service marketing project on irctc

8/8/2019 Service Marketing Project on IRCTC

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SERVICE MARKETING PROJECT

AMITY GLOBAL BUSINESS SCHOOL Page 1

A

Service marketing project

On

INDIAN RAILWAY CATERING AND TOURISM

CORPORATION

(IRCTC)

By

DINESH.R

ROLL NO:- A30601909062

MBA(2009-2011)

AGBS HYDERABAD


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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

10.SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS

11.SERVICE BLUE PRINT

12.PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

13.WILD CARD SECTION

14.SWOT

15.QUESTIONAIRE

16.FINDINGS

17.SUGGESTIONS

18.CONCLUSION


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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 hastremendous 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.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers the various aspects of strategies which help in determining the Serviceofferings and analysis of this industry.


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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

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.

To review the historical aspects of IRCTC and its growth.

To know the position of the E-Commerce industry as a whole in the world as well as in

INDIA.

To identify the service and technology needed in IRCTC.

To assess the purpose and uses of effective service and technology.

To study and analyze the further steps to be taken after doing the necessary analysis of

IRCTC.

To evaluate various techniques or operations followed in this regard.

To know how mutuality it will increase and strengthen the relationship between each

employee and customers.

To know the commitment of the employees towards the organization with the

Companys policies.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is an art of scientific investigation. Research comprises defining and redefining

problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions, collecting, organizing and

evaluating data, making deduction and reaching conclusions and at last carefully testing the

conclusion to determine whether they formulating hypothesis.

Methodology: The Study is about the Services Marketing Strategies in an Organization. It

deals with the title of the study, need of the study, objectives & Scope of study.


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Title of the Study: The study is titled as Report on Services Marketing at IRCTC,

Hyderabad.

Data is collected from primary and secondary sources.Collection of the data is of primary importance in the research process. Data which is

collected for the purpose of research helps in proper analysis which is helpful to conduct

research effectively. The data source, which is very important in the collection of data, is

primary data and secondary data. Both primary and secondary data are taken into

consideration for the study by the strategies followed by IRCTC.

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:

The questionnaire was administered through direct contact with respondents.

1. Sampling Technique:

The study covers a sample of employees of IRCTC Ltd. The Respondents were selected on a

Sample Random basis from the following categories of the employees,

a) Senior managers

b) Deputy Managers

c) Junior Officersd) Assistants

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.


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E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA

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 withoutever 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)

Online Classifieds: reached Rs 820 crore by end FY08

Online retailing/auction (eTailing): Rs 1,105 crore industries by end FY09 (from Rs

850 crore in FY08.

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:

Saves time and efforts

Convenience of shopping at home


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Wide variety / range of products are available

Good discounts / lower prices

Get detailed information of the product

You can compare various models / brands

Some of the major barriers at present were: Not sure of product quality

Cannot bargain/Negotiate

Not sure of security of transactions / Credit card misuse

Need to touch and feel the product

Significant discounts are not there

Have to wait for delivery

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 30billion (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 forachieving 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.


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Mission "Enhance customer services and facilitation in railway catering, hospitality,

travel and tourism with best industry practices"

.

Objectives:

(1) To be a customer friendly company through constant innovation, technology drivenand human resource development.

(2) Optimize resources, increase manpower productivity through quality product vending

and innovative marketing strategies.

(3) Upgrade and consolidate catering services in the organized sector.

(4) Expand areas of core competencies; enhance business opportunities through efficient

public - private partnerships to maximize generation of resources.

(5) Imbibe strong and ethical work culture through teamwork, build and reposition Indian

Railways in the emerging services sector.

(6) Evolve high standards of business ethics, quality management and effective cost

control measures.

(7) Concern for the environment and heritage

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


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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 theconsummation 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.


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7. General enquiries available:

a. Accommodation available for a train/date combination

b. Current Status of reserved tickets.

c. Time table

d. Train faree. Trains available between a given pair of stations

8. Courier delivery of tickets (I-tickets) limited to postal addresses covered by the pin

codes listed under the link "Places of Delivery ". For details of areas where courier

delivery is provided at present, categorized by PINCODE

9. E-Booking or E-reservation facility available for all trains.

10. On line cancellation facility for E-tickets alone, up to the charting time for that train.

(E-tickets cannot be cancelled at counters)

11. Mobile booking of I-Tickets and E-tickets through NGPAY Mobile application,

booking of I-Tickets and E-tickets through CSAM- IRCTC Mobile Application, I tickets

on airtel live, via IRCTC's WAP enabled site.

12. Auto-Up gradation is available to the next higher class on optional basis. (As per

railway rules).

TICKET BOOKING AND DISPATCH SERVICES:

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 willtravel 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.


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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 publicsector 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.

IRCTCS RANGE OF PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Luxury Tourist Trains

Exclusive Steam & Hill Charters

Chartering of special trains & coaches over the IR network

Tour Packages

Bharat Darshan Special tourist trains for the budget travel segment

Budget Hotels near important railway stations all over India

Car rentals

E-ticketing for travel over Indian Railways

Call Centers for rail & tourism related information

On-board catering on trains all over the IR network

Multi-cuisine food plazas at important railway stations

Rail Neer packaged drinking water

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


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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 withimmense 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.

Major Players in the Industry:

As travel industry is growing rapidly there is an immense presence of private and

government players in the industry. Major players include AP tourism, APSRTC tourist

package.

Competition:

Competition is from both private and public sector organizations. Some of the

competitors include

Other State Road Transport Corporations

Private Tours & Travelers

APSRTC

AP Tourism Packages

Airlines (offering packages at reasonable lower costs) Prefer for the reason of time

saving.


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Tangibility Spectrum:

Tangibility Spectrum

Tangibleminant

ntangible

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TANGIBLE FACTORS OF IRCTC TOURISM

Ambience: Infrastructure of bus, seating type (sleeper or semi sleeper), DVD facility,

AC, Bed sheets, Water bottles, warmers, and curtains.

TOURIST GUIDE: Uniform, Qualification, social skills.

Search and experience qualities: Distribution of brochures, Digital Marketing improves

quality.

Physical Representations: logos, colors enhances visual representation

Documentation: Displaying Quality assurance certificates by service providers

SERVICE OFFERINGS

Customer Expectations in this industry:

Customer expectations are very high. IRCTC is meeting the expectations of the

passengers by providing security, safe travel, affordable prices along with packages,

number tourist destinations, more services during peak season. Fulfilling the promisemade by the service provider initially is the primary expectation of the customer.

Bundle of Benefits:

Confirmed reservation in train

Hotel accommodation

Cab facilities

Al carte menu


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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 Quality Dimensions:

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

Yes all the service quality dimensions are applied for this service industry. The most

important quality is reliability because the tourism package involves many promises of

services by the provider and it is the challenge of the provider to satisfy and provide the

promised performance. The least applied quality is assurance.Customers Involvement:

The importance of customers in successful service delivery is obvious if service

performances are looked at as a form of drama .Customer participation at some level is

inevitable in service delivery. Services are actions or performances, typically produced

and consumed simultaneously.

Booking tickets through rail tourism India

Knowing information through web

Giving proper feedback to improve the service

Cooperating with the service provider


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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.


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SERVICE BLUEPRINT FLOW CHART:-

Open

website

Log in to

website

Availing

Services

Payment

of bill

Sign out

of

website

Website

design

Trains servicetimes

Locations boxes

PhysicalEvidence

Customer

Bill

Credit Card

Net banking

Debit card

B

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c

k

S

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e

O

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e

C

o

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s

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Showing the

train timin

Conforming

ticket

Taking inputs

Updating

the system

Checking the

availability of

trains

Providing

reservation

Updating the

DatabaseSupport

Process


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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.Withincreasing 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


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employee satisfaction, the more likely the future tourist patronage and the less likely the

complaints.

WILD CARD SECTION:

PRICE: Reasonable prices compared to other service providers

Prices depend on tour packages and distance

PROMOTION:

Advertising at the railway stations

Pamphlets at the reservation counters

Magazine

MANAGING SUPPLY AND DEMAND:

Arranges special trains during seasonal time

Attaching extra compartments to handle the rush

EMPLOLYEE ROLES IN SERVICE DELIVERY:

It is the duty of the employees to take care of the customers during the tour. For

this purpose they are given special training on handling, interacting with the

customers. Delivering the promised service is the upfront challenge of the

employee in winning the customer satisfaction.

INDUSTRY SECTION (SWOT)

STRENGTHS:

Confirmed train ticket

Facilitation at stations

Government subsidiary industry

Price factor

WEAKNESS:

Security Quality of service when compared to private operators

Flexibility of timings

OPPORTUNITIES:

More Pilgrimage destinations

Improve in service to attract niche market


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Tie-ups and joint ventures with other service providers

ONLINE TICKETING INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

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 over3,400 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.


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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.

Major players in the industry:

IRCTC is the only online reservation site for the passengers to book the tickets online.

Apart from the IRCTC website, Indian Railways operated reservation centers are the

other players in this industry.

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 representationDocumentation: Publishing of growth in usage of online booking

All these factors enhances the tangibility of ONLINE BOOKING


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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

Service Quality Dimensions:

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


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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.

Roles of Services cape:-

A services cape is not a passive setting it plays an important role in service transactions. An

evaluation of the roles they have in service encounters will reveal how important it is to design

an appropriate services cape .A services cape plays four important roles.IRCTC is completely an e-based service provider; the physical evidence of IRCTC can be

authorized dealers of IRCTC, SIFY browsers.

Even though the physical evidence of IRCTC online booking is not there, the competitive edge

over the other providers is great. It delivers the excellent mechanism for the convenience of the

customers.


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WILD CARD SECTION

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.


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QUESTIONAIRE

Q.1 ARE YOU AWARE OF E TICKETING PROCESS

a)YES 17

b)NO 13

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.

Q.2 HOW IS THE WEBSITE DESIGN

a) GOOD 8

b) AVERAGE 16

c) BAD 6

a)YES

b)NO

1713


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Interpretation:-

IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version because peopleneed accurate service

Q.3 HOW IS THE WEBSITE ACESSNESS

a) FAST 5

b) SLOW 7

c)MODERATE 18

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.

Q.4HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO BOOK A TICKET ONLINE

a)LESS THAN 10 MINUTES 12

b)MORE THAN 10 MINUTES 18

0 5 10 15 20

a) GOOD

b) AVERAGE

c) BAD

a) FAST

b) SLOW

c)MODERATE

18

5

7


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Q.5 DO YOU FEEL ONLINE TICKET PRICE MUCH MORE THAN MANUAL RESERVATION TICKET

a)YES 2

b)NO 28

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.

Q.6WHAT MODE OF PAYMENT DOES YOU USE TO BOOK A TICKET

a) CREDIT CARD 9

b)NET BANKING SERVICES 21

0

5

10

15

20

a)LESS THAN 10

MINUTES

b)MORE THAN 10

MINUTES

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

a)YES b)NO


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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.

0 5 10 15 20 25

a) CREDIT CARD

b)NET BANKING SERVICES


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SUGGESTIONS

Single screen, rich internet application.

Login not required for checking availability, only for booking, and can be done after

booking

Train availability select multiple trains, and click once to get availability in all

Single spot for advertisement can rotate

Payment options one chosen by default, others available on request

No page reloads easy for the user, more efficient for the server

Ability to change one item and automatic update on others this will make it easier for

users to book their tickets significantly reducing the transaction time

The back-end and front-end are separated, front-end is intelligent can cache data,

process it etc.

Advertisements can still be delivered; you can even deliver contextual ads as the user

plans their travel. Other pages of the site can also be integrated.

To start few more IRCTC reservations outlets for the convenience of the customers.

More tour packages for the convenience of the customers.

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.


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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 Apriland 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.

service marketing project on irctc

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