On Tuesday, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that it has been chosen to manage the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a platform for public procurement, according to The Economic Times report. The agreement spans six years and aims to achieve specific milestones based on the platform’s gross merchandise value (GMV) during this period. However, the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
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Currently, the GeM platform facilitates transactions exceeding 2 trillion in GMV, involving more than 70,000 buyer organizations and over 6.5 million sellers and service providers. This also includes a substantial contribution from over 800,000 medium and small enterprises.
Tej Paul Bhatla, the head of TCS’ public services division in India, stated that this achievement was a result of collaboration among various teams specializing in retail solutions, procurement platforms, AWS cloud services, and the MasterCraft platform.
He described the deal as a prime example of TCS’ collective efforts, where different solution teams joined forces. Bhatla explained that the transition from the current platform provider and the subsequent implementation of changes would take approximately 18 to 21 months. Following this transition, TCS will manage and maintain the platform for an additional five years.
The GeM marketplace was launched on August 9, 2016, and is overseen by a government-owned company called GeM Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), operating under the department of commerce. Currently, a consortium consisting of Intellect Design Arena, Infibeam, and Tata Communications manages the platform.
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The revenue TCS earns from this endeavor will be tied to the actual GMV, representing the total business conducted on the platform. Bhatla explained that a combination of fixed and variable metrics would determine this revenue. He revealed that there is a target to achieve a GMV of 3 trillion by the end of the following year.
TCS is tasked with designing an enhanced user experience for stakeholders, particularly for onboarding new sellers from the small and medium enterprise user base.
The future version of GeM aims to become an all-encompassing platform for government procurement, focusing on enhancing business convenience and transparency, according to PK Singh, the CEO of GeM.
TCS’ Public Services India division serves both central and state governments, boasting over 90 customers. The unit is involved in projects for various government bodies including India Post, Passport Seva Kendra, and several agriculture and defense initiatives. Bhatla noted that there is a substantial interest in cloud solutions from the government sector, with a particular emphasis on open systems and microservices-based architecture.
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Furthermore, Bhatla pointed out the growing trend of government IT service projects adopting phone-first digital accessibility approaches, a direction in which TCS is actively engaged. He also highlighted the positive impact of the TCS-BSNL 4G rollout initiative in improving the accessibility of these solutions.
