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Our Bureau

Bangalore , Oct. 31

THE Indian Institute of Consumer Studies (IICS) has launched a project to provide low-cost automation of smaller retail outlets to enhance their business, while using the technology platform to provide simpler e-governance service delivery facility to users.

The concept, developed jointly by IICS and the Bangalore-based Encore Software Ltd, will also get financial support from the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

The proposal, which expects to cover 100 department stores as a pilot, will be extended to other parts of the country once the concept found acceptance from the trade, said Mr Parthasarathi Ray, Chairman and CEO of IICS. The Ministry had agreed to provide a Rs 25-lakh grant to "propagate the innovative" concept, he said.

With 98 per cent of the retail business sector still in the unorganised sector, a digital infrastructure that would enable easier customer relations management and supply chain management would help in reaching retail business to rural areas and in creating more employment.

The project was unveiled here with a demonstration of the digital infrastructure given to the Union Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal.

The low-cost digital infrastructure to be set up at the stores will facilitate the manufacturers and consumers to interact through a smart card, which would be used to create a database for corporates to plan their marketing strategy.

Also, the stores can leverage the system to developtheir customer relations management and supply chain management systems to improve their business potential.

The digital infrastructure combining the hardware and software costs Rs 10,000.

IICS project will use Encore's SofComp based on thin client server technology to generate data about the consumers and extend the platform through application software programme for e-governance services.

Mr Vinay L. Deshpande, Chairman and CEO of Encore, said he was also planning to deploy Simputer, the hand-held device developed by Encore and Indian Institute of Science, to increase the reach of retail business to rural and semi-urban areas.

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