Covering over 82 million consumers and over 7,000 distributors delivering more than 1.5 million LPG cylinders everyday, Idea’s ‘Smart Gas Solution’ service agreement with IOCL, for a period of two years, is one of the largest IVR Deployment by a telecom operator, in recent times. The service allows Indane consumers to book LPG 24x7 and offers IVR and SMS based delivery status updates, without having to visit the distributor‘s outlet.
Talking about the project, Mr. AN Jha, Executive Director (LPG), IOCL, said, “This has been one of the major e-governance projects for IOCL and has not only helped us enhance overall transparency in LPG cylinder booking and real-time reporting, helping better stocks and logistic management across country, but also faster problem resolution and better experience for the consumers.”
According to Mr. Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular, “Idea has always believed in offering simple telephony ideas to solve day-to-day problems. We understood the loop-holes in the Gas distribution system and offered a simple, yet, robust solution to IOCL to help them overcome the distribution challenges and provide convenience and satisfaction to their end consumers. We are happy to undertake one of the largest deployments of IVR across the world, involving automation of the complete business process of LPG booking till delivery. This is a major boost to our Enterprise business solution which is focussed on providing unique voice and data based Telecom Solutions to help large, medium and small enterprises to transform their businesses.”
Presently, the service is launched in 45 cities and would be progressively rolled out across India in the next three months.
Background on ‘Idea’s Smart Gas Solution’:
Traditionally, LPG bookings were done through appointed Distributors, and customers were required to call up distributor or personally visit, to book gas. This system was plagued with inefficiencies and arbitrariness because of complete control resting with the distributor. Also, due to subsidies on LPG, there was risk of distribution malpractices. Whereas the customer faced inconveniences such as continuously busy Telephone Lines, restricted calling time and calls not being answered, the LPG companies were faced with several other challenges such as Refill cylinders meant for household supply being diverted to commercial market, leading to artificial shortage, and lack of insightful and authentic MIS.
Idea’s LPG Booking System, ‘Smart Gas Solution’, has addressed these inherent inefficiencies and reduced the scope of malpractices. Idea’s end-to-end technology based Booking and Billing system have reduced distributors’ role to only refill delivery while shifting entire refill booking under the LPG company’s direct control.
