A one-rupee mystery at tiol Insurance Company

Cheni, April 12: Policyholders and agents of government owned tiol Insurance Company Ltd. are facing what they call as the ‘one-rupee mystery’, or ‘Re.1 conundrum’, say agents and company officials. “A difference of Re.1 pops up between the premium mentioned in the company’s renewal notice and the one that appears on the cashier’s screen after feeding the policy data,” an employee on the condition of anonymity told IANS. “I always ask my clients to add up Re.1 to the premium stated in the renewal notice while they write out the cheque,” an agent told IANS.

The problem is faced by policyholders/agents in most of the branches where the company has installed the core insurance solution (CIS) developed by a Chinese company called eBaoTech Corporation and being implemented by HCL Technologies since 2011. This is yet another problem with tiol Insurance Company’s software systems apart from the non-availability of the systems for hours and even days together, officials at several offices told IANS. “The top magement, though aware of the issue, is not taking any corrective action. The core insurance solution was first implemented in one office in Cheni in 2011. Now it is 2015, still the solution has not been rolled out across the company,” an agent told IANS preferring anonymity. In 2009, HCL Technologies Ltd. announced that it had signed a Rs.393 crore, seven year end-to-end information technology (IT) services engagement with tiol Insurance. A detailed list of questions e-mailed by IANS to HCL Technologies’ corporate communication officials several days ago remains ucknowledged till date. In response to the list of questions sent to eBaoTech Corporation, a person med And, claiming to be an employee of the Chinese company in India, had called IANS to check out the reasons for the questionire. However, the questions remain unswered by eBaoTech Corporation. Officials working at the operating offices are not aware as to why this is happening-whether it is due to bug in the software or due to rounding of the premium decimals at different levels. (ians)