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Gemini Communications Ltd (GCL) is helping TNEB to become one of the few
companies in India, which will have all their collection centers connected with
the center server. People can now pay their bills in a collection center in
their region/zone as per their convenience
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has grown leaps and bounds generating
a capacity of 10098MW as on February 28, 2007 from a modest start in July 1957.
Its customer base has reached 182.98 lakh (as on Jan 31, 2007). In a follow up
of their commitment to render the highest standards of service to their
customers, they roped in Gemini Communication Ltd (GCL) to connect all their
collection centers across the state to the server center.
GCL has a proven expertise to deliver complex turnkey solutions because of
its partnerships from leading technology companies around the world in LAN/ WAN
division, CTI, NetworkCARE services, NetworkCARE products, wireless and telecom
and RFID. It all began in December 2005 when Gemini bagged the order for the
first phase, but started the project implementation after they received PO in
January 2006 and completed the first phase by June 2006. “We at GCL feel proud
to be partnering with TNEB in this prestigious project,” said Vijay Kumar, Group
Chairman, Gemini Communication Ltd.
During the first phase the whole of Tamil Nadu was divided into nine regions,
Chennai (North), Chennai (South), Vellore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Erode, Madurai,
Viluppuram and Tirunelveli. In this phase only Chennai (North) was connected
fully with some connectivity happening in other eight regions as well. “It
connected about 450 collection centers and it has acted as more of a test case,”
informed Kumar.
In the first phase, Gemini not only provided and deployed the servers and
storage products for the network but also supplied thin clients. Nine regional
datacenters were created and hence the data that is being typed in at the remote
rural office today automatically gets saved in the server of the regional
office. So now people can pay their bills as per their convenience in any one of
the collection centers of their zone.
In the second phase TNEB had come out with a tender for the remaining eight
regions catering to the remaining 1,725 collection centers. GCL being the least
bidder in all the eight regions, again took the charge.
“We bid for the second phase as we had in depth domain knowledge of the
client and had an innovative solution which would bring down the cost to the
client,” informed Kumar.
After the completion of the second phase TNEB will become one of the few
companies in India to have connected all their collection centers with the
center server. Talking about the challenges faced during the project deployment,
Kumar said, “There were a lot of challenges in the first phase as we were doing
a huge network for an e-governance project and routing most of the data through
wireless. The site condition was very different from our assumptions and we had
to adjust and provide rugged products.”
Today, visitors stand in shorter queues along with the freedom of paying
their bills in whichever collection center they choose. Approximately 1.5 crore
consumers are expected to benefit out of this project after the second phase is
also over.
Gemini has started received PO's for the various eight regions. “We are
confident we will complete the project within 90 days of the receipt of these
PO's. This means that by May 2007 the second phase will also be over,” informed
Kumar.
Gemini's proposed solution is based on 95 percent wireless and five percent
leased lines. The remote rural office of TNEB will be connected to a circle
office and the circle office will be connected to the regional office. As on
date the regional offices have not been connected to one single datacenter,
which could be taken up by TNEB after this project is completed.
GCL did not share the complete details of the vendors whose products they
will be using in the project. But, for the leased lines GCL has approached
Railtel and other private service providers. Also, they are using PointRed
wireless modems for this project.
Kumar further informed, “The key differentiator between GCL and the rest of
the bidders was the network design and our strength in wireless technology,
added to the fact that we are selling our own modems in this network.”
In the last 12 years GCL has focused on being one of the most innovative
networking companies in India. They started their own manufacturing of products
like modem but then they saw good opportunity in acquiring PointRed. PointRed is
a 100 percent subsidiary of GCL. “The company's decision to acquire PointRed was
instrumental in bringing down our cost during bidding thus being competitive in
the market place,” quipped Kumar. PointRed will soon be coming out with mobile
WiMax range of products further enhancing the competitive positioning of GCL.
Though there is no official confirmation from TNEB, Kumar believes that the
next step after the deployment of the second phase would be connecting all the
nine regional offices to the central head office. This along with ERP could be
termed as the third phase.
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