Four IT majors shortlisted for army logistics solutions

Surabhi Agarwal, New Delhi
The Financial Express
In a significant deal in the domestic IT space, which is currently abuzz with several big ticket IT projects from the public sector and government agencies, the country’s top software outsourcing firms — TCS, Wipro Technologies, L&T Infotech and Siemens Information Systems Ltd (SISL), have been shortlisted by the Indian Army for its Computerised Inventory Control Project (CICP) in the second round of bidding.

According to sources close to the development, the Indian Army is now expected to come out with a limited tender, where only these companies will be invited to submit their bids. The final contract is expected to be awarded by March 2010.

Industry experts put the worth of the contract anywhere between Rs 400 to 700 crore. The project will require automation, procurement and deployment of management solutions for logistics of the Indian Army. While some of the top names of the Indian IT industry like Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra Satyam, SISL, L&T Infotech, BAeHAL, IBM and Cap Gemini had submitted Expression of Interest (EoI) for the deal, only four players, most of them offering SAP-based products, have been selected by the Army.

According to experts, the project will be critical to the war-readiness of the country. The CICP envisions providing responsive operational logistic support to the army in a completely integrated and automated environment, utilising modern inventory management techniques with real time sharing of information within and outside the army ordnance corps.

In simple terms, it will include inventory management of wide-ranged items such as clothing, armament from small arms to guns and related spares, wireless equipment, nuclear biological and chemical equipment, ski and mountaineering equipment, ammunition, missiles, explosives and related non-explosive stores, vehicles and even aircraft.

According to sources, while SISL, L&T's software services arm L&T Infotech and India's third largest software firm Wipro have bid along with SAP; the country's largest software company TCS has offered both SAP and Oracle products.

However, at the final tender stage, the system integrators will bid only with one product. Mahindra Satyam and BAeHAL had software products from IFS India in their portfolio.

The Indian Army's CICP is one of the several public sector deals that are currently floating in the domestic market and are being actively pursued by software majors. The country’s defence sector is considered to be one of the biggest spenders on IT, with Indian Airforce already launching an e-maintenance project worth Rs 2,500 crore for its entire fleet of aircraft, radars and missiles. There are several other projects underway at the defence forces, however they are either being done in-house or carried out secretly due to the security issues involved.