A base line study was conducted by expert groups drawn internally and externally to assess the needs of the end users especially the rural population, particularly women, disabled people and youth. A participatory approach involving the stakeholders was realized through the creation of a web site, which provides comprehensive, interactive information services to the end users. Since the Information Technology penetration in rural areas of Kerala were not that high, information about this venture was publicized through local newspapers and an online bulletin board was setup allowing the stakeholders (even without an email-id) to electronically submit comments and suggestions. The large quantum of information thus pooled could be subjected to impact analysis and evaluation helping to arrive at right decisions. It also helped us to assess the needs and aspirations of the job seekers and general public. The other stakeholder being the Govt. of Kerala, KPSC from historical records know the needs of the Govt. Other peers in this group are the officials working at KPSC, who had only minimal/no exposure to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), and many of who was comfortable working the old way. Different training programs were carried out to impart ICT skills and soft skills among the staff (just in time and just enough learning) helping them to carry out their day-to-day business electronically, continuous refresher courses are given for specific areas for achieving increased productivity.
All the information that was flowing had to be sifted through and understood at a basic level. For this the concerned individuals had to be educated in using the system. For bridging the gap, services of technical people working outside like Professors dealing with IT, Industrialist, System mangers of other departments etc were included in a panel of technical experts. For core maintenance, metadata data entry, processing, manning the scanning stations, the departmental staff were specially exposed to an intensive training in the areas mentioned. The higher level and middle level officers were also given appropriate training to have control over their subordinates and in efficient monitoring and management of resource utilization patterns.
The people most knowledgeable about what currently works, and what needs to be changed, are those who are doing the job. So for implementing a successful change to IT related process, we had to rely on their workforce for the detailed design and implementation of new organizational arrangements and service programs. In any situation involving the application of knowledge, the most valuable working wisdom available is that of “knowing what not to do or even to try”. This was effected by consulting the details of implementation with the staff who have experience in doing things manually at KPSC. The newly trained manpower was given entirely new set of rules and an entirely flat hierarchy, they were taught what to do and what not to do. Many of the decision making capacity was handed over to then reducing the time lag, a clear cut demarcation as to what all decision can be made and what all decisions need concurrence from higher officials were clearly made known to them. Champions, opinion leaders who has illustrated good performance during the initial phase of implementations were identified and rewarded by giving them up lead roles and assigned the task of sharing their experience with their peers. They in turn interacted with other staff members and thus knowledge sharing was effected. Good practices were given highlight and the lessons learned were share among the staff members. These in turn resulted in informal brainstorming sessions and could synthesize new ideas and use patterns and efficient usage of resources.
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