Computerisation drive still in limbo

KOCHI:  Almost two years after the computerisation drive at the Vydyuthi Bhavan, the headquarters of Kerala State Electricity Board, for accounting of high tension and extra high-tension consumers, the process is still in limbo. The KSEB gets over 40 per cent of its revenue from these high value consumers.Though it is almost two years that the KSEB had given the contract to a private firm for computerisation of the accounting system, the sources said there were many complications related to the software and it was not user-friendly, which had led to the lagging of the works.The employees are yet to get accustomed to the new system, the sources said. Almost all the employees have complaints regarding the usability of the system, which they find it more complicated. It is also learned that only a single official of the private company that is entrusted with the computerisation is right now present at the Vydyuthi Bhavan. The other staff for the computerisation drive have been drawn from the Board itself. Sources in the Board noted that the private company was entrusted with the task of developing the new software as there was no team for developing such software in the Board. However, the employees feel that the KSEB team that had developed Open Resourced Utility Management Application (ORUMA) software for Low Tension billing could have been entrusted with the job.  A member of the team that developed ORUMA said issues could crop up whenever an outside agent was approached. “Almost all the private companies have a set frame work. They might not be able to have a clear picture of the needs of the Board. But if the team from the Board was involved, we could have developed as per the needs,” he said. He also noted that the Board did not have a proper IT wing. “The Board should have to bring in more developments in the IT sector,” he said. Meanwhile, Director (IT) KSEB Sudley Cardoza  noted that the software that was used was very much user-friendly. “It is only a matter of familiarisation and once the employees get used to it, then there will not be any problem,” he told ‘Express’.