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E-Correspondence and Archiving System
Ministry of Interior
Bahrain

The Problem

The Situation before the initiative was of a Slow Paper work and no centralized approach for documents. The major issue was the responsiveness required for a document to be searched from a file. Employees needed to hasten as there were no metadata about the location and storing of the document. There were hundreds of documents that used come in and go out on a daily basis. It was difficult for the employees to keep track of each document whenever the process was taking place. So every time a query about a particular document arrived, it would mean a lot of searching in the library and huge amount of time and human resources used to be wasted.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The initiative was about
CAPTURE(Letters,Scanned Documents,Soft Documents upload)
COLLABORATE(with Business workflow)
ARCHIVE(Documents)
SECURITY(Documents)
Initially the system was just classifying the documents based on incoming documents and outgoing documents. Each document was given a unique identification number for future references. The number generation was done by the system; it was based on year and the source/destination of the document. The document would be scanned and stored into the system and all metadata about the document would be inserted with it (e.g. document date, subject, action taken etc).
Each user authorized to use the system was given a username and password which would allow him to so see / modify the data based on the privileges assigned to him.
Some documents were deemed confiddential and would only be accessed by the users who were given the privilege the view these kind of documents.System control access to data based on user roles
As the system grew with age and when functionality was added, it became a necessity for all employees.
The System has various modules some major ones are
 Reception
 Incoming
 Outgoing
 Dispatch
 Follow-up
 Search
 Transferred letters
 Reports
 System Utilities

After the system was implemented the main impact was in the responsiveness of the of document retrieval.
The Document wasscanned from one location and transferred digitally to the concerned person for a suitable action. There was no need for an employee to take the physical document for an approval or remarks.
The whole organization benefited by the implementation of the system.
 The employees need not run around to the document library to find documents.
 The TOP management would get the requested document within seconds.
 The most important were the people who would inquire about their requests would get an immediate reply as to what is the status of their document/request.
 There was immediate notification for new transferred letter

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Solution was proposed by the General Director-Ministry of Interior Court, and it was implemented by the IT-Section of the General Directorate. The Whole process was done in-house
The Project was kick started with a team consisted of
(1 –Project Manager, 1-DBA ,2-Programmers)
Currently we have a support team to support the application which consists of
(1-Project Manager , 2-DBAs, 5-Programmers)

Around 480 to 500 end users are using this application across 20 directorates of Ministry .The users have access on the application based on their role and privileges of signed and stamped form by the respective director for the user to ensure that users only carry out those operations that are appropriate with their roles and responsibilities.

Normal user – Data entry level user who are responsible for storing Normal Incoming and outgoing letters.

Power user - These groups of users have elevated privileges than Normal
user, where in it allows them to work with Confidential letters
The Confidential letters are further classified into Secret and Top Secret Categories.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The objectives and Strategy for the system were
• To archive Documents
• To improve the response time to document retrieval
• To manage Workflow as flexible as possible.
• To facilitate the use of interface.
• To make it easy (not Complicated) for the end users.
• To keep the documents secure and highly available.

As we know that the three guiding Principals of the Vision 2030 are
• Sustainablity
• Competitiveness
• Fairness

As we are heading towards a digital era where paperless work environment is considered an ideal for work and by archiving documents digitally and manage workflow which can be modified as per required and we can do all this in-house and provide support rount the clock 365 days a year .So we are following the first guiding principle of being sustainable.

We, Here at the ministry also follow the princliples of Speed in response ,Proficenfy,Accuracy Efficency .To achive this by adopting latest technology available.Hence we also are inline following the principle of Compititiveness.

Should any other organization require the application , we can provide it free of cost and are willing to support with all our expertise. So we can achive the the last principle of being fair by sharing information and Technology.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The prototype of system was designed in May 2004, with which it was finalized that the system would be created using Oracle Database 9i and Oracle Developer 6i. The system has gone through various steps:
o Project planning, feasibility study: The system was planned in 2004 and was established as a high-level view of the intended project and determined its goals.
o Systems analysis, requirements: It Defined project goals into functions and operation of the intended application. Analyzed end-user information needs.
o Systems design: The desired features of Document Archive system and operations in detail, including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams and other documentation.
o Implementation: The real code was written during this phase.
o Integration and testing: System was tested by various users to check any bugs or errors.
o Acceptance, installation, deployment: In final stage of initial development, the software was put into production to run the actual workflow.
o Maintenance: Its an on going process: changes, correction, additions, moves to a different computing platform,upgrades from database versions and more. This turned out to be the least glamorous and perhaps most important step of all.The changes through time to make it dynamic, many new modules were added and audit trails were created. Extensive reports were produced as per requirements. Even today if there is a need, there is always new feature added into the system.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
As the application had to start from scratch we did encounter obstacles from scratch,initialy it was challenge to find a determine true-skill at the start .
The first phase of project was aimed at getting ready. "how much change management is needed for this specific project?" The first phase provided us the situational awareness that was critical for effective change management.

The second phase of application was focused on creating the plans that are integrated into the project activities - what individuals in management thinks about the system.

The other obstacles were changing mindset of people to use new technology for storing and retrieval of data. Gradually they saw the benefits.

So some plans were created to help individuals and management to move through this situation.
• Communication plan –Center point of communication was decided between management & developers to easily communicate the ideas.
• Roadmap –Management played a role in Building a plan, Track and manage a project, and Closing a project.
• Training plan – Training for end user started with theoretical and practical demos of Arabic interfaces in Application ,Self testing time was given to user to get familiar with the system
• Resistance management plan –During the designing phase of project,lots of changes were encountered ,logic was changed time to time to give a better shape to application .

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
As we already had the licencing for utilizing Oracle Database and Development tools, the same was utilized in designing and developing of the application.
The Technical and human resources were already available for the organization; hence, it was not at any extra cost.
The hardware Infrastructure required during the project was already available with the Ministry of Interior Court.
The Key Benefit during the project was that it was implemented at no additional cost to the ministry as all resources (Human/ Hardware/ Software) used were internal.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Yes, At present the system has been requested by various other departments of the ministry and it has been deployed with them.As a result they reap the benefits of the system.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The application resulted in various positive impacts.The key factors that made the system a success was that the users adapted to the new technology and gained the benefits from the centrally managed document system.
At Present around 20 Directorates across the Ministry are using the system with an overall users of between 480-500 and more requesting the application as they learn the benefits.The Data Spanning Across a Database of around 70 GB storing more than 500,000 scanned Documents.
Now the response in means of time has improved drastically and the efficenly with which the documents are stored and queried are in line with the latest digital technology.
The Application can adapt to any workflow as it it not bound by any workflow constraints.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Interior
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Ahmed Al-Manaai
Title:   Head of Police Media Center  
Telephone/ Fax:   +97317390900
Institution's / Project's Website:   http://www.interior.gov.bh/
E-mail:   salarrayedh@ega.gov.bh  
Address:   P.O. Box 13
Postal Code:  
City:   Manama
State/Province:  
Country:   Bahrain

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