Itc Echoupal Experience

ITC eChoupal Experience

My Presentation Scope  While the canvas for discussion is very broad, I will limit myself to share with you few principles of eChoupal that enabled its deployment at grassroot to become •

Sustainable

•

Scalable

ITC eChoupal A Quick Look

The eChoupal Services  Relevant & Real-time Information • Commodity prices, Local Weather, News

 Customised Knowledge • Farm Management, Risk Management

 Supply Chain for Farm Inputs • Screened for Quality, Demand Aggregation for Competitive Prices & Efficient Logistics

 Direct Marketing Channel for Farm Produce • Lower Transaction Costs, Better Value through Traceability

Other Services through eChoupal  Distribution of Products and Services to Rural Markets  Micro marketing • Product/Services Demos • Marketing and Brand Building activities

 Pilots • • • •

Bhoomi eHealth with Private Health Service Providers eEducation Rural BPO

Current Network Size State

Choupals

Hubs

Madhya Pradesh

1750

43

Uttar Pradesh

1750

42

Maharashtra

900

22

Rajasthan

500

15

Karnataka

100

2

Andhra Pradesh

150

3

5,150

127

Choupals Villages

31,000

Farmers

3,500,000

Adding Six New Choupals Every Day Intend Scaling up to 100,000 Villages in 15 States by 2010

Deployment Principles

#1 Co Creation  End-to-end solution is designed collaboratively • Identify major problems and • solve them with efficiency and transparency

 When we started, it was with a FMCG approach, with reliance on • Market Research • Focus Groups

… and then the approach quickly changed to ‘Prototypes’ to enable experience and obtain feedback • An iterative approach to build models to solve the real world problems of the Individual and of the Community

Solution : Access to Price Information – Anytime & In the Village

Solution : Transparency and Accuracy in Weighment

Solution : Modern Methods for Quality Assessment

#2 Must have a well thought out Business Model  Who Pays ?  Who Runs ?  Who Monitors Quality?  What are the Value Propositions to the Stake Holders ?

The ITC eChoupal Proposition  Step 1: Leveraging ICTs for empowered access to markets (inputs & outputs)  Step 2: Economic viability of IT infrastructure investments is justified through Win-Win business models, hence also scaleable  Step 3: Customer responsive IT infrastructure in the villages facilitates access to supplementary Education, Health, Employment, eGovernance services

ICTs make it possible !  The eChoupal Price Discovery : Farmer @ Receiving End Vs Empowered • Value through Unbundling what was bundled together earlier (Information & Transaction) – Unbundles – Price information is now available at the door step without a necessity to go to mandi – Has an option to fix price at the village itself. However, at the time of selling, still retains the freedom to go to mandi if he believes he gets better offer there.

 The Input Transaction • Value through Bundling (Information, Knowledge, Transaction) what was available unbundled earlier – Bundles – Information on Weather and Best Practices from the website – Knowledge of ‘what to do’ from the Experts – Efficient supply platform for inputs purchase that enables aggregation and scale efficiencies

#3 The Orchestrator  Who Orchestrates the multiple entities? • The scale and complexity inherent makes it a high maintenance network

 The Orchestrator has to ensure • There is a ‘Big Picture’ to what is initiated • ‘Changing Needs’ are tracked and are efficiently responded • ‘Continuous Innovation’ of the business model is ensured for its long term relevance

#4 The Infrastructure  Must have Three Tiers • Local part for Responsiveness • Regional level for Controlling • Apex element for Resources Allocation

3 X 3 eChoupal Infrastructure  ICT Kiosk with Internet Access • In the house of one trained farmer, Sanchalak • Within walking distance of target farmers Link

 Warehousing Hub / Store • Managed by the erstwhile middleman, Samyojak • Within tractorable distance of target farmers Link

 Collaborative Network of Companies • Orchestrated by ITC • With a Pan-Indian presence Link

#5 Capability Building  Build Customer Orientation right across the Chain • “Customer is the reason”

 … and also the necessary Functional and Process skills • Working Capital • Demand Creation / assessment

 … along with the Soft Skills • Feedback • Quality / Customer Service

Taking ICTs & Biz Models to Rural India

Training

Taking ICTs & Biz Models to Rural India

Power

Connectivity

Website

ITC Limited

eChoupal

Sagar

Thank You

Thank You

visit www.itcportal.com for more details on ITC eChoupal