The first sight that greets visitors to the OCR used to be government officials surrounded by a crowd making inquiries. However, there were only a few people at the office that day, and the officials were focused on their computers.

This dramatic transformation of the OCR is the result of a shift from manual operation to an electronic system. In October 2012, the OCR introduced online registration of companies, and the service was officially launched on Feb 8, 2013. Since October 2013, online registration has become mandatory while it was optional in the initial stages.

After the launching of online services, people can get tasks such as registration, dissolution and other administrative work done through the internet. They can visit the OCR’s web site <www.ocr.gov.np> and do most of the tasks online eliminating

the need to travel to its office physically.

In order to complete the registration process, company representatives need to make a one-time visit to the OCR office at Tripureshwor or the district office of the Department of Cottage and Small Industries in Lalitpur to pay registration charges and register their official signatures as digital signatures have not yet been recognized in the country.

“The online service has made it very easy for us to function,” said Shankar Aryal, registrar at the OCR. “The number of visitors to the OCR has gone down by more than 40 percent, and we are expecting it to go down further as people get used to the new system.”

According to Aryal, only those who are finding it difficult to handle the online technology and those facing minor technology-related problems are visiting the office in person. From October 2013, when OCR made it mandatory for companies to get registered online, till May 18, 2014, a total of 5,503 companies have been registered online.

During the same time frame, a total of 30,957 online users were approved, while 680 are waiting for final approval. Similarly, the number of online document submissions amounted to 54,675. As of now, a total of 122,000 companies are estimated to be registered with the OCR.

Companies can now submit their annual reports and other necessary files online after acquiring a user identity and password. Sitting in their offices or at home, people can also track the progress of their file and find out its current status.

The OCR implemented the online system in association with International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. IFC has provided technical support worth $ 500,000 through a project named the Business Process Reengineering and Automation Project.

Along with the online service, the OCR has also devised a Company Electronic Filing Directive 2013. The directive has envisioned managing separate electronic registers to store documents of various companies submitted to the OCR.

To make the service accessible, the OCR has signed agreements wi th the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) and Nepal Bar Association (NBA) who will be responsible for opening online service centres to assist people. “So far, such online service centres has been established in Biratnagar, Birgunj, Hetauda, Chitwan, Butwal and Pokhara,” said Aryal.

There is a help desk at the OCR where people having problems regarding online company registration can seek help and get the job done. A total of 13 employees have been hired in coordination with IFC to provide this service.

Dinesh Sagar Bhusal, deputy registrar at the OCR, said that the office was carrying out several other initiatives to make the operations more efficient. The OCR also maintains an online database of the companies registered till date.

The OCR is currently busy digitalizing old files in a systematized way. Of the total 122,000 registered companies, information of about 95,000 companies have been entered in the database. The OCR has outsourced the task to a private firm, and last Sunday they were busy handling the old files. “The files which have been entered in our database can be searched within 5 minutes,” said one of the staffers involved in the process.

According to Bhusal, they have been scanning old files and uploading them to the OCR’s web site from where the respective company can retrieve them. “Every file has a specific barcode. Before taking the file out, the code will be scanned through which our system will keep track of where the file has been moving within the office premises,” said Bhusal. “Every officer will be using the barcode system to help us know where the file has reached.” The systematized process is expected to be a big relief to the general public and government officials. The OCR has designated three staff members to search for old files only.

“Once the entire database has been compiled, we will not need three people working on it,” said Bhusal. The OCR has invested around Rs 2.5 million for the purpose and 15 outsourced people are handling the process presently.