IME

BSNL

[ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE & BEHAVIOUR] Project Report

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Submitted By

Abhishek 12125001

Rajat Bhakri 12125038

Ruchik Vin 12125054

Sunny Goyal 12125047

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Index

Topic Page No

Acronyms 3

Focus 4

Sources of Information 6

About BSNL 7

Organization Structure 8

Organizational Culture 11

Culture and Change 12

Environmental Change 13

Migration from DotSoft to CDR 14

CDR based billing 16

CDR from user‟s point of view 20

Organigraph 21

Processes 22

Customer Service Center 25

Other issue- ITS 28

Conclusion 30

References 32

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Acronyms:

CCN Customer Care Node

CDR Call Details Record

CRM Customer Relationship Management

CSC Customer Service Center

DE Divisional Engineer

DGM Deputy General Manager

DOT Department of Telecom

GMTD General Manager Telecom District

ITS Indian Telecom Service

IVRS Interactive Voice Response System

JTO Junior Telecom Officer

MDF Main Distribution Frame

PGRMS Public Grievances Redressal Management System

PM Phone Mechanic

PRO Public Relations Officer

RM Regular Mazdoor

SDCA Short Distance Charging Area

SDE Sub Divisional Engineer

SDO Sub Divisional Officer

SNEA Sanchar Nigam Executives‟ Association

Sr TOA Sr. Telecom Operator Assistant

SSA Secondary Switching Area

TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

TTA Telecom Technical Assistant

VTM Vigilance Telecom Monitoring

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FOCUS

With the advent of privatization and foreign players entering the Indian market, the whole

philosophy of doing business has drastically changed. Before the reforms, majority of the

businesses are state controlled and only state has access to most of the country‟s resources. This

monopoly in the Indian market has given birth to certain business processes which had a very

little focus on consumer satisfaction and retention because consumer is generally dependent on

one single player. Indian government started many varied organizations to serve the citizens of

India such as Banks, Metallurgical industries, Food corporations and Telecom companies etc.

These Industries and Institutions have focused less on the quality of services rendered because of

the stable environment and their monopoly. These Institutions thus developed some processes

and values which are absorbed in their culture and reflected in the ways they perform their

operations.

With the private and foreign players entering the market the business environment has

become very uncertain. Technological breakthroughs, rigid regulations and increasing

competition had changed the way of doing business. The most important and significant aspect

of this changing business environment is the outlook of organizations towards the consumer.

With multiple options and increasing awareness, power equation has shifted to the side of

consumer. Consumer satisfaction and retention has become the key to survival in this

environment of uncertainty. Organizations are continually working towards the quality of their

services to get that competitive advantage.

The primary objective of the project is to study the transformation in business processes

of an organization. How that organization fared with the change in business environment and

how it catered to the more service conscious and aware consumers. The project also focuses on

the undergoing change process and some specific problems related to the organization.

The organization the project focuses on is the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)

Kanpur. BSNL was started in the year 2000 when it was made a different company and

separated from Department of Telecom (DOT). BSNL revolutionized the telecom industry in

India. Being the only player at that time and with humongous infrastructure, BSNL soon became

the very popular and trusted brand among the people of India. The project focuses on the study

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of processes adopted by BSNL to manage consumer services and analysis of these processes

from different vantage points. The project also focuses on the study of culture imbibed in the

BSNL and its implications in the new uncertain environment.

The project report is structured to first brief the reader with the methods and procedures

followed to get the information. Then the report will provide the reader with a basic knowledge

about the background of BSNL. It will then focus on the organizational structure, culture and

processes used in the BSNL. The report will go through various change initiatives introduced in

the BSNL to cope up with the environment. It will then look at a very specific issue concerned

with the top management. And then conclude with the brief analysis of issues with reference to

organizational theory.

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The project team visited the two offices of BSNL Kanpur a number of times. The first one at

Mall Road is the main corporate central office for the Kanpur circle and handles several

departments like finance, operations, public relations etc. Another office is the network

operations office (Exchange) in Rawatpur.

Information is collected from the personal interactions with the people from managerial level to

the front line staff. The team is very much thankful to the Personal Relations Officer Mr. S.K.

Singh, JTO (Outdoor) Sudhir Sinha and Line Man Rakesh Kumar for their valuable insights and

immense cooperation. Some consumers of the services were also interviewed to get their

perspective.

The team faced various problems during the gathering of Data

Most of the employees are aged and are reluctant to discuss and share any intrinsic

information.

Employees considered us as a nuisance and after repeated requests they agreed to share

some information. The typical answer used to be “Humko permission nahi hai bolne ka, jaa ke

upar baat karo” (we are not allowed to speak or comment on anything, go and talk to upper

management). Unexpectedly Employees were found to be very polite and cooperative once they

are convinced that information will not be misused or misinterpreted.

We are given the opportunity to interact with SDE (CDR) and understand the intricacies and

processes of the system. Also we were given access to observe the working of customer service

centre (CSC) and interact with the employees and customers.

The secondary source of information was the Internet.

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ABOUT BSNL

BSNL was formed on 1st October 2000. Government of India formed this organization to

establish a huge telecommunication network across the country. It is headquartered in New

Delhi, India. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony and fourth largest mobile telephony

provider in India, and is also a provider of broadband services. It took over the business of

providing telecom services and network management from the erstwhile Central Government

Departments of Telecom Services (DTS) and Telecom Operations (DTO) on going concern

basis.

VISION: The organization was formed to be the leading telecom service provider in India. It

was formed to make a customer focused organization with excellence in customer care, sales and

marketing.

BSNL performed really well during the initial years of its inception and then started

witnessing continuous downslide in its market share. This wholly owned government enterprise

is under severe pressure and is making losses due to increased competition, a declining fixed line

market, antiquated processes and procedural bottlenecks especially related to purchase of

equipment, bureaucratic and government dependent decision making system, lack of

collaborative actions, large work force, regulatory changes, operational inefficiencies,

countervailing power of unions and other internal and external challenges.

Telecom has transitioned from a “technology driven” business to “customer Centric”

business requiring an organizational DNA of customer care.

The Customer Service is considered as the very important aspect of Telecommunication

Industry. We tried to focus on this very major issue and understand the underlying processes

followed in BSNL. We studied the grievance redressal mechanism of BSNL and analyzed it

from various vantage points with reference to the organizational theory.

The industry has gone from being a monopoly to hyper competition with over ten

operators. We tried to study the customer care approach of BSNL in this changing business

environment.

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Organizational aspects of BSNL

Organizational Structure:

The central structure of the BSNL is as per below

The office of the CMD or the headquarter of the BSNL is in New Delhi. Five functional

directors report directly to the CMD and sit in head office. Operations are divided into 26 circles

and each circle head (CGM) sits in the circle head office. UP is divided into 2 circles and Kanpur

comes under UP East circle. CGM of UP East circle sits in Lucknow and looks after all the

operations in the circle. UP East circle is then divided into 31 SSA‟s. We focused on the

operations of Kanpur SSA.

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Kanpur SSA

The organization structure for the Kanpur SSA is given below. There are 31 SSAs

(Secondary switching area) in UP East circle. A single SSA may cover one or more district.

There is one GM in a SSA. In Kanpur SSA, there are three DGMs, one DGM Finance and DGM

Planning reporting to GM. AGMs (Assistant General Manager) report to respective DGMs.

SDEs (Sub-divisional engineers) work under AGM and JTOs report to SDE.

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The hierarchy below JTO is as below. TTA (Telecom Technical assistant), Telecom

Operations Assistant, Phone Mechanics and Regular Mazdur report to JTO. These are non-

executive posts under JTO.

The structure of BSNL is geographical divisional at the circle level. At the SSA level

operations are further divided into small geographic regions and other departments like finance

are planning are centralized at the circle corporate office. The structure is very rigid and

mechanized and decision making is centralized. Rules and responsibilities of every bureaucratic

hierarchy are well defined and written. Promotions are experience based rather than performance

based and there are no performance related appraisals.

Operations Department: Operations department looks over the network operations of landline,

broadband and mobile sections. There are three DGMs for operations DGM (East), DGM (West)

and DGM (South). All field staff reports to respective DEs and these DEs report to DGMs.

Operations are divided into two parts Outdoor and Indoor. Indoor staff is responsible for

maintenance of exchanges, MDFs and helping the outdoor staff in their operations. Outdoor staff

is responsible for all field work like visiting subscribers home, provisioning of new Telephone

connection and Broadband, Fault rectification of Landline and Broadband services. Phone

Mechanics (Lineman) are responsible for going to subscribers home. They report to JTO (Junior

Telecom Officer) of respective exchange. JTOs report to SDEs and SDEs report to Divisional

Engineers.

Planning Department: Planning department is responsible for procurement and moblisation of

resources. DGM (Planning) is responsible for floating tenders for various jobs and contracts.

They invite quotations and manage the whole purchasing and contracting process. There are

various ongoing jobs which BSNL outsource like supplying manpower and maintenance of

batteries and power plants etc. They also engage in communication with the contractors. Once

the job is done, they are responsible for taking the acceptance certificate from concerned

JTO

TTA Sr. TOA PM RM

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department and further they have to give their approval to contractors so that they can get the

payments from accounts section. Contractors continuously try to pressurize the planning staff for

their early payments.

Finance Department: DGM (Finance) heads the finance department of a SSA. There are

CAOs, who report to him. Finance department is responsible for all the activities related to cash

or revenue. AO (Cash) handles all the cash transactions with the banks and all the payments and

salaries. AO (TRA) is responsible for maintaining records of revenue generated. AO (Pursuit

Cell) is responsible for collection of payments from defaulters. AO (Billing) is responsible for all

the billing related activities at SSA level. Billing related complaints are handled by AO (Billing).

Organizational Culture:

There are many underlying norms which are influencing the culture of the BSNL. By

talking to the employees we came through very interesting facets of the culture of BSNL. Unions

form the integral part of BSNL culture and greatly affect the employee behavior. Authority

associated with the bureaucracy cannot be exercised as employees yield power due to their

association to some union. According to Mr. S.K. Singh (PRO) if GM releases a memo to some

inefficient employee, most of the times it is followed by dharnas and slogan shouting. Unions

exert huge pressure on the management for employee related decisions. However interesting

thing which came out during the interview was that the many employees wish to have a

performance based appraisals or some kind of formal recognition. BSNL has norms of “sanchar

sewa padak” and “sanchar sarthi” which are platforms for formal recognition, but employees

complain that efficient workers are never recognized and unions try to influence these awards.

The discretionary power with the employees is very less and each and every approval is

to be documented and approved by General Manager. Another important facet of working which

we came to know is that employees are very reluctant to use technology like email etc and prefer

doing work on hard copies which are faxed or printed. Every document which is to be transferred

from one employee to another is normally send in the form of two hard copies and employees

used to retain one signed hard copy as a testimony. These norms are embedded in the culture of

BSNL and have not changed from last few years.

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We talked to the SDE (HRD) and tried to get some insights on the HR policies and

problems in HR management. He told us that because of the bureaucratic red tapism and unions

the employees always try to exert pressure regarding their transfers and the type of departments

they want to work in. HR department is working under heavy pressures and has very limited

decision making authority. Even with the bureaucratic structure the BSNL is not able to exert

command and control because power does not lies inside the organization but exerted from

elements outside it.

We found one more facet of BSNL where its own system is effecting its operational

efficiency and is getting reflected in their culture. According to Line Man Mr. Rakesh Kumar,

his only bosses don‟t let him work efficiently by instructing him to attend to the complaints of

their relatives or complaints from some local influential people. He has to let go his routine work

where he can attend to many complaints of simple people and go out of way to address these

kind of special complaints. This is reflected in the image of the BSNL and it is perceived as not

so efficient organization regarding customer services.

Another very important finding of the BSNL which we came through is about handling

RTI applications (Right to Information). JTO Sudhir Sinha said the RTI has become pain in their

neck. Corporate office is receiving on an average 5-6 RTI application in a week. Most of time

the employees are working on closing these applications as they are to be replied within a very

short span of time. Employees said they are not able to focus on their day to day works and are

forced to work on these RTI‟s. It has become the norm in the organization to address these RTI‟s

at the cost of normal customer service operations.

Culture and change

BSNL started as a monopoly and then when the private players entered the market, the

telecom sector transformed from “technology driven” business to “customer centric”. People had

availability of more options than earlier. BSNL realized the importance of customer satisfaction

and then customer service centers were introduced. But even with this institutional change, the

attitudes of the employees remain the same. They still think that customers are dependent on

them for the services and have not realized the importance of customer service approach for the

organization as a whole.

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Environmental Change:

Over the last few years, the telecom industry in India has been going through a period of

intense change. Needs of the retail as well as corporate customers are changing and their

expectations in terms of service and quality are getting higher. BSNL is facing increasingly stiff

competition from private players. The regulatory regime under which they are operating is also

evolving considerably. The telecom industry is witnessing new and emerging trends globally

with new and innovative products and services gaining importance. Over the recent past,

BSNL‟s performance has come under considerable pressure. It has not been able to grow in line

with the market and has been steadily losing its market share. The lack of top line growth

coupled with increasing costs has put pressure on BSNL‟s operating performance in the past few

years.

BSNL had engaged the services of The Boston Consulting Group to help develop an

overall strategy and transformation plan for the organization. This transformation exercise for

BSNL was called Project “Shikhar”. It covered development of an overall strategic agenda

across BSNL‟s key businesses (wireless, fixed-line and broadband) including customer

segmentation, sales channel management as well as product management. It also looked at

appropriate strategic initiatives in operations as well as in Human Resource Management in

order to implement the new strategy effectively. Thus the project broadly addressed the key

aspects of operations, marketing and HR issues. All this is aimed at making BSNL more capable

to thrive in a very competitive market place. To achieve the above objectives, special focus was

given to the following points

Redesigning the organization structure, roles & responsibilities

Redesigning of processes followed

Strengthening HR policies and practice

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Change Initiatives

When private players entered the market, every player started to differentiate themselves

on the basis of services provided to customers. BSNL tried to adapt to this changing business

environment and focused on various initiatives. Customer service gained a fresh meaning. New

posts were inducted like JTO, TTA to acquire technical expertise to resolve uncertainties. Junior

Telecom Officer (JTO) is responsible for new connections and resolving faults in the

connections and is an interface between the executive authority and non executive work force.

TTA is responsible for assisting JTO with technical expertise and working at the ground level.

BSNL implemented many changes in its processes so that adequate services can be rendered to

customers and new customers can be acquired. The project will focus on the detailed study and

evaluation of some of these processes.

Earlier BSNL was using DOT soft for service management but in 2009 it implemented a

new service management system to increase its operational efficiency and streamline its

processes for effective delivery of services.

Migration from DotSoft to CDR (call details record):

In DOT era, the Billing was the last function in Telecom operations coming after

Commercial System, Fault tracking and management system and Directory Enquiry system. New

connections along with Shift and other such functions were dealt in Commercial system. This

system maintained a database of existing customers for dealing with shift, transfer, safe custody

and other such requests from existing customers. The fault tracking and management system

specifically catered to the management of line faults and while doing so had to maintain another

database on existing customers. The third system of Directory Enquiry was an important system

for informing the customers about the name and address for a telephone in a fast changing

landline environment. That was the period when landline network grew and was reshaped at a

hectic pace. The Directory Enquiry system also needed to have its own structured database. The

last but not the least was the Billing system. It was known to many just as Billing system though

its other component of Accounting was also equally important. Its function was to bill the

customers on their usage and collect payments. Obviously this system needed its own database.

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Thus the four core Telecom operation systems separately maintained four different

databases. A single event like a request for a new connection needed four update transactions at

different times for updating the four systems. The usual error content in transactions and

asynchronous updates resulted finally in accumulated mismatch of the four databases.

Apart from the mismatch, as the operation systems were not interlinked with each other,

changing any procedure was cumbersome needing changes to be made separately in all the four

systems. Furthermore, in the absence of a single view of all aspects of a customer, single point

reliable customer service could not be given.

In time, realizing the importance of integrating the four systems, attempts were made to

evolve to integrated systems like DotSoft that contained all the four operation systems integrated

together.

With progress of time and opening up of telecom business, the Billing System gained

importance. It became the core application system through which all other functionalities flowed.

GSM mobile systems first brought in fully integrated end-to-end provisioning to billing systems.

In the fiercely competitive market, the concept of introducing flexible schemes and plans for

segments of customers was introduced. The seamlessly integrated new generation Billing and

Customer Care systems for mobile operations catered to these latest market requirements.

Apart from integration, a very important aspect of these systems was the basis of Billing.

In these new systems, billing was based on Call Detail Records (CDRs) for a customer

accumulated over a period instead of call meters. A CDR contained details such as calling

number, called number, time of call, duration of call etc. It didn‟t contain the call charge. This

made possible the flexible rating or charging a CDR according to where the call was made, when

the call was made and by whom the call was made. Time dependent, destination dependent, plan

dependent flexible charging became possible. In competitive telecom business arena this

flexibility of charging gained crucial importance and all operators without exception, according

to their capability adopted this new concept.

The incumbent operators were in the field of landline operations where growth slowed

down all over the world and mobile market exploded. The mobile systems invariably brought in

these new CDR based billing systems. The quality and maturity of these billing systems in many

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cases determined the success of a mobile operator. Some operators needed to change their

ineffective CDR based billing system for a better system within only a few years. The CDR

based Billing and Customer Care systems gained a central importance in mobile operations

because of their capability to support flexible and quick introduction of new customer schemes

and plans, quickly activate or deactivate a connection while updating all the relevant information

of a customer and finally providing high quality Customer Care.

It became possible to profile the customers, track their usage and depending on the

profiles and usages segment the customers for focused marketing of special products.

Through all available channels such as SMS, Internet, Mobile phone, Fax etc. in the

modern environment, facilities were provided to capture customer requests and feedback in the

system and offer him consistent and speedy services.

Valuable functions such as Customer Care, Revenue assurance, Campaign management

for effective marketing were put on the core CDR based system to enhance its effectiveness. The

system no longer remained only as a billing system, its support extended to most aspects of

operation in a competitive business environment.

CDR based billing system in BSNL:

This system is envisaged for landline operations and consists mainly of the sub systems:

1. CRM: The CRM or Customer Relation Management module is the single interface to all

the customer requests from all the channels such as SMS, Internet, IVRS, direct approach

at the Customer Service Centre and so on. It captures a customer request and through a

predefined process for the specific request which can be a request for a new landline

connection or shift or such others, pass on the request to systems such as provisioning

system and finally to billing system.

A well-developed IVRS system backed up by Customer Service Associates provides a

consistent and timely customer care.

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Customer feedback can enrich customer profiling and can be used for designing,

marketing plan that is supported by a functional module of Marketing Campaign

Management, a part of CRM.

2. Provisioning: The provisioning system makes use of the relevant inventories and makes

the necessary changes in the network elements as per the specific provisioning

requirement.

3. Fault Tracking and Management: This module is integrated with the IVRS which is

considered to be a part of CRM, and with Billing and other relevant systems for Fault

management.

4. Directory Enquiry: This module again is integrated with the IVRS and other relevant

modules.

5. Billing and Accounting: This is the core module doing rating or charging of the CDRs

and Billing. There are associated modules of Payment Management system and

Accounting system to round off a powerful Billing and Accounting subsystem.

6. Revenue Assurance: This system takes relevant data from various sources including

Billing system to minimize revenue leakages.

7. Enterprise Reporting: A powerful Enterprise Reporting subsystem generates relevant

reports for various sections of users of the system.

8. Mediation: The mediation servers are an array of servers that sits between the Billing

System and the Exchanges. They collect CDRs from the Exchanges and hand these over

to the Billing servers suitably.

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Benefits of CDR System:

1. Standardization of systems and processes - Instead of varieties of systems all over

BSNL, a single seamlessly integrated standard operation system supports all the

operational activities providing the associated advantages. The overall quality of billing

and payment accrual systems improved.

2. High quality Customer Care - The seamless integration makes possible single point

high quality customer care.

3. Paradigm change of CDR based billing - The shift from call meter base to CDR base

makes possible flexible call dependent charging and customer segment based marketing

schemes. In addition, this paradigm change in billing makes possible new mandatory

TRAI functions such as carrier selection.

4. Value added functionalities - The additional value added functionalities makes possible

new powerful functionalities such as formal revenue assurance, formal improved CRM,

Marketing Campaign Management and so on.

5. E-Stapling - Through a special mechanism of E-Stapling, charges of various BSNL

services of one customer can be billed together.

6. Time to Market – The new convergent billing solution and a services layer built into the

integration layer facilitates the launch of new functionality and products faster into the

market.

7. Process Efficiency – New Systems incorporates Industry best practices that significantly

improves the process efficiency in some of the areas

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CDR System has three main modules:

1. CRM (Customer Relationship Management): CRM module is used by commercial

department. CRM helps to maintain a closer relationship with the customer by

customizing the solutions and services. SDE (Commercial) has got the username and

password to access the CRM which is used to create the various advice notes (orders).

2. Clarity: Clarity is provisioning and fault management system tool which is used by field

staff to get the orders created by commercial department and faults received from IVRS

and various other sources. After the provisioning of new connections is done and faults

are cleared orders status are changed. JTO (Outdoor) has got the username and password

to access the Clarity module. Clarity is also used for inventory management.

3. PMS (Billing): PMS is used by accounts department to get all the billing related data.

PMS is also used to to rectify various complaints related to billing. AO (Billing) has got

the username and password to access the PMS.

Resistance to Change:

Employees were very comfortable in using dot soft and had shown reluctance to

introduction of new technology. Moreover this change has induced a feeling of insecurity and

employees started feeling very vulnerable. BSNL implemented this change gradually and has

trained its workforce to familiarize with this change. Employees were realized the benefits of the

change that how the processes will become simpler and faster. The system was implemented

well and BSNL gradually shifted to this new technology.

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CDR from users’ point of view:

When CDR was introduced many employees were reluctant to learn new technology.

Also the system is not very user friendly and has some flaws. For ex: sometimes when

commercial department places order for new connection but field staff never gets the order. This

loss of transaction is not reported until customer complains. As a workaround, commercial team

replaces order as there is no solution available yet why order gets disappeared.

Another problem is faced by SSA team. When billing was done by Dot Soft, they had

power to check the billing data. Now with CDR if there is any mistake in billing, customer

complaints come to SSA but they have no access to check the centralized billing data.

This gap in billing information created some problems in handling consumer complaints

but it can be overcome by getting access to the data. Apart from some minor glitches the

technology is well received by the employees.

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ORGANIGRAPH:

Marketing Team

Customer

UDAAN Team

Online SMS

Customer Service Centre

CRM

IVRS

Clarity

Provisioning / Fault

Management Team

CDR Accounts

Department

PMS Billing

PGRMS

Commercial

Team

PRO

Complaint

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PROCESSES

UDAAN:

UDAAN team is formed with selected JTOs, which head TTAs, Sr. TOAs and phone

mechanics. The team works on the leads (potential customers who had enquired about BSNL

services either via SMS or via online medium). They contact back the leads, give them demos

and try to convert them to BSNL customers. Also, marketing team uses conventional marketing

for getting new customers.

Customer Service Center:

Every BSNL offices have Customer Service Center. New customers provide submit the

form filled up with their details, plan they want to take and deposit to these counters. Customer

Service executive enters the customer details in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and

provides the receipt to customer. This data then gets updated in CDR.

Commercial:

Every office has two commercial sections- one for landline & broadband and one for

mobile connections. Basic function of the commercial team includes record keeping, providing

information of users to Customer Service Center and handling RTIs. When a new connection is

given, commercial team handles the logistics, like recording and verifying the customer

acquisition forms (CAF), generating orders and updating CDR. When an RTI is filed by a

customer, commercial team will first check the authenticity of the customer and then the data

will be forwarded to billing team.

Mobile section also owns the responsibility of responding to the requirements of the

VTM cell of TRAI whenever being asked for the random customer acquisition forms to check

whether the all guidelines are properly followed. Failing to these attracts penalty up to Rs. 2

Lacks.

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Accounts Department:

The primary function of the accounts departments is to gather all the billing data from the

PMS billing module of the CDR and then forward this data to sub-contractors for printing and

distribution. The second very important task of the department is to attend all the billing related

complaints and coordinate with central team to resolve the discrepancies.

Currently bills are distributed through local post office. But BSNL is getting lots of

complaints of non-delivery or late delivery of bills. Now BSNL is planning to do distribution on

its own using their own linemen for cost reduction and effective distribution. However, the

response of linemen is not positive as they think every work is assigned to them only. This

problem can be overcome by giving them additional incentives for this work. This will also lead

to increased communication between customer and company.

Complaint Registration and Redressal:

A customer can log complaint in three ways: By calling 198 or 1500 (IVRS), by online

mode (PGRMS) or by contacting PRO team. Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) takes

the details from customer and updates them in CDR. JTO (outdoor) accesses these complaints

from the clarity module and forward them to the respective field line men. If the complaint is

logged via PGRMS, PG officer/PRO forwards the complaint to respective field staff and follows

up. After the fault is resolved the status is updated in the PGRMS module.

Provisioning/ Fault Management Team (Field staff):

This team is led by JTO. Every exchange is assigned to a particular JTO. Every morning

JTO accesses order book in clarity with the given credentials. It would provide list of all requests

for new landline and broadband connections. Also, it will give the details of the faults in his area.

Linemen, now known as phone mechanics, work under JTO. All the streets of the area under one

JTO are pre-assigned to phone mechanics. Based on the requests and faults of the different

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streets, JTO would provide them the slip of work containing address, nature of the work and

other details. JTO would visit the site only when the cable is cut by digging activity of Kanpur

Municipality Corporation or Central UP Gas Ltd pipelines. At such times, JTO would be

responsible for calling JCB machine, finding fault location and restoring the lines. Otherwise

JTO would just coordinate among phone mechanics and get the report from them at the end of

the day.

Issues

As the streets are pre-assigned and each phone mechanics have knowledge of their area

only, work load is not equally distributed. Also, some phone mechanics completely follow the

rule book to maintain pillar and DP (drop point) of their area and as a result they hardly get any

fault. On the other hand, many phone mechanics are over loaded with faults. Lack of teamwork

is often felt.

Another problem faced by phone mechanics is that they are given only bicycles and they

have large area to cover. Also, sometimes PAs of DGM/ GM, PRO, PG officers, DE call phone

mechanics in the middle of the day and threaten them to repair lines of their relatives/ friends on

the utmost urgency, which is against the standard procedure. For that, phone mechanics have to

leave their on-going work and have to travel on his bicycle. This delays the regular work and

non-influencing customer has to suffer, along with phone mechanic as his list of faults gets

accumulated.

One more issue that we came to know while interacting with JTO is that because all the

procurement and purchasing of handsets and modems take place at the central level. Sometimes

they face shortages of handset instruments and broadband modems for new connections and they

can do nothing to sort this problem out. He said tenders of these things take lot of time and thet

have to deal with the customers.

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Customer Service Center (CSC)

Working of CSC, BSNL office:

PRO has given us the access to observe the working of the CSC. He gave the permission

to observe the working of Customer Service Center. So we went to the CSC and tried to learn

what all activities they do and how the things are done. We came to know that CSCs are first

point of contact for any customer for any service. They try their best to help the customer in

whatever way they can.

Various services provided through CSC:

1. Providing new permanent telephone connection to a customer.

2. Shifting of Landline telephone.

3. Facilities provisioning and disconnecting on telephone.

4. Disconnecting the landline phone.

5. Booking of complaints.

6. Providing new broadband connection.

7. Providing new Wi-max connection.

8. Providing new Pre-paid and Post-paid mobile sim.

9. Selling of datacards for 3G services.

10. Deposits of bills for various services.

There are 9 people working in the CSC doing different jobs assigned to them. All the

staff is of Sr. TOA and TTA cadre. There are 2 counters for cash collection. 2 people are

assigned for cash collection at each cash counter. They work in shifts. First shift is from 8 to 2

and second shift is from 1 to 7. Only these people start early and work till 7 otherwise normal

work timings are from 10 to 5:30. They are free to co-ordinate among themselves for adjustment

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in timings. They all are Sr. TOAs. There are two people for different types of service requests of

customers. One is for landline and broadband related requests and the other one is for Mobile

related services and requests. Two counters are there for different Mobile VAS (Value added

services) addition and disconnection like provisioning of hello tunes and GPRS, EDGE and

various 3G services and also for disconnection of these services. They are also responsible for

creating and activating new mobile numbers. There counters are called CCN (Customer care

node).Moreover they are the first point of contact for various problems faced by the customers in

their mobile prepaid or postpaid services. They both are the TTAs. One person is assigned the

job of guiding the customer to the right place or counter whenever they visit the CSC. He is also

responsible for selling the data cards and guiding the customers about various plans and schemes

offered by the BSNL. He also helps the customers in filling the various forms for different kind

of services.

The people at cash counters have the access to the billing module (PMS) of CDR. Just by

entering respective landline or mobile number they can see the bills of the customers and

thereafter enter the amount deposited by the customers. After that a receipt is printed, which is

given to the customers. This information is then automatically updated in the central billing

server and accordingly next bill is adjusted.

The person responsible for accepting requests from customers for connection or

disconnection of landline or broadband services have the access to the CRM module of the CDR

system. Whenever a customer submits the form they fill the details into the CRM system and

after proper scrutiny of the forms the commercial section creates the order which in turn

reflected in the clarity for the field staff.

The persons responsible for handling the CCN have access to the Kenan module for

provisioning of various services related to mobile connections. Kenan is connected to the central

server for all these types of services.

Employee’s views on working of CSC:

According to a front desk employee the process has been very much simplified by the

introduction of CDR. The time required for handling per customer has reduced and they are able

to handle more customers per day. But the problem is that even with having such a huge work

force only a single person is allotted for a single desk and there is no substitute available in time

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of his absence. They complain of very hectic working schedule and have to bear the brunt of

disgruntled customers even when they are not at fault. When we talked to TTA at CCN, he told

that sometimes customers complain of unnecessary deductions because of activation of

unwanted services. Sometimes they are called by upper managers for some meetings which lead

to suffering of customers.

BSNL has developed a very robust and efficient system of servicing customers. The

process of implementation required some changes to be incorporated so that it can have smooth

functioning and derive full use of the technology. Multiple shifts, training and access to broad

information base can help the employees to cater well to the customers.

Customers view on working of CSC:

Customers using the online and telephone medium are satisfied with the ease of

registration of complaint but complain of late redressal of complaints. BSNL has a huge

customer base, most of which is in the rural areas and these customers visit CSC‟s in case of any

problem. As per our interaction with the customers, most of them complained that they have to

stand in queues, executives take extended lunch hours and they are not helped with small

assistances like filling up of forms. They also complain that their problems are not dealt with in

time.

BSNL has got the systems in place but they need to work on the integration of the

technology with the on field services so that complaints can be addressed within stipulated time

period. Secondly some small changes can be implemented to make the customer experience

more satisfying in CSC‟s.

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Other Important Issue - ITS

One interesting finding in our study is the issue of ITS officers. When BSNL was formed

in the Oct 2000, it was decided by the DOT that ITS officers would stay for 5 more years in

BSNL on deputation as top management to carry out the transition smoothly and efficiently

because they had the experience and potential to lead the BSNL. It was decided that after 5 years

they will be called back in DOT by transferring the leadership to BSNL employees. At the time

of formation of BSNL, every other employee except ITS officers was absorbed in BSNL.

But even after the lapse of five year duration, these ITS officers continued to be in the top

management on deputation. So they are still central government group „A‟ employees enjoying

the benefits and heavy pay. This has led to resentment among the BSNL employees because as

per them ITS officers are least bothered about the performance of BSNL and well being of the its

employees, and also because these ITS officers are working as the DGMs, GMs, CGMs, and

Director level officers and hence they are acting as a roadblock for the efficient and capable

BSNL employees. JTOs recruited in 2001 are still working as JTO. They are highly qualified

graduate engineers but due to this stagnant hierarchy they cannot move up the ladder and hence

this feeling of disappointment and resentment has led to the formation of the unions like many

others in the organization. BSNL employees are still struggling over this issue to raise their voice

against this ITS issue.

All the ITS officers were given four opportunities to get absorbed in BSNL first in 2005,

then 2008, then 2011 and finally in 2012, but ITS officers have refused to do so. But somehow,

BSNL management has not relieved any ITS officer citing the reason that BSNL is not in a

position to work without these officers. This is leading to a feeling of anger and frustration

among BSNL employees. Recently on 29th

Oct 2012, there was a day long hunger strike by the

joint forum of BSNL unions against this issue.

Sanchar Nigam Executives‟ Association (SNEA) quoted the below over the above issue:

“After 12 years of formation of BSNL, enforcers of decision of govt. in DOT and BSNL

management are taking a U - turn in terms of absorption of ITS Group “A” in BSNL. All the

Group D/C/B employees got absorbed in BSNL w.e.f. 1st Oct, 2000, when BSNL was born.

After twelve years of coming into existence of BSNL, top brass of Mgt is advocating and

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pleading with the Govt. that without unabsorbed ITS on perpetual deputation, they can‟t run

BSNL and functioning of BSNL will come to a standstill. If that was the case, why DOT and

BSNL Mgt didn‟t initiate the absorption of Group “A” first and then move downwards? Why the

absorption started from Group D/C/B onwards? “

Also on 1st Nov 2011, there was an appeal by GS (General Secretary) SNEA to its members as

below:

“Comrades, the continuation of non-optee ITS in BSNL will be damaging and nobody is

going to recognize them as our leaders or managers or bosses hereafter – as far as the employees

are concerned they are outsiders, just foreigners. So far, we treated them as guests, but it is high

time for them to leave BSNL if they don‟t want to become an integral part of the company.

Mgmt is concerned about the outsiders on deputation, not its employees, or the company, which

is struggling. They denied pay revision for its employees and even after assurance, trying to

delay it but the outsiders are enjoying the pay revision since 01.10.2006.Mgt continues to deny

bonus, medical facilities etc to its employees.”

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Conclusion

BSNL has taken various initiatives to respond to the uncertainties in the environment. We

observed that these change initiatives were evolved from within and could not be imposed on the

organization. Employees should be considered as drivers of change rather than followers of

change. BSNL considered employees as stakeholders and gave them ample time to adapt to the

change. We came to know how organizations integrate these kinds of change initiatives with the

soul of the organization and streamline their processes to get the desired results. With the right

processes in place and active participation of all stake holders, organizations act as emergent

phenomenon and produce results which are more than sum of their individual functions.

BSNL implemented a very sophisticated service management system but still there were

complaints coming every day. We observed in CSC that BSNL has not deployed adequate

manpower and customers were still encountering problems. Thus technology implementation

should be deployed by adequate amount of resources so that maximum benefit of the change can

be extracted.

We can‟t ignore the fact that being a PSU, BSNL has to deal with day to day

bureaucracy. Sometimes even a small decision takes a lot of time and organization suffers. Some

employees feel that the government is not doing enough to protect the organization. So the

morale and motivation to perform well is very less. Without proper HR policies in place it is very

difficult for them to be motivated. BSNL also organized two days trainings for motivation.

However we feel that the motivation is something which can‟t be fed by trainings or lectures. It

will automatically build when employees and management will take care of each other and will

work together as team to provide telecom services to the country. Moreover a large number of

employees are above 58 years of age. They are going to retire soon. So they don‟t have any

reward or motivation to work whole-heartedly. Some performance linked appraisal system is the

need of the hour.

Ongoing tussle between ITS officers and BSNL employees is proving to be a big

roadblock for the development of the organization. In the cutthroat competitive market BSNL

can‟t afford to waste more time on this issue. This issue is hurting employee motivation as they

are not able to foresee their future prospects. Frequent protests and dharnas are doing no good to

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the organization; moreover they are imprinting a very bad impression of the organization in the

minds of customers. If BSNL relieves all the ITS officers then there will be serious management

crisis in the organization. As they are not interested in staying back in BSNL, it is acting as a

serious roadblock in its growth as top management goals and organization goals are delineated.

Management should try to chalk out a contingency plan and repatriation process should be

completed in phases so that the daily working would not suffer. The solution to this lies inside

the BSNL only as it has employees who know all the intricacies and working of the organization.

These employees can take charge of the situation and can be prepared for the leadership roles so

that organization goals of the BSNL can be aligned with the goals of the top management.

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References

S. K. Singh – PRO, BSNL Kanpur

Sudhir Sinha – JTO Outdoor

Rakesh Kumar – Phone Mechanic

A brief overview of CDR based Billing System – Atanu Chaudhari

http://www.upe.bsnl.co.in

http://www.sneamah.net/

http://www.sneaindia.com/index.php?id=15