ITC has been adjudged the 'Best IT User in FMCG' by
NASSCOM. The award was presented at a ceremony in Mumbai on Tuesday, July 29, 2003.
"ITC is overwhelmed by a feeling of profound fulfilment in winning the prestigious
NASSCOM IT (Information Technology) Users Award'', Mr Anup Singh, Director, ITC Limited,
said. "The Award is a recognition of ITC's successful integration of its IT usage
with its business processes and its inspiring mission of creating value to society and the
nation'', he added.
ITC's internal IT architecture is based on a Virtual
Private Network (VPN). This VPN infrastructure supports the Company's Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM)
initiatives. ITC constantly focuses on optimally leveraging IT to continuously enhance the
efficiency of all its operations.
The growth of the Company's trade marketing capabilities
and activities, together with the state-of-the-art IT transaction backbone and the large
and rapidly growing e-choupal rural network, provide a unique national infrastructure
reaching out, for the first time, to the innermost recesses of rural India. This digital
infrastructure thereby creates a extremely cost-effective broadband IT network that can
take care of a whole range of business transactions, be it marketing, sourcing or supply
chain management. The reach and power of the potential scope for marketing and business
that this digital network unfolds, gives ITC a strong and sustainable competitive
advantage in the fast globalising Indian business environment. Equally, it also enables
ITC to creatively and innovatively use IT to transform lives and landscapes, and make a
meaningful difference to the quality of life in rural India. ITC, as a Company, is truly
proud to be 'Citizen First'.
The NASSCOM Award also reflects the inherent potential of
IT to strengthen India's knowledge infrastructure, thereby enhancing the international
competitiveness of Indian business and the country's economy. Leveraging the potential of
IT to create sustainable economic value is all the more important and timely at this
juncture, when India is trying to cope with the imperatives of intensifying global
competition and the imminent advent of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) framework.
