Defence Min dedicates TCS IMMOL for IAF, to nation

New Delhi, Oct 9: Adding yet another feather to the Indian Air Force (IAF)'s cap, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today dedicated the Integrated Materials Management Online Services (IMMOLS) to the nation enabling complete automation of the Service's inventory control and logistics management.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), leading technology and consulting firm, today announced the go-live of IMMOLS at an investment outlay of around Rs 55 crore, a nation-wide systems integration project that will transform the requirements of the Air force. Inaugurating the project, Mr Mukherjee said, ''I am proud to dedicate this project to the nation today, which holds the potential of setting new benchmarks on how computerisation can re-define the efficiencies for various defense applications, making us more equipped, agile&robust to effectively handle any contingencies, as well as benefiting from better cost management.'' He congratulated the teams from IAF&TCS for successfully taking on this mammoth challenge and emerging victorious.

This project exemplifies synergy between public&private partnership in a true sense and results from IAF's vision to adopt newer technologies to bring in greater administrative efficiencies, TCS CEO&MD S Ramadorai said.

TCS IMMOLS took a concrete shape in 2003 when the company carried out pilot implementation in around 22 sites of the IAF. After extensive testing of the application, which included software development, acceptance testing, training, analysis and several other initiatives, the project has now been successfully rolled out across all 108 sites of IAF nationally.

Services, said, TCS IMMOLS has broadly two key components to it -- custom designed application software catering to all facets of materials management at various levels of hierarchy in IAF and IT infrastructure, which covers nationwide installation of computing platforms, campus LANs and other hardware equipment.

Replacing the earlier paper-based processes, TCS IMMOLS will not only obviate all problems earlier faced by IAF, including stock outs, delays, dependencies on individuals and inaccurate communications.

Its benefits include efficient materials management, assets visibility for better utilisation of available resources, provide information triggers for mid-course correction in various materials management processes, and speedier demand process cycle (reduction in time, better fleet serviceability), faster procurement cycle and repair cycle.

UNI