Saturday, July 24, 2004

 

e-Administration of LL2B.COM Pvt Ltd

 
Tamil Nadu To Have Paperless Depts Soon  

source: FE May 26, 2004 and eFE 27 May'2004

In a move that promises to put an end to theubiquitious red tapism prevalent in governmentdepartments, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu(Elcot), has chalked out a plan to make governmentdepartments ‘paperless.’

With the intention of facilitating the transition to apaperless office, Elcot will henceforth be providingthe document management system software (which enablesoffice transaction through computers) free of cost togovernment departments.

According to Mr Mohan, general manager, Elcot, “Elcothad been using the document management system, asoftware which enables the online transaction offiles, a year back. This has helped us in reducing thepaper work and has facilitated the speeding up of fileprocessing and transactions. It has further improvedaccountability and transparency.”

Mr Mohan said, “Based on this experience, Elcot is nowlooking at extending this initiative to othergovernment departments by offering the software toother departments. In fact, we have recently bagged anorder for this product from the Pondicherry IndustrialGuidance Board. Elcot will offer the basic softwarefree of cost to the government departments. However,we will be charging a fee for the customisation of theproduct.”

Mr Mohan said that the product was developed by theChennai-based company, Life Line to business.com(LL2B.com) under the aegis of the e-governance groupof Elcot.

“We have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) withLL2B.com to market the software among the governmentdepartments. Elcot stands to gain in this MoU since wereceive 5 per cent of the customisation fee charged,” he added.

Elcot has identified government departments like theChennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewarage Board,the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA),etc, to implement the ‘paperless office’ initiative.

“We hope that the government departments will showwillingness to accept the product, thereby removingthe inordinate delays in file transactions,” Mr Mohan said.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=60019

 

Transparency and Accountability in Governments and Corporates

Reproduced below is an article that appeared in the Business Standard Tuesday 22 June 2004:

“With e-governance, admn takes a virual leap in TN”

Our Regional Bureau, Chennai 21 June.

Tamil Nadu government’s IT Secretary, Vivek Harinarain is an empowered man these days. A new workflow tool that is used by his Department and Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) allows him to monitor every bit of work that comes under his control even from his home. The software ‘e-Administration’, connects 75 senior level employees of Elcot and 15 in the IT Department through a common platform. With this tool, Harinarain, who is also the Chairman of Elcot, has full control over the work at Elcot, while sitting in the IT Department 10 km away.      

e-Administration is a step taken by the TN Government in its e-governance initiative, which could be a giant leap in terms of transparency and accountability. From routine communications to clearing files, everything is now paperless. e-Administration  is developed by Chennai based software firm, Life-Line to Business  (LL2B).

N Mohan, General Manager – Communications, Elcot said, “This tool has been tried and tested at Elcot. The product being web-enabled, allows the user to log-in even when they are not in office. In terms of efficiency, it has made a big difference to the users. The tool allows officers to conduct day to day business like sanctioning purchases, approving leave tours and sending files to colleagues.

V D G Krishnan, ICT Consultant, LL2B said, “The whole idea is to create transparent and efficient organization. The entire chain of command would now be connected using this tool and hence all the users, limited to their position in the hierarchy, would now know what is happening to every case that comes to government for action.

Though officials down the line at Elcot did not have much of a choice about using the tool, they have adopted it fully. Today logging into the e-Administration system is the first thing these officers do when they report to work. Infact, this  also doubles up as an attendance register that will tell the bosses whether a particular employee has reported to work and if so, whether he was at work on time.

A senior official at Elcot said a strong level of dependency is already developed on this tool which can be seen as a sign of mature system put in place.

Using e-Administration as a basic tool, LL2B has also developed a customised package for the Industrial Guidance Bureau (IGB) of Pondicherry Industries department. This software connects over 20 different departments in the Union territory who have to clear any industrial licence. From water and sewerage board to pollution control board, various departments can approve or disapprove a particular project online.

In fact, Krishnan informed that the software developed for IGB will evolve into a system where the Industrialist would also be able to log into system and check the status of the project. “We have suggested to the Pondicherry government to allow users outside the government to log-in with licence application number and secure password. With this there will not be any more running from pillar to post”. He added that Pondicherry government was receptive to the idea and plans to implement in the next two months.

“For the time being the Pondicherry government posts the status of each project on its official website”, he said. The plan to allow industrialists to log-in with the application number and passwords adds security and privacy, which is missing at this point of time.

The software also allows the users to mark deadlines for every task with an add- on feature of setting reminders.

Elcot has now signed a marketing agreement with LL2B to implement the product across the country. The order of Igb was secured by Elcot and implemented by LL2B.COM Pvt. Ltd.

The marketing agreement also covers another product developed by LL2B called e-Connect.

Krishnan said, “e-Connect is a Computer Telephony Integration Tool incorporating advanced hardware and software integration technology for automating the telephone communication for any telephone line, particularly for helplines, similar to call center tool”. The tool among a host of functions, will allow managers track the time taken on each call, allowing full control over wastage of time and productivity improvement.

The agreement does not specify the revenue sharing arrangement between Elcot and LL2B. Krishnan however said that Elcot would receive 10 percent share for its efforts in marketing these products. “We have already written to many state governments in the country. The Orissa government has evinced interest in this e-Administration tool,” Krishnan said. He added that a similar implementation is explored b y the Andaman and Nicobar Island administration.

What if the state’s chief minister becomes the super-user for e-Administration in Tamil Nadu? “That could be the best thing that ever happened in Tamil Nadu on the governance front. It would mean complete transparency in the way the state machinery works,” Krishnan said.

 

e-Administration for a paperless office

Reproduced below is an article on Tamil Nadu Government’s initiative in paperless administration that appeared in The New Indian Express of July 6, 2004:

Tamil Nadu Government sets sight on a paperless administration

Tuesday July 6 2004 00:00 IST CHENNAI:

The Tamil Nadu Government has taken its first steps towards realising its goal of a paperless administration.After having successfully installed a document management system software in the main server at its Corporate office at Nandanam here, and integrated it with its communication division at Perungudi, about 10 km south, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) has taken it further by intalling it in the office of the Secretary, Information Technology department, at the Secretariat 10 km to the north.

The result? Information Secretary Vivek Harinanarain, who is also the Elcot chairman, can use the new work-flow tool to track every function that comes under him. The software, ‘e-Administration’, connects 75 senior Elcot officials and 15 IT department Officials at the Secretariat on a single, web-based platform.

‘e-Administration’ is a web-enabled, browser independent, paperless office tool, developed by a Chennai company, Life Line to Business.com (LL2B.com), using Java open source technology. It runs on Linux open source platform with Oracle 9i as the back end.‘‘The initiative has helped us to convert Elcot from a traditional paper file-based office, to a truly modern electronic office,’’ beams Elcot chairman Sudip Jain. From routine communication to clearing of files, workflow in Elcot is now paperless.

Among other things the tool involves hierarchy management to provide for creating roles, responsibility and relations between various levels, document management and workflow management. It can generate periodic reports in different formats.‘‘The idea is to create transparency and efficiency. Every senior official at Elcot, limited to his role in the hierarchy, can track the movement of any file as the entire chain of command is connected. The status of every file can now be had at the click of the mouse. The entire task of file processing and transaction is speeded up,’’ says VDG Krishnan, CEO of LL2B.com.

In fact, within a few months of installing it in its corporate office, Elcot received a citation of merit during the National Convention of e-Governance held in Chennai in November last year.

Encouraged by the success of the system, Elcot entered into an agreement with LL2B.com to market e-Administration as an ICT solution, and has already bagged and almost completed execution of its first order from the Government of Pondicherry. LL2B.com has developed and intsalled a customised e-Administration package for the Podicherry Industrial Guidance Bureau, connecting several agencies and departments involved in giving clearances, including the Pollution Control Committee, Water supply and sewerage agency, Electricity Board and 20 municipalities and panchayats.

‘‘What we have done is to create a single-window system of clearance of industrial proposals. All approvals or rejection of proposals to set up industrial units can be now be done on-line by the department or agency concerned. Transparency and accountability are the key words. The status of any application can be tracked by an authorised personnel at any given time, and the reasons for rejection of proposal or delays for the approval of the proposals can easily be found out on-line. The entrepreneur need not run from pillar to post,’’ says Krishnan.

With the state government planning aggressive promotion of e-governance in 21 departments and agencies, Elcot is working at implementation of the system in some more departments at the Secretariat to make governance ‘‘less paper’’ if not paperless. It has also recommended implementation of customised LL2B packages in agencies like CMDA and CMWSS Board.

‘‘Such work flow management systems can lead to enormous savings to the government in terms of manhours as well as cost of creating and maintaining paper files,’’ says a senior official. 

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20040705124325&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&rLink=0

Krishnan V D G
vdgk@yahoo.com

 


 

e-Governance for better governance

TOWARDS A SOCIAL CAUSE - SPECIAL ICT OFFER FROM LL2B.COM

LL2B.COM PVT LTD (Life Line to Business), a little known ChennaiCompany, has been in the news recently, for developing a webenabled, platform independent, browser independent, paperless officesolution, using open source technology, called "e-Administration".

They have installed at ELCOT, Chennai, a trial version, which isrunning satisfactorily for the last 10 months. This has helped ELCOTto become a truely paperless office, ushering in, transparency andaccountability, along with it.

Secretary, Information Technology, who is also the Chairman of ELCOTcan monitor all activities of ELCOT, electronically, sitting in hisoffice in the Secretariat. The MD of ELCOT can clear files, evenwhen he is away from office.

ELCOT, having first hand knowledge about the use of the product, hasentered into a marketing agreement with LL2B.COM, to market thepaperless office solution, for a period of 3 years.

ELCOT / LL2B.COM bagged a prestigious order from PondicherryElectronics Limited for implementing an integrated, single windowclearance, e-Platform, for Indstrial Guidance Bureau, Dept. ofIndustrial Development, Govt. of Pondicherry, within a period of 21days. The basic software was offered free of cost.

Towards its social commitment to further the e-Governanceinitiative, LL2B.COM has come forward, to offer the basic "e-Administration" software, free of cost to any userorganization. "Only the cost of customization, installation,training, hand holding and annual maintenance are payable by theusers" said Mr. V D G Krishnan, ICT Specialist and President ofLL2B.COM.

The "e-Administration" tool can help to empower every employe in the entire vertical hierarchy of any organization, to set targets ateach level, monitor the satisfactory performance, from the bottommost to the top most, thereby helping to better serve citizens &customers. This tool can help to transform the entire society.

Mr. Krishnan said, it is now upto the user organizations to takeadvantage of this offer to usher in e-Governance, transparency andaccountability in their working. LL2B.COM may be contacted at 52115995, Chennai or www.ll2b.com.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20040705124325&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&rLink=0Krishnan.

ps this is not a sales pitch. But a genuine offer. I am notexpecting any pecuniary benefits from anyone on this offer.

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