The GSIS and G-W@PS: Blazing trails

The latter part of the 20th century, that is, the 1980’s and 1990’s will probably come to be known as the period of discovery and scientific and technological advances. In 1982, the first mechanical heart was successfully implanted into a human beneficiary. 1990 marked the year when the Hubble telescope became a reality. In 1997, Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned, eliciting furor from a few scientific and religious groups. The 1990’s also marked the dawning of the information technology revolution. The world wide web, or more popularly known as the Internet, has allowed people separated by great distances or large amounts of time, to communicate, exchange information, even transact business much more effectively and efficiently. Many more technologies have emerged since, all intended to make our lives less complicated and more comfortable.

With this in mind, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), behind the admirable stewardship of its Chairman Bernardino R. Abes and President and General Manager Winston F. Garcia, launched in Camiguin last October, the G-W@PS (GSIS Wireless Automated Processing) – a secure and completely paperless, kiosk type, end-to-end transaction system conceptualized and built completely by Filipinos. "This type of system is the first-of-its-kind in the world," Garcia beamed. G-W@PS utilizes some of the most advanced systems such as radio frequency identification (RFID), biometrics, general packet radio service (GPRS), short message service (SMS) and virtual private network (VPN), among others. Before G-W@PS was introduced, a GSIS member applying for a loan needed to go to his servicing GSIS office and properly identify himself as a member. The member also needs to bring with him an application form bearing the approval of his administrative officer. The GSIS counter staff then checks the member’s qualifications for a loan before printing and asking the member to sign a tentative computation of proceeds. Only then will the application be processed and the cash proceeds remitted to the member’s bank account.

But with the G-W@PS Kiosk, the member only needs to go to a G-W@PS center and place his eCard Plus in front of the radio frequency card reader for it to recognize him as a GSIS member. The eCard Plus is embedded with a RFID microchip which the kiosk can recognize. The member applies for a loan following the instructions displayed on the touch screen monitor until the G-W@PS shows a tentative computation of the member’s loan application. The member is then asked to have his fingerprint scanned before his application is processed. This biometrics system replaces the need for signatures. The G-W@PS summarizes the loan applications and sends it to the government agency where the member is employed. The agency’s authorized officer either approves or disapproves the loan applications. Via Web, the authorized officer sends back the validated loan applications to the G-W@PS, which processes approved loan applications. G-W@PS sends an electronic advisory to Union Bank to deposit the loan proceeds in the member’s eCard Plus ATM Bank Account. The member can even receive a text message that the money is already in his account, ready to be withdrawn in any of the 6,000 ATMs nationwide. The G-W@PS aims to accommodate at least two million loan transactions a year; 500,000 claim transactions; and eventually 100,000 remittances from government agencies. The latter will involve the transmission of at least 60-70 million records as well as the approval of transactions of at least P100 billion.

"In a nutshell, all the transactions you see in the GSIS involving hundreds, even thousands of people – from the GSIS counters up to the bank – are replicated utilizing a synergy of RFID-enabled eCards, kiosks and ATMs," stated Garcia. What G-W@PS hopes to do is eliminate the need of the members, especially old pensioners, to cover great distances whether on land, sea or air just to go to a GSIS office and apply for a loan. Abes and Garcia aim to change the idea of public service with GSIS becoming a real presence to its members. With G-W@PS, the way government transactions are done will be revolutionized and bureaucratic red tape will be effectively dealt with as well. The importance of monitoring the implementation of this new system and improving this along the way is recognized with the vision that G-W@PS will blaze the trail for eGovernance not only in the Philippines, but also the world. Again, this only goes to show that if we Filipinos share a common vision, cooperation and determination, there can be no limit to what we can achieve.