The district Collectorate here will soon be covered by the electronic office (eOffice) initiative of the State government as works for upgrading connectivity and hardware systems are nearing completion.
The Collectorate here is one of the seven Collectorates in the State that are being switched to eOffice mode that involves digitisation of all documents and files that ensures electronic tracking.
The eOffice system being implemented in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will also cover the Sub-Collector’s office at Thalassery. In the first phase two sections of the Collectorate will be logged on to eOffice even before the project’s rollout in the seven districts planned in December end.“Upgradation works are under way in the Collectorate to implement the eOffice,” District Collector P. Bala Kiran told The Hindu .
He said that the first phase of the eOffice upgradation will be completed immediately. As soon as an eOffice instance for the Collecotrate is created, the system will be operational, he added. The gap analysis conducted at the Collectorate as part of the eOffice project implementation found that most of the computer systems procured in 2006 are outdated and unfit to be upgraded for eOffice use.
169 computers
The Collectorate requires 169 computer systems including that of the Collector. While 55 of the existing computers have been upgraded, steps are now on to procure more high-end systems for the complete rollout of the eOffice system. Also required is a heavy duty scanner for digitisation of documents and files. “Connectivity is not a major issue in Kannur as we already have 100 MBPS connectivity which is now being upgraded to 1 GBPS,” said Andrews Varghese, District Informatics Officer. The existing connectivity will be integrated with NIC Network to avoid traffic congestion, he said.
He further said that 4 MBPS connectivity is required for 20 users. The eOffice system envisages a central repository unit for digitised documents, a failover system connected to a standby server and a disaster recovery system.
Officials involved in the eOffice initiative informed that planned switching to the eOffice system requires amendments in the district office manual (DOM) to incorporate efile movement in the offices.
The DOM has to be re-engineered to suit the eOffice-based flow of files in electronic form, they added.
