A Database is Born: NADRA in the Early Days

14.05.2009

All NADRA offices were given access to the CRM system so they could deliver the best customer services through tracking the exact status of customer NIC delivery. Just like any project, the customer has certain expectations from a system. Being able to instantly know the exact status of an NIC was critical to the success of the project. "Not only was the system interested in creating the archive, but NADRA truly wanted to involve the citizens into the process."

Once the cards were verified, attested, tracked and created, next came the actual delivery phase of the NICs. With millions of people in the system, there was a huge logistical challenge in ensuring the right card was delivered to the right individual.

"We tried through postal services, through district offices, and through NADRA representatives Tehsils and Districts, but it was not successful due to unavailability of any tracking of the physical Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC). There were regular complaints of lost cards, which caused inconvenience to the customers and also caused overhead of reprinting." To tackle this issue, Azhar's team decided to implement a cutting edge tracking system, where every envelope carrying a CNIC was bar-coded and tracked at every location. "An in-house tracking system was developed and access was given to the staff so they could locate any card based on several variables like CNIC number, old NIC number, name, date of birth, or other details, and find the exact location of the card. A system was implemented so that every envelope was scanned while leaving the printing office and also scanned at each transit office, with a final scan at the delivery office."

Azhar explains, "one of the things we learned quickly was that if we wanted all our projects to be integrated with one another, we needed to retain control over the development. This wasn't something that was being done elsewhere in the world, which could be replicated through one solution or the other. We had a vision and wanted to ensure that each component and development was aligned with that vision."

Central Distribution Centers were created in addition to the NSRCs where the cards were stored for collection. Upon arrival, each letter was scanned and the system automatically assigned it an available pigeonhole number so that even the physical location of every card inside in office was also known, and cards could be located and dispatched in a matter of seconds to the receiver.