 percent of registered mails received should be delivered on the same day. Performance of post offices under Phase I was consistently above the tolerance level since March 2009; the Phase II post offices have started to meet or exceed the KPIs since April 2009

Speed post delivery the same day – Post office covered under Project Arrow Phase I and Phase II have consistently achieved a performance level of 95 percent against the KPI of this core operation


Money order delivery the same day – Money order delivery had highly inconsistent performance levels. The tolerance level for this core operation is 95 percent. While Phase I post offices have seen periods when performance was above the tolerance level of 95 percent, with performance stabilizing above that level in recent periods, Phase II post offices have not yet managed to cross the target in any review period

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80.0%

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90.0%

95.0%

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08

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ec-0

812-D

ec-0

819-D

ec-0

826-D

ec-0

802-J

an-0

909-J

an-0

916-J

an-0

923-J

an-0

930-J

an-0

906-F

eb-0

913-F

eb-0

920-F

eb-0

927-F

eb-0

906-M

ar-

09

13-M

ar-

09

20-M

ar-

09

27-M

ar-

09

03-A

pr-

09

10-A

pr-

09

17-A

pr-

09

24-A

pr-

09

Percentage of Speed Post Delivered the Same Day

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

90.0%

95.0%

100.0%

22-A

ug-0

829-A

ug-0

805-S

ep-0

812-S

ep-0

819-S

ep-0

826-S

ep-0

803-O

ct-

08

10-O

ct-

08

17-O

ct-

08

24-O

ct-

08

31-O

ct-

08

07-N

ov-

08

14-N

ov-

08

21-N

ov-

08

28-N

ov-

08

05-D

ec-0

812-D

ec-0

819-D

ec-0

826-D

ec-0

802-J

an-0

909-J

an-0

916-J

an-0

923-J

an-0

930-J

an-0

906-F

eb-0

913-F

eb-0

920-F

eb-0

927-F

eb-0

906-M

ar-

09

13-M

ar-

09

20-M

ar-

09

27-M

ar-

09

03-A

pr-

09

10-A

pr-

09

17-A

pr-

09

24-A

pr-

09

Percentage of Money Orders Delivered the Same Day

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

90.0%

95.0%

100.0%

Percentage of Registered Mail Delivered the Same Day

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

90.0%

95.0%

100.0%

Percentage of Speed Post Delivered the Same Day

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

90.0%

95.0%

100.0%

Percentage of Money Order Delivered the Same Day

Phase I Phase II


5. Sustainability

All large-scale changes need time to be accepted and, more important, institutionalized. The other challenge

that large change management projects, such as Project Arrow, face is sustainability in the long run. There

are developments in certain areas that point to Project Arrow being a success in the long run. What is now

required is a wider organizational will – in large part being driven by the leadership – to ensure that the gains

made are not lost due to shift or loss of focus.

5.1 Leadership Focus

Leadership focus and commitment is the main driving force in ensuring a smooth execution of this project. As

originators of the idea, the leadership exhibited high level of ownership in dealing with the challenges of

conceptualizing and implementing Project Arrow.

Participation of the leadership in monitoring of Project Arrow’s KPIs has instilled a high level of accountability

across all levels of the organization. With scaling-up of implementation in the near future, this intensity of

leadership monitoring needs to be maintained; otherwise, there is a risk that the gains made in the project will

not be sustained. Leadership can display this focus by:

Making regular follow-ups and seeking status updates that will be effective in establishing the continuing importance of the project and ensuring desired outcomes.

Real-time monitoring using technology – video conferences and online tools – demonstrates leaderships’ active involvement and impresses upon staff the need to adhere to project requirements.

5.2 Upgrading and Maintaining IT Infrastructure

IT systems and connectivity are essential for effective management and monitoring of the large postal

network. Many postal services are online and many activities, such as tracking, are performed using the IT

systems. New versions of software have been installed and these provide the facility for data extraction. All

the senior officials have access to the data and the circle heads can use it to identify the challenges that

certain post offices are facing in their region.

The postal department is looking at recruiting candidates with basic computer skills.

Existing employees with minimal or no computer skills are being trained. The ones who show desired aptitude and skills are being appointed as system administrators.

A National Data Centre is being developed as the command center for data from across the postal network.

Automation of the standard monitoring process using IT tools is an effective way of ensuring adherence to the performance standards. This reduces human intervention and control, and tends to offer a long-term, reliable solution for ensuring monitoring.


Lack of IT skills among employees could prevent optimal usage of the IT systems. With new services and

increasing traffic, the IT systems need to be upgraded and integrated on a regular basis to ensure smooth

functioning of the post offices. Selecting employees with poor qualifications/skills as system administrators

can lead to ineffective maintenance of IT infrastructure.

5.3 Employee motivation and buy-in

Project Arrow appears to have addressed buy-in issues across different levels and taken necessary steps at

appropriate times to keep employees motivated. Getting the buy-in of people at different levels will make the

process long-lived.

There were various contact points between the senior management and the postal staff:

The workshops conducted at three locations in India to understand the different problems faced by the postal staff and any suggestions that will help make post offices more efficient

Project team/training team visited the concerned post offices to educate them on the project

Creation of program office to get regular feedbacks and concerns of the postal staff of Project Arrow post offices

The project team worked closely with the postal staff of the post office identified for revamp to get them involved in the initiatives they took under Project Arrow

The high-performing post offices are rewarded for their efforts at the national level. The prizes for the best three are:

First prize of a week’s foreign training for PM, PA, postmen, system administrator, and field trainer

For second and third positions cash awards for the entire staff of the post office

Apart from these prizes, certain post offices have prizes for best postman and postal assistant every week or month. These steps keep the staff motivated to work harder to become the best. In fact, the postal staff of performing post office generates a sense of self-pride in them as they are appreciated across different government organizations

Clearly defining the roles and responsibility of every postal employee is very important for the smooth running of the post offices to avoid conflicts in the long run. All the details on who is responsible for a particular job are defined in the Blue Book and it is regularly revised for new updates

In the future also, there is a strong demand of such motivational measures across these post offices to keep

morale high. The Postal Department should take additional measures to acknowledge the efforts of the

people who are regularly involved in day-to-day activities of Project Arrow post office.


5.4 Process Management Initiatives

Different processes like reporting and monitoring have been standardized so that every Project Arrow post

office can be evaluated on a common platform.

These processes are fairly transparent and every circle has the opportunity to learn from experiences of other post offices

All the processes are being standardized to minimize the replacement cost of postal staff and reduce the learning time

As converted post offices are getting stabilized, ownership of these post offices is being transitioned to a single/nodal officer in each district (usually the superintendent of the post office), who is required to ensure that the momentum and adherence to changed processes is not diluted

To ensure that the large-scale rollout is successful and that success is sustained, it is critical that the PTCs

and PSC continue to upgrade the skills of employees across areas, such as customer handling, IT, project

management, quality improvement, and coaching. This will ensure that the existing processes and

requirements are understood and, if required, employees have the skills to evaluate and implement according

to the change in requirements.


6. Conclusion

Project Arrow demonstrates that changing a large and complex organization, which is mired in legacy

systems, is possible. Public sector enterprises (PSEs) in India are considered inefficient and bureaucratic,

with minimal customer service culture. There have been instances in the past when PSEs have successfully

transformed themselves, such as the Indian Railways and BSNL.

The fact that India Post embarked on a transformational exercise is commendable. The fact that it was able to

deliver some improvements highlights the results a strong leadership and a committed workforce can achieve.

A change in culture and an improvement in functioning can ensure that the organization becomes more

customer-centric, generates higher revenue, and is able to expand the portfolio of efficient services it offers to

‘Aam Aadmi’.

While it is still early days, the model has proved to be scalable across regions, urban-rural complexities, and

size of the post office. The leadership, now more than ever, needs to be focused on ensuring that it maintains

its sense of ownership and drive for results to address sustainability challenges.


Appendix

Activities for “Get the Core Right”

Description Issues Key Measures

Mail Delivery Mail operations are fundamental to India Post, and mail processing, transmission, and delivery are its core activities. It is the most common association customers have with it. Mail is collected from 589,666 letter boxes in the country. This is processed by a network of 489 railway mail service offices and sent by road, rail, and airlines all over the country.

All mail is not sorted for

delivery on the day of receipt.

All mail is not delivered on

the day of arrival.

All letter boxes are not

cleared every day.

Missorting and delay in mail

dispatch.

Revise mail arrangements –

look for alternative transport.

Streamline predelivery

processes.

Ensure availability of

equipment and accessories.

Saving Bank Post Office Savings Bank provide financial service to people who have no bank accounts. The Post Office Savings Bank is the country’s largest retail bank in terms of network (more than 150,000 branches, 17.2 crore accounts, and aggregate deposits of Rs. 3,51,547 crores).

Delay in settling deceased

claim and requests for

account transfer.

Entries made manually in

passbooks.

Shortage of cash delays

payment.

End-of-day account

balancing is time consuming.

Revise cash balances and

withdrawal limits.

Digitize all manual records.

Re-engineer savings bank

operating processes.

Remittances India Post provides customers the facility to receive remittances from more than 205 countries and territories. It is a growth area and India Post needs to provide highly efficient services to grow and regain market share.

Low cash availability, low line

limits, and delays in

transmission.

All money orders are not

being paid on the same day.

Low use of eMOs and iMOs.

Review cash balances and

line limits.

Supervise and monitor

postmen performance.

Provide system backup and

daily monitoring of network

connectivity and error

reporting.

Service Levels High office service level is crucial for all operations in core areas. Customer perception about India Post depends on the standard of service and upkeep of the post office.

Present level of ambience

has no standardization.

Counter-transactions often

exceed the prescribed time

limits.

Current staff attitude in post

offices is significantly lower

than the aspiration.

Undertake thorough

cleaning of post office.

Codify and track

postmasters’ compliance to

the daily checklist

prescribed.

Formulate and implement

local Citizen’s Charter.


Activities for “Modernize Look and Feel”

Description Issues Key Measures

Human Resources

Human Resources (HR) training ensures that the post office staff is trained and motivated to conduct his/her daily tasks. India Post aspires to identify, train, and sensitize staff to project objectives and requirements. The key components include identify training needs, prepare trainers, and impart training.

Identify training requirements for post office staff to sensitize them to Project Arrow requirements. Implement training modules.

Conduct awareness programs and

workshops for change agents, division

heads, and post office staff.

Create a training database and

monitor implementation of the plan.

Identify and reward high-performing

post offices.

Branding India Post aims to build a unique brand across the country. To achieve this, all post offices need to be compliant with the new branding guidelines developed by the directorate.

Ensure consistent brand image for India Post through uniform and exhaustive use of brand logos and signage across all post offices.

Familiarize staff with the Corporate

Manual of India Post and implement it

in all the post offices.

List out the branding requirements for

each post office and complete it.

Have a streamlined procurement

process with timely orders placed with

the vendors.

Technology Technology ensures that all postal operations are smoothly carried out and less time is consumed by back-end operations. India Post targets to achieve total computerization and facilitation of Web-enabled services. Key components include provision of hardware/software and connectivity in all post offices.

Identify and implement technology components required in Project Arrow in post offices, such as WAN and Internet kiosk.

Calculate hardware, software, and

networking requirements for each post

office and fulfill them timely.

Review the available resources and

prepare blueprint for site preparation.

Monitor software installation and

ensure completion before launch date.

Infrastructure Right infrastructure helps to give a uniform ‘look and feel’ to post offices and facilitate smooth operations. India Post aims to standardize all required infrastructure across all post offices in India. Key components include standard exterior and interior appearance, required fixtures, and furniture.

Identify and complete all infrastructure requirements in post offices to change the ‘look and feel’ of post offices to the standard of Project Arrow.

Be familiar with the Blue Book to

understand the requirements.

Collect field data, analyze gaps, and

finalize the scope of the work.

Consolidate the requirements, and

prepare and submit estimates for

timely procurement.

Monitor installation and ensure

completion of all work before the date

of the launch.


Sample Set of Instructions from Blue Book

“Get the Core Right”

REVISE MAIL ARRANGEMENTS – LOOK FOR ALTERNATE TRANSPORT

1: Steps 2 (a & b), 3,4 and 5 are to be done at the same time (and are not sequential)

Why?

How? – Implementation details Who?

Activity 1Mail

• There may be a possibility of bringing mail earlier to the post office which needs to be examined as this would allow more time for

sorting and ensure same day delivery

1. Identify mail arrival mode (rail/road) and time and what is the scheduled time and identify if mail arrival

time is ideal for completion of beat sorting in the post office before the postmen are out for delivery

2. Identify all trains that come to the nearest station. Identify if there are some trains that arrive at that

station earlier than the existing mail carrying train

If a train arrives at the station earlier and has a mail section, mail can be brought earlier

If a train arrives at a station, but does not have a mail section, negotiate with railways for a

weighment system or use dedicated personnel to bring mail (if justified by mail volume)

3. If no train comes to the station earlier, but comes to the nearby stations, analyze if bringing mail from

nearby station by road may bring mail earlier and also be cost effective

4. Also explore the possibility of bringing mail by road using state transport, private transport, private mail

motor contract or departmental mail motor

5. If existing mode of mail arrival is via road, explore if a train option might work

1

2

3

4

a

b

5

Postmaster/

Superintendent

As follows

Superintendent/PMG

PMG

Superintendent

Superintendent/PMG

Superintendent/PMG

1

2

3

4

a

b

5

Timeline1

Days

from

start of

activity

Sub-activity

2b

4 & 532a1

715

3060

70

“Modernize Look and Feel”

8484

Step No.

Activities

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Steps to be taken

• Define post office

requirements

• Set up a local team

• Ensure timely

procurement &

deployment process

• Commissioning of

hardware

• Installation of software

• Maintenance

• System security

ACTIVITIES AND STEPS TO BE TAKEN

• Get post office requirements specifications

• Calculate hardware, software & networking requirements

• Review available resources

• Prepare blue print for site preparation

• Observe financial procedures required for procurement

• Take necessary approvals & place orders with approved

vendors

• Coordinate WAN deployment & supply of hardware

• Coordinate site preparation

• Validate site readiness and hardware quality/quantity

• Hardware commissioning

• Monitor software installation and ensure completion before

launch date

• Define/review maintenance plans & contracts

• Maintain/replace computer consumables & stationery

• Maintain hardware record, software versions and contact

numbers

• Put in place a daily check-up process

• Update the software & antivirus, apply system upgrades and

backup data

Technology

Pre-

Operative

Post-

Operative

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1200 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services offshoring and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 2.24 million professionals.

NASSCOM was set up in 1988, at Mumbai to facilitate business and trade in software and services and to encourage advancement of research in software technology. It is a not-for-profit organization, registered under the Indian Societies Act, 1860. Currently, NASSCOM is headquartered in New Delhi, India with regional offices in the cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune.

In India and around the world, NASSCOM members are active participants in the new global economy and are reputed for their innovative business practices, social initiatives and thrust for foraying into new emerging opportunity areas.

NASSCOM's Vision is to maintain India's leadership position in the global sourcing IT industry, to grow the market by enabling industry to tap into emerging opportunity areas and to strengthen the domestic market in India.

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