A. Background

Information Technology Division of Bhutan Power Corporation was initially formed under the Planning & IT Division of Bhutan Power in July 2002 after the corporatization of erstwhile Department of Power into Bhutan Power Corporation. The cell was staffed with a non-national IT Manager and a Bhutanese counterpart. Before the corporatization of Department of Power, only Electricity Services Division – Thimphu had a computerized Billing & Collection system. All the other divisions were doing the manual billing & collection in addition to all the other manual transactions.
Today IT Division of Bhutan Power Corporation takes pride in having successfully installed computerized system and automated most of the functions of Bhutan Power Corporation both at the central and regional offices. This includes the following ICT initiatives already in place:
1. Currently the computerized billing & collection system is installed and fully operational with necessary expertise built in at all the nineteen Electricity Services Divisions (ESDs) and five electricity sub divisions of BPC.
2. Computerized Cash and Bank and payroll modules are implemented and fully operational in all the accounting divisions of Bhutan Power Corporation.
3. Fixed Asset module, financial consolidation module and Human Resource Information Management System (HRMIS) is operational at the BPC head office.
4. Spot Billing and collection system is being implemented and made operational at the 7 – ESDs (Thimphu, Paro, Wangdue, Punakha, Phuentsholing, Trashigang, Samtse) and 3 ESSD (Gedu, Tsimalakha and Rangjung).
5. Micro Store Inventory System (MSIS) is operational in all the ESDs and RE offices of BPC including two Regional Stores at Samdrup Jongkhar and Gelephu.
6. Navision based Inventory Management System (IMS) is operational at Regional Stores – Phuentsholing.
7. Local Area Network (LAN) is installed in all the division and sub divisions of BPC with the necessary expertise in network administration developed at the division offices.
8. BPC runs, administers and manages its own web, mail, domain name, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and database servers at our end using a dedicated 1 MBPS lease line internet connection from Druknet (Internet Service Provider).
9. Trashigang office also have a 128 kbps lease line internet connection from the Druknet and the Regional Office, Phuentsholing have a 256 kbps lease line internet connection.
10. Most of the divisions have shared broadband internet connection set up through the LAN for accession internet for their day to day works and data reporting to head office.

B. Approved Organogram of BPC IT Cell

IT Division currently has eight regular IT staffs headed by an IT manager as per the following approved IT Governance structure for BPC:

I. BPC IT Manager
-Name of the Post : IT Manager
-Name of Person : Pema Tshering
-Qualification : BE(EEE), M. Eng. ICT
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

II. Information System Manager
-Name of the Post : Information System Manager
-Name of Person : Rinchen Wangdi
-Qualification : Bachelors in Technology (Electrical & Electronics)
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

III. Regional IT Manager – Phuentsholing
-Name of the Post : Regional IT Manager – Phuentsholing
-Name of Person : Sandeep Rai
-Qualification : Bachelors in Technology (Electrical & Electronics)
-Place of Posting : Phuentsholing

IV. Assistant Manager
-Name of the Post : Assistant Manager – Web
-Name of Person : Pempa Tshering (Currently on study Leave)
-Qualification : Bachelor in Computer Application
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

V. Senior Programmer
-Name of the Post : Asstt. Manager – Programming
-Name of Person : Tashi Dorji
-Qualification : Bachelor in Computer Application
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

VI. Hardware Engineer/Technician
-Name of the Post : Hardware Engineer/Technician
-Name of Person : Sonam Tobgye
-Qualification : Bachelor in IT
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

VII. Helpdesk Staff
-Name of the Post : Helpdesk staff
-Name of Person : Tandin Pem
-Qualification : Class XII
-Place of Posting : Thimphu

VIII. Senior Programmer
-Name of the Post : Senior Programmer

-Name of Person : Sangay Dema
- Qualification : Bachelors in Computer Application
- Place of Posting : Thimphu

IX. Regional IT Manager – East

-Name of Person : Tshering Gempo
-Name of the Post : Regional IT Manager – East
-Qualification : Bachelors in Science
- Place of Posting : Trashigang

D. The List of Vacant Posts in IT Cell

I. Communication Engineer
- Name of the Post : Communication Engineer
- Qualification : Bachelor Degree in Telecom/Communication or Equivalent
- Place of Posting : Thimphu

C. IT Division’s way forward:
IT initiatives for BPC are built on to take into consideration the following overall ICT initiatives of BPC:

In line with the BPC IT strategies, currently so many IT initiatives of BPC are in pipeline. This includes the following:
1. Oversee the overall responsibility for all BPC IT activities, including IT strategy and planning
2. Investigate opportunities for IT, assesses new technologies and formulates corporate IT strategy and long-term IT planning for BPC
3. Implement spot billing and collection in all the ESDs of BPC by 2009.
4. The implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Management Information System (MIS) with Business Intelligence (BI) for BPC
5. As part of Phase 1 ERP initiatives, an integrated logistics and financial accounting system (Purchase, Inventory, Fixed Asset, Budgeting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivables, Cash & Bank and General Ledger) along with an integrated HRMIS with payroll is to be implemented by 2009 running on a centralized database server.
6. Other business processes viz. Work and Asset Management/Maintenance, Project Management, Customer Care and Billing & Collection, Business Intelligence, GIS based systems, Mobile device application system like mobile complaint and workforce management, mobile inventory and asset tracking etc. is to be implemented in the Phase 2 of ERP initiative which will be seamlessly integrated with each other and with the Phase I implemented ERP systems. Considering difficulty in establishing countrywide inter connection networks in Bhutan due to difficult geographical conditions, most of the information system initiatives will be web based applications.
7. Development and maintenance of an interactive web and content management system for BPC.
8. The development of companywide Wide Area Network (WANs) and connectivity to support ERP initiatives
9. Planning and implementation of a robust information security policy for BPC.
10. BPC will also venture to data center business with the setting up of a data center services at the BPC corporate building at Thimphu. In the initial phase data center services will be leased to internal customers mainly the DHI linked companies including DHI and will be used as the disaster recovery center for Bank of Bhutan’s data center at Phuentsholing.
11. Designs, mentors and deliver IT training and change management process for BPC.
12. Provide IT support/services to all the Departments of the company and be the driver of change.
13. ICT support for the operation, maintenance, administration of all the ICT initiatives viz. information systems, networking, database administration, infrastructure already in place and up gradation of the same based on the business process requirement in BPC
14. BPC business process analysis and change based on best practices and automation of the same using appropriate technology and play a more vibrant role in the various business processes of the company.