Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
On
(IRCTC)
By
DINESH.R
MBA(2009-2011)
AGBS HYDERABAD
CONTENTS
1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.SCOPE OF STUDY
3.OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
4.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
5.INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
6.SERVICES OFFERED
7.ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY
8.COMPETITION
9.TANGIBLE SPECTRUM
12.PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
14.SWOT
15.QUESTIONAIRE
16.FINDINGS
17.SUGGESTIONS
18.CONCLUSION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary of the
Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of
the railways. Tourism industry in India is on a great boom at the moment. India has
tremendous potential to become a major global tourist destination and Indian tourism
industry is exploiting this potential to the hilt. Travel and tourism industry is the
second highest foreign exchange earner for India, and the government has given
travel & tourism organizations export house status. Indian Railway Catering and
Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by the Ministry of Railways with the basic
purpose of hiving off entire catering and tourism activity of the railways to the new
Corporation so as to professionalize and upgrade these services with public-private
participation. Rail based Tourism in India will be the specific vehicle for achieving
high growth in coordination with state agencies, tour operators, travel agents and the
hospitality industry. A dynamic marketing strategy in association with public and
private agencies, tour operators, transporters, hoteliers and local tour promoters is on
the anvil. Indian Railways span global volumes in hospitality and catering sectors
with services provided to 13 million passengers every day. In this project we tried to
identify the service delivery mechanisms adopted by the IRCTC. As it is the only
player in the online railway ticket reservation, we have done an intensive research in
the areas of technology, demand supply, customer satisfaction and their involvement
in making the Government subsidiary a leading player in the tourism and online
ticketing.
The study covers the various aspects of strategies which help in determining the Service
offerings and analysis of this industry.
The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Services Marketing at
IRCTC. In the light of this primary objective, the following sub-objectives are set.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Title of the Study: The study is titled as Report on Services Marketing at IRCTC,
Hyderabad.
Primary Data: This consists of original information gathered for specific purpose. The
normal procedure is by interacting with the people individually and/ or in a group, to get the
required data.
Secondary Data: This consists of the information that already exists somewhere, either in
some Annual Records or Magazines etc, having been collected for other purpose. Here the
researcher has both primary as well as secondary data.
Survey Approach:
Sampling Procedure: The sampling method used is Random Sampling. This sampling
Method is used because the respondents were selected randomly. The sampling unit selected
mostly from Executives and non executives.
The cutting edge for business today is e-commerce. Most people think e-commerce
means online shopping. But web shopping is only a small part of the picture. The term
also refers to online stock, bond transactions, buying and downloading software without
ever going to a store. In addition, e-commerce includes business to business connections
that make purchasing easier for big corporations.
E-commerce is generally described as a method of buying and selling products and
services electronically. The main vehicle of e-commerce remains the Internet and the
World Wide Web, but use of e-mail, fax and telephone orders is also prevalent.
Electronic commerce is the application communication and information sharing
technology among trading partners to the pursuit of business objectives. E-commerce can
be defined as modern business methodology that addresses the needs of the organization,
merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services
and speed of service delivery. E-commerce is associated with the buying and selling of
information, products, and services via computer networks. A key element of e-
commerce is information processing.
The effects of e-commerce are already appearing in all areas of business, from customer
service to new product design. It facilitates new types of information based business
processes for reaching and interacting with customers-online advertising and marketing,
online, order taking and online customer service etc. It can also reduce costs in managing
orders and interacting with a wide range of suppliers and trading and trading partners,
areas that typically add significant overheads to the cost of products and services.
E-commerce industry has touched 9210 crore, online classifieds: 820 crores, online
travel: 7000 crores (30% jump from Rs 7,080 crore in 07) as per the survey conducted
by the IAMAI and IMRB Online Travel Industry: growth rate of 30% to Rs 7,000 crore
by end FY09 (from 5500 crores in 08)
Digital downloads (i.e. downloading from Internet to mobiles using wap phones or web) and
paid content (research/exclusive videos/articles etc) for the rest of 285 crores.
The major triggers of e-commerce in India were:
ECOMMERCE GROWTH:
During the year 2008-2009, two major Industry Associations produced separate reports
on e-commerce in India. Both the reports came out around the same time, namely June-
July 2009. One was prepared by the National Committee on E-Commerce set up the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), while the other was commissioned by the
NASSCOM and prepared by the Boston Consulting Group. Both the reports are
optimistic about the growth of e-commerce in India. The Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) report estimates the volume of e-commerce to grow to Rs 1500 billion
(US$ 10.6 billion) in the year 2009, out of which B2B will be Rs 820 billion (US$ 18
billion) and B2C will be Rs 680 billion. The NASSCOM-BCG Report, on the other hand,
estimates for the same year that the total volume of e-commerce will be Rs 1,950 billion,
out of which Rs 1,920 billion (US$ 41 billion) will be on account of B2B and Rs 30
billion (US$ 64 million) will be on account of B2C (NASSCON and BCG, 2009).
IRCTC
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary of the Indian
Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the
railways.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by the Ministry of
Railways with the basic purpose of hiving off entire catering and tourism activity of the
railways to the new Corporation so as to professionalize and upgrade these services with
public-private participation. Rail based Tourism in India will be the specific vehicle for
achieving high growth in coordination with state agencies, tour operators, travel agents
and the hospitality industry. A dynamic marketing strategy in association with public and
private agencies, tour operators, transporters, hoteliers and local tour promoters is on the
anvil. Indian Railways span global volumes in hospitality and catering sectors with
services provided to 13 million passengers everyday.
Tourism Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India. Right from IRCTC's
inception , we have undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major tour operators
and State Tourism as our partners for providing exclusive tour packages across the
country. IRCTC arranges for full train charters, coaches as well as reserved berth
programmes through regular trains for tourism purposes. During this short period we
have been able to provide such facilities to over 50,000 persons. Internet Rail Reservation
There has been a latent demand in the country for ticket availability at the door-step.
IRCTC has already developed this facility at Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and
Mumbai. Very soon the facility will spread to Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmadabad. After
consolidation at these centers, further development in the major towns will take place.
IRCTC web enabled reservation site is IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System
(http://www.irctc.co.in)
Food Plazas IRCTC has firmed up plans to set up over 50 multi-cuisine food plazas at
major railway stations throughout the country during the current year. The Food plazas
will have contemporary decor, air conditioned ambience and round the clock operation to
suit passenger convenience with market driven competitive pricing.
Call Center IRCTC has recently inaugurated a Call Center. A customer can dial 139 from
anywhere in the country and get all information from Indian Railways.
Services provided by them are:
Catering / Hospitality
Online Ticketing
Tourism
Foundation:
IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System (http://www.irctc.co.in) is the most
successful e-commerce website in India. More than 7050 reservations every day, and
about 8500 trains included in the booking process.
IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd., set by the Ministry of
Railways in 1999) has played a huge role in transforming customer experience for buying
a railway ticket. The lengthy queues for booking tickets or black marketing of tickets is
no more the default way of buying tickets.
IRCTC has also introduced many innovations including e-ticket and mobile booking.
The website is a bad experience for the user. Many operations are slow, error prone and
difficult to understand. If one step goes wrong, you have to do the whole process again.
It has taken us any time between 15 minutes to 6 hours to book a ticket successfully.
Many others share similar experience.
The new Quick Book feature addresses many of the concerns.
Yet, the process can be significantly improved resulting not only in much higher
customer satisfaction, but also much lower transaction times, and consequently, less load
and bandwidth consumption for the server.
SERVICES OFFERED :
1. Booking of I-tickets, e-tickets and tatkal tickets.
I-ticket - refers to a Railway reservation booked on this website for the consummation of
which a printed Railway ticket on standard Stationery is dispatched by IRCTC to the
Customer through the courier, which constitute the authority to travel on trains.
E-ticket - E-ticket - refers to a Railway reservation booked on this website, for the
consummation of which the customer prints out an Electronic Reservation Slip which,
along with one of the authorized personal identification, constitutes the authority to
travel, in lieu of the regular ticket on standard Stationery.
Tatkal Ticket-A ticket booked against Tatkal Quota against extra payment of premium
charges as per extant Railway rules.
2. A maximum of six berths/seats can be booked at a time for a specified journey
between any two stations served by the train subject to distance restrictions in force.
3. An individual user can book a maximum of ten tickets in a calendar month.
4. Booking can be done against general (GN), SS (senior citizen), ladies (LD) and tatkal
(CK) quota berths/seats only.
5. Tatkal Quota (CK) berths/seats are earmarked in all-important trains in different
classes except First Class Air-conditioned (1A) class. Ladies quota (LD) is generally
earmarked in Sleeper class (SL) and second sitting (2S).
6. In case of tickets booked through internet no concession is permitted except senior
citizen.
IRCTC agrees to provide online ticket booking facilities to registered users who agree to
the terms and conditions
Standard of Service: IRCTC will supply the service to you with reasonable care and
skill.
Service Hours: Booking through Internet is allowed from 5 AM to 11.30 PM (Indian
Standard Time) on all days including Sundays. Service hours are liable to be changed
without prior notice. If you try booking before 8 AM, for opening day's tickets, the
reservation will fail, with your account getting debited; IRCTC will refund the entire fare
and IRCTC's service charges, but the bank/card transaction charges are likely to be
forfeited
Issue of Tickets User Registration: Must be a registered user to use IRCTC site to book
tickets and for any type of enquiries. No user can register more than once on the site. All
payments towards the cost of the tickets issued will be through one of the payment mode
provided on the payment page. The site is VeriSign secured and credit card details will
travel on the Internet in a fully encrypted (128 bit, browser independent encryption) form.
To ensure security, card details are NOT stored in Website.
Scope of Service: IRCTC makes no guarantee that any service will be uninterrupted,
timely, secure or error-free.
TOURISM
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure for business purposes. IRCTC through tourism
promotes all famous destinations in India.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), is a public
sector enterprise under the Government of India - Ministry of Railways and is the single
window interface for providing complete travel & tourism solutions for the various
customer segments and is also taking over catering on trains and at stations over the
Indian Railway network.
VISION
IRCTCs vision for the tourism business is To be the leading provider of a complete
spectrum of consistently high quality tourism products.
Availability of this wide range of services under its own umbrella puts IRCTC in the
unique position of being able to offer readymade as well as customized packages to meet
the requirements of all segments of the travel & tourism industry.
Current Trends:
Tourism industry trends can be ascertained with regard to the following parameters.
Market analysts researching in tourism industry trends predict or provide a general layout
of the trends with respect to outcomes of tourism which is inbound, e-business in the
tourism industry, development and promoting tourism in tribal areas, trends in tourism
farming, tourism requirements, development of strategies in the context of tourism,
tourism markets worldwide, selling or promoting tourist destination.
IRCTC has introduced railtourismindia.com for booking packages keeping in mind the
different societies. It has associated with top and best hotels wherever the tourism is
encouraged. Incredible India, an initiative by Govt. of India is well supported by IRCTC.
Role of Technology:
Internet plays an important role in IRCTC tourism sector. Customers are provided with
immense information about the packages that are available. Packages include right from
train ticket conformation to the accommodation in hotels, booking cabs, darshans, and
site seeing, food at affordable prices. Every thing is through the main site that is IRCTC
online website. Upon completion of the booking process the customers get information
either through mail or to mobile.
Competition:
Competition is from both private and public sector organizations. Some of the
competitors include
Tangibility Spectrum:
Tangibility Spectrum
Salt
Soft Drinks
Detergents
Automobiles
Cosmetics
Fast-food
Outlets
Intangible
Dominant
Tangible
Dominant Fast-food
Outlets
Advertising
Agencies
Airlines
Investment
Management
Consulting
Teaching
Affordable packages
Free site seeing / experienced tourist guides
Value for the money
Insurance policies (Travel)
Medical check ups
Journey by exclusive A/C trains
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Service Encounters:
Glitches in online reservation
When a page is refreshed member has to login again
Lot of time in crediting the amount when cancellation is done
Service not available 24 hours
Most of the time after login in and some time even it shows service unavailable.
concurrency problems
coordination between the employees and the management
promised facilities not on time
Learnings:
More accurate online system
Eradicate system hang-ups, server down problems
Fast reimbursement of money
Proper coordination between management and third party service providers.
C O
Showing the
o n
train timing
n
t s Conforming
a t ticket
c a
t g
e
B
P
a
e Taking inputs
c
r
k
s
o
S
n Providing
t Updating reservation
a the system
g
e
Updating the
Support Checking the Database
Process availability of
trains
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Service Environment:
The place of business in which the transaction occurs has been defined as any tangible
Commodities which facilitate s performance or communication of the service or as the
servicescape.
Service Quality:
Service quality is defined as a global judgment or attitude relating to the overall
excellence or superiority of the service, thus service quality has a direct impact on
customer satisfaction.
Expectations:
Expectation provides a standard of comparison against which consumers judge an
Organizations performance. It is defined as the customer's frame of reference with
respect to a product/ service that allows anticipation of product/service performance.
Perception:
Perception is defined as the processes by which people select, organize, and interpret
stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture. Perception is a cognitive episode
triggered by causal interaction between sense and object. This interaction gives rise to a
preliminary awareness of an unstructured whole.
Satisfaction:
The customer's satisfaction is the outcome of complex information processing which
essentially consists of a comparison of a consumer's experience with a purchased product
or service and his/her expectations with regard to the fitness of this product or service for
its intended purpose.
Equity:
Equity theory proposes that people have a notion of fairness that influences whether they
are satisfied with a particular product or service experience or service environment.With
increasing competition in most service industries as well as rising customer expectations
and their demand for superior services at equitable prices, there is a need to strengthen all
the facets of competitiveness. This means the service environment is increasingly
becoming important. We have argued that the servicescape communicates quality,
expectations and is the locus of customer-provider interactions. The more conducive the
interaction environment, we argue the greater the opportunities for customer and
employee satisfaction, the more likely the future tourist patronage and the less likely the
complaints.
PROMOTION:
Advertising at the railway stations
Pamphlets at the reservation counters
Magazine
STRENGTHS:
WEAKNESS:
Security
Quality of service when compared to private operators
Flexibility of timings
OPPORTUNITIES:
More Pilgrimage destinations
Improve in service to attract niche market
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) operate an
online booking service that has simplified rail travel in India since its deployment in
2002. During the set-up of this solution, IRCTC overcame several challenges and its web
site has now emerged as a user-friendly, profit-making enterprise.
The Indian Railways has the second-largest railway network in the world. It is run by the
Ministry of Railways, which formed the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation Limited (IRCTC) in 1999 to manage hospitality services during rail travel.
The IRCTC is also responsible for information, publicity and global reservation systems.
It launched an online booking service in August 2002 to enable customers to book tickets
from the comfort of their own home and to reduce ticketing costs for the railways through
savings in manpower.
Current Trends:
In order to reach maximum number of customers, those who were looking for the
convenience of booking railway tickets online, but did not have a credit card or a net
banking facility to make that transaction on the net.
Internet Company Sify has announced its tie up with Indian Railway Catering and
Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to make online railway ticketing service available at over
3,400 iWay cybercafs across 154 cities, on cash payments. As the first step, a pilot
project at 10 iWays in Delhi has been kicked-off on Thursday.
With the alliance in place, users can approach Sify iWay where the cafe administrator
would book the railway ticket online, based on particulars such as date of travel and
destination.
The customer then pays cash against the ticket and collects the ticket printout. In case of
ticket cancellations, the customers will follow the standard cancellation process of
IRCTC after which the customer gets cash against the cancellation.
But the convenience of e-ticketing would come at a price. Users opting to book e-tickets
through the cash mode would have to shell out a transaction charge of Rs 15 in case of a
sleeper class ticket and Rs 25 in case of AC ticket.
Role of Technology:
The IRCTC reservation site allows passengers to access train fares, routes and
availability in real-time, book tickets online and track the status of their ticket.
The system runs on a BroadVision e-commerce platform and Intel-based servers which,
according to the IRCTC, provide a robust and cost-efficient platform. The organization
also uses a combination of Intel, Red Hat and Oracles E-Business Suite. This allows it to
leverage its legacy applications with efficient integration and provide reliability for the
web-enabled system.128-bit encryption and the practice of not storing credit card details
in the system ensures secure online transactions.
Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which manages the original railway
reservation system, collaborated with IRCTC to integrate the online services with the
existing system. BroadVision integrated the legacy system with the online reservation
system and developed a process to verify credit card information in real-time, as
bookings had to be confirmed on the railway reservation system immediately.
BroadVision developed the e-commerce application with an Oracle backend; HCL is
charged with the network and its security.
Competition:
Broadly thinking competitors of IRCTC are makemytrip.com, yatra.com. But at the later
stage they have established a joint venture with these providers.
Tangibility Spectrum:
TANGIBLE FACTORS OF ONLINE BOOKING
Detailed WebPages
Easy search of information
Physical representations: Logos, colors used enhances visual representation
Documentation: Publishing of growth in usage of online booking
All these factors enhances the tangibility of ONLINE BOOKING
SERVICE OFFERING
Customer expectations:
Online reservation counters at the nearest place
More number of authorized dealers for booking of tickets
Option of booking tickets through cash
Fast completion of booking process
No hang ups in the middle of transactions
Security during online transactions
Bulk booking (more than 6 tickets)
Fast credit of money on cancellation of tickets
Bundle of benefits:
Time saving, no need to stand in queues
Easy to access as it is user friendly
All the options of direct booking available
Priority to customers associated with SBI
Availing discounts for the priority customers
No tension of loosing the ticket
Loyalty programs
There are five service quality dimensions. They are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness,
Assurance and Empathy.
TANGIBLES
Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials.
RELIABILITY
Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
RESPONSIVENESS
Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
ASSURANCE
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence
EMPATHY
Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
Tangibles and Responsiveness are applicable to this industry. The most important quality is
responsiveness and the least important is tangibles.
Customers Involvement in service delivery:
Providing proper information at the time of transaction
Finishing the transaction process within the stipulated time
Carrying the identity card to avail the Eticket booked journey
Taking the printout of the ticket rather than arguing wit the TT
Following the instructions, terms & conditions properly to utilize the services.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Service Encounters:
Only attracting middle class and high class of society
Confusing look when the website is opened
Often server down problems
Reimbursement of money when the cancellation is done
Confirmations call should be given to the member when he/she books a ticket
Learnings:
Call centre to provide information about the booking
Continuous R &D team to handle the system more effectively
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
The environment in which service is delivered and in which the firm and customers interact,
and any tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service.
Promotion:
Through websites
Advertising at the stations
Pricing:
Service charges for the booked tickets
Pricing is the same as compared to the direct booking
INDUSTRY SECTION
STRENGTHS:
An average of 1,00,000 transactions per day
No competitors in online booking
Fast and preferred service for booking tickets
WEAKNESS:
Security
Lapses in the technology at times
Slow processing
No bulk booking
OPPORTUNITIES:
More authorized dealers
Joint ventures with private operators
FUTURE HOLDS:
More options and features using the latest technology to attract more and more customers and tie
ups with sify and cox and kings
Opportunity for private agents to venture in to this segment.
QUESTIONAIRE
13 17
a)YES
b)NO
Interpretation:-
As we can see in growing economy all are aware of using internet and it is going to be
much growth in e commerce in near future.
c) BAD
b) AVERAGE
a) GOOD
0 5 10 15 20
Interpretation:-
IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version because people
need accurate service
a) FAST
18 7
b) SLOW
c)MODERATE
Interpretation:-
IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version by using lastest
HTML processes, because people need accurate and fast service.
20
15
10
0
a)LESS THAN 10 b)MORE THAN 10
MINUTES MINUTES
Q.5 DO YOU FEEL ONLINE TICKET PRICE MUCH MORE THAN MANUAL RESERVATION TICKET
a)YES 2
b)NO 28
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
a)YES b)NO
Interpretation:-
Instead of being slight higher price than manual booking cystomers are not worried at all
so IRCTC should maintain the same price as now to attract customers.
a) CREDIT CARD
0 5 10 15 20 25
Interpretation:-
IRCTC must tie up with other private banks to give netbanking services to IRCTC
customers which will help customers to use more net banking process.
FINDINGS
Primary purposes of website - Reservation and Train Inquiry are not visible
Lots of advertisements on the home page
Lot of blinking / animated portions distract the user
Form does not fit into a single window, ideally it should
Checking availability is a crucial part of the booking process, but the user has to click a
button and see a popup window for this.
Many a times, this even comes up with an Unable to retrieve due to communication
failure problem!
There are too many payment options, and difficult to understand which one is better.
This also comes up in a pop-up window. Ideally, this can be a preference that can be set
in the user profile.
It is difficult to understand the three different types of tickets, there is help icon, but it
opens in a popup window.
Value Added Services are on the same page here, which can be avoided.
The login portion itself has too many options.
Customers are complaining with the number of outlets available for booking the tickets.
Customers have few options of selecting from the tour packages.
Employees are not trained to explain the packages available to the illiterates.
SUGGESTIONS
CONCLUSION
With Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and travel portals pushing sale
of online rail tickets, the share of IRCTC in the reserved ticketing revenues of Indian Railways
has gone up to 40 per cent in the first two quarters of this year, from around 25 per cent last year.
In fact, with the increasing penetration and use of the internet, IRCTCs ticketing revenue has
seen an increase of 462 per cent over the past three years. From Rs 704.9 crore in 2006-07 and
Rs 1,744.7 crore in 2007-08, the corporation got Rs 3,966.98 crore from sale of online tickets
last year. And, experts feel with the Unique Identification project of the government, the market
for online ticketing will only increase tremendously.
According to ticket sale data provided by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC), which sells rail tickets online, out of the 880,000-odd reserved rail tickets sold a day
between April and July 2009, around 300,000, or 34 per cent, were sold online. In 2008-09, of
the 860,000 or so reserved rail tickets sold every day, around 200,000 (above 25 per cent) were
sold online. IRCTC accounted for 17 per cent of the total passenger earnings of the Indian
Railways in 2008-09.
The corporation has, to this end, collaborated with 81 organizations and 11 state governments to
operate multi-utility kiosks, which provide online ticketing services. IRCTC has further tied-up
with Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation to provide e-ticket reservation facilities to people through their chain of petrol
pumps and retail gas agencies. Ticketing sales data from the corporation recorded between April
and September 2009 reveal that online ticket reservation services have had a good response from
people of lower income groups.
IRCTC, making efforts to make e-ticketing facilities available and accessible to all sections of
society.