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FILE MONITORING SYSTEM
DELHI STATE INDUSTRIAL & INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD.
India

The Problem

Before stating about this initiative taken for the development of File Monitoring System, I will have to explain the system existed then which will help to understand the innovation. Step by step process is recorded below:
Step-1
Letter/File is received in division, it is recorded in a register where file/letter No., date, subject and details who has sent it are recorded by the Dealing Asstt,/P.A. of officer/section concerned.

Step-2
Letter/File is sent by the Section Head and records his views hence sent it back to the Dealing Asstt for sending it to the higher up or down depending upon the information being sought where again details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are recorded.


Step-3
The Letter/ File is sent up word or down depending upon from whom information is being sought or to the next Section who has supplied the details where details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are again recorded.

Step-4
The Letter/File is received by the Dealing Asstt. of the next Division/Section, who has to further process the case where again details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are recorded.


Step-5
Letter/File is now seen by the Section Head or the officer to record his approval or provide details as asked for. Before Section Head receives the file his Dealing Asstt,/P.A. again records.


It was observed that sometime the officers or the staff dealing with the files gets escaped from the onus of the delay because anybody could put in back date but sent the file after 15/30 days. It was becoming very difficult to take stock of such discrepancies. It was even observed that in view of the above they used to hold back the file for months together causing delay in the decision making processes. Even it was observed that by using few words ‘not available’ the public or the beneficiary was being harassed on this account and he was asked to visit again and again the same office for getting the work executed even though the file was not misplaced but sometime for the personal gains a words ‘file not traceable’ was very commonly used. The system of the file movement is that:
File/letter initiated or when received by any individual he has to write his comments and then send it to the next authority for approval/decision. From there the file/letter is sent to the higher authority in the vertical as defined in the manual and the process goes on till the final decision is taken by the authority. In case any further information/clarification is required the file is sent back from the person who has initiated the case.
Summing up there used to be two problems:

1. Time taken by any individual in writing his comments;
2. Intentionally delaying the procedure for need of personal gains;’

With the initiatives taken both the problems were solved.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
As it has been explained in the previous question the key benefits resulting from the initiative was the time taken by any individual reduced substantially and secondly no individual can say now ‘file is not traceable’ as the movement of the files are recorded in the electronic form. In the manual system when a file is sent (after recording it in the Peon Book) this information is not available with the person who is going to receive the file in advance but with the help of this software an alert is sent to an individual that he is getting a file form a division as can be seen from the screen painted for this purpose.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution proposed was by the IT Division specially the undersigned, who had been facing this problem of “file not being traceable”. The manual system adopted has been detailed in step by step form as follows:
Step-1
Letter/File is received in division, it is recorded in a register where file/letter No., date, subject and details who has sent it are recorded by the Dealing Asstt,/P.A. of officer/section concerned.

Step-2
Letter/File is sent by the Section Head and records his views hence sent it back to the Dealing Asstt for sending it to the higher up or down depending upon the information being sought where again details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are recorded.


Step-3
The Letter/ File is sent up word or down depending upon from whom information is being sought or to the next Section who has supplied the details where details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are again recorded.

Step-4
The Letter/File is received by the Dealing Asstt. of the next Division/Section, who has to further process the case where again details like, letter/file no., date, subject and the name of the sender are recorded.


Step-5
Letter/File is now seen by the Section Head or the officer to record his approval or provide details as asked for. Before Section Head receives the file his Dealing Asstt,/P.A. again records.

(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.
Taking the view that government services are offered by a number of administrations interacting one with each other to the Citizen, one of the main challenge of e-government is to make it possible for administrations to become a channel for delivering services in a straightforward and transparent manner.

Analysis of these “good practices” is necessary to build models which will guide the development of IT savvy administration. This must be based on concepts and on a theoretical framework; we can able to describe and classify the various initiatives and to identify the organisational problems which are the main barriers against adoption of innovation. This framework will also give predefined methodology and guidelines to implement business process rebuilding and change management.

i. Convince the management for the benefits of the FMS:

First of all our job was started to convince the management and familiar him from the benefits Information technology. Because the bureaucracy imposes on its environment its rules, its operating modes and it transfers the management of complexity to the end-user. A modern customer-oriented organisation aims on the contrary at being simple for the user, reactive and efficient.
Because of the citizen’s new requirements and increasingly budgetary constraints, public administrations are today facing this challenge. To be more efficient and accountable for its missions of general interest, the modern administration aims at transferring complexity from the front-office (the end-user) to the back-office.

Bureaucratize willingness is needed to drive the transition to e-government. Reorganisation of back-office and business process reengineering are necessary to build interoperable organisations. Nothing can be done however without the people in charge of the different tasks.
Three main issues have to be addressed before the preparation

1. Change strategies
2.Knowledge empowerment :
3. Human resources management and training :
Managerial objectives
Bureaucratize willingness is needed to drive the transition to e-government. Reorganisation of back-office and business process reengineering are necessary to build interoperable organisations. Nothing can be done however without the people in charge of the different tasks.
Three main issues have to be addressed before the preparation

1. Change strategies
2.Knowledge empowerment :
3. Human resources management and training

3.Technology for interoperability
The best technology was searched and found that the web based soln. is suitable for such the of operation. PhP with MySql are deployed for the purpose of software development. One of the reason of the selection of front-end & back-end that both are available with open license , so it is cost effective also.

3.Cultural changes
Training contribute to cultural change, to knowledge transfer, and to enable officials to use technology.

5.Organisation and Human resources
Interoperable e-government will usually bring change for front office in terms of responsibilities and flexibility.


iii. Locate the Software development team

Fortunately we have a software development team of viz. Sh. Vikas Gupta, Smt. Rama Minocha, Sh. Gaurav Rastogi, Sh. Shankar, Sh. Sudhir Anand & Mrs. Ritu Sharma . Our team members were analyzed, develop, tests and deployed the project.

This work will be used to build and asses, technically and organisationally, for FTS project. In a more general way, it has vocation to be used as support for entrire officials of Corporation in order to develop File Tracking Systems.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The entire development was made by the officials of IT Division of DSIIDC. From analysis-mannual work -development-implementation –modification, everything was done by specialized It professional who worked under IT Division.

Being an IT head, I was faces several pitfalls for setting up the Division. Human has the nature to do the job as earlier was done. Very few were interested to change the traditional ways. So it was difficult for me for paradigm shift.

We trained the employee of the organization as per the need & requirements. We also imparted several in-house training for operation of Computer to develop the programme.

We stated out IT Division, so called then EDP Division .From 486 to P4 & 4 MB to 160 GB, we found marvelous changes from last 14 years. Now we have approximately 6 Servers, 200 Computers, 45 Printers, 10 Scanners and 10 Laptops.
Overall project plan development
• The challenges are faced in implementing of the projects was from the people. It is needless to mention that what is one of the important factor in the implementation of any project and if they do not cooperate whatever engineering or amount or time is spent the project can not run successfully.
Overall administration and coordination for projects
• Without co-ordination of management & staff of DSIIDC, it was impossible for us to implement the FTS. We got a lot of support at desired location.
One Point of Contact to DSIIDC’s staff and resources
• We imparted training to the employee of DSIIDC & make it sustainable to do the job independently.
Schedule development and monitoring
• We had prepared the module wise development schedules. The modules were added into single one. It was prepared under the certain period of framework & the entire process was monitored by me. We maintain the procedure of SDLC i.e Software development life cycle, which is used by our team to develop an information system, including requirements, validation, training, and user ownership. It results in a high quality system that meets or exceeds customer expectations, within time and cost estimates, works effectively and efficiently in the current and planned Information Technology infrastructure, and is cheap to maintain and cost-effective to enhance.
• Initiation/Planning: It generate a high-level view of the intended project i.e FTS and determine the goals of the project.
• Requirements Gatherings And Analysis : The goal of systems analysis is to determine where the problem is in attempt to fix the system.
• Design: In systems design functions and operations are described in detail, including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams and other documentation.
• Build or Coding: Modular and subsystem programming code will be accomplished during this stage.
• Testing: The code is tested at various levels in software testing. Unit, system and user acceptance testing are often performed.
• Operations and Maintenance: The deployment of the system includes changes and enhancements before the decommissioning or sunset of the system. Maintaining the system is an important aspect of SDLC. As key personnel change positions in the organization, new changes will be implemented, which will require system updates.
Guidance/ training in the standards development process, policy and procedures :
• Now it is time to train the officials of DSIIDC. We trained them accordingly and give the useful tips to operate the system.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacle encountered in implementing this software was the manpower as no one was ready to accept the new system because of the personal gains as explained above. Now each individual become accountable. A brief about what was the new system is indicated here under:

When the file is received its no., date, subject, from who received etc. were entered. Based on these details a unique no. is generated by the computer (called Diary Control Number (DCN). The only difference in this and the manual system was; in the manual system an individual used to write date and time when the letter was received, this process is repeated a number of times wherever the letter/file is moved to or received in. Whereas in the new system the date of receipt and the time taken by the computer was that of the server with which all the systems are attached (because this is web based application). Hence no one could alter the date and time. If one needs to know the process, it can be seen through our website: www.dsiidc.org/trial . After unique no.(DCN) is generated the file is sent physically to the person whom it is marked ,at the receiving end. Earlier manually one has to write all the details i.e. subject, letter /file no., date, from whom it is received etc. but under the new process just entering the DCN all the details can be seen on the screen and the file is taken into account. Once letter/file is received is it sent automatically by the system in the inbox of the officer concerned and when he wants to send it will go the outbox. At the same time an alert is sent to the individual who will receive the file. Since an individuals were not allowed to change the date and time when the letter/file is received. The onus of delay lied on the person who has delayed the file and not who is receiving the file.

Though some were happy to adopt the system but those, who are delaying the things or stating ‘the file is not traceable’ they were not happy to adopt this. We could overcome by enforcing it and at the same time telling them that you are saved from writing these things again & again. Though it took time but it has been accepted by every one. Those who were not happy by saying ‘the file is not traceable’ even they realize of that the file being kept hidden will be unearthed as one could trace out the history of the file.

Earlier one had to run pillar to post to find out where the file is available but now the entire history of the movement of the file for how many days it was kept by an individual can be seen on the screen. (ref. screenshots on www.dsiidc.org/trial).

(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
Since this is a in-house developed software, there was no financial/ technical cost to initiate this process, Human resources were available in the IT Division of DSIIDC who utilized their knowledge to develop it. Since this was a challenge for the staff of IT Division of DSIIDC they were too happy to develop it and ensured that it is implemented into totality.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
This initiative is undoubtedly unsustainable, untraceable and transferable because initially it was tested for 6 months on the local server and after removing all the bugs the software was converted as web based because DSIIDC had six other divisions located in different parts of Delhi and to use this software they had to have a unique no.(DCN) for the file being moved, otherwise duplicate no. generated could make the program useless.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
File Monitoring System had a great impact on the movement of the file in the
DSIIDC. It was no longer in the hands of few to reveal the data or manipulate the date rather it was transferable and less time consuming. It was also seen that there was a time when an individual could hold the file months together now after implementing this software one could not hold back the file and even if he held it he had to record the reasons for the delay. To avoid such criticism the habit of red tapism had almost vanished and things are now moving smoothly. Since this software is easy to use that many departments have asked for replicating it in their departments and we did it gracefully. Govt. of India had recognized this software by giving First Prize for the exemplary use of ICT by PSUs for this software .

Contact Information

Institution Name:   DELHI STATE INDUSTRIAL & INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD.
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   SURINDER KAPUR
Title:   CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER  
Telephone/ Fax:   91-9810898898
Institution's / Project's Website:   91-11-23713028
E-mail:   skapur@dsiidc.org  
Address:   N-BLOCK, BOMBAY LIFE BUILDING, CONNAUGHT CIRCUS
Postal Code:   110001
City:   NEW DELHI
State/Province:   DELHI
Country:   India

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