The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), pioneers of the Amul brand of milk products, has now received international recognition for their IT initiatives.

In 2003, GCMMF, that revolutionized co-operative movement in the country, won the prestigious international CIO 100 award from IDG’s CIO Magazine, USA. The 2003 CIO 100 award recognizes organizations around the world that excel in positive business performance through resourceful IT management and best practices.

GCMMF, whose IT initiatives have been driven by the philosophy of being an IT company in food business, has inspired all its employees to sustain the challenges as a "change agent" by excelling their IT skills in order to transform the people around them towards IT integration (e-Vision) on both the ends of supply chain (village dairy farmer to end-consumer).

Says Subbarao Hegde, AGM—IS, who received the award in Colorado, US, on the behalf of GCMMF, "This award has motivated each and every member of Amul, the dairy’s wholesale distributors, retailers, transporters and suppliers who have supported whole-heartedly the IT initiatives of GCMMF."

A big achievement of IT in Amul has been the automation of this complex supply and delivery chain. The adoption of technology at the grass roots level to bridge the rural divide has been another big achievement. The automated supply chain seamlessly integrates the manufacturing dairy units for production, planning and raw material procurement. It handles distribution of milk from surplus unions to deficit unions. 

Other IT initiatives include deployment of an ERP on a turnkey basis by TCS called the Enterprise-wide integrated application system (EIAS). EIAS covers functions like market planning, advertising, distribution network planning, stock control, budgetary control, quality control management and co-operative service management. Amul has also connected all its zonal offices, regional offices and member dairies through VSATs.

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