Clouds on the Borders

Managing infrastructure projects on the na­tional borders could be a daunting task-cre­ating security outposts in the midst of forests, rivers, and hilly terrains in remote areas with hardly any road connectivity, water, electricity, or communication. The border secu­rity forces have to deal with several challenges at every step.

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which is responsible for managing security across the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan national borders, is also required to create appropriate infrastructure at hundreds of places along these borders. The engineer­ing wing of the SSB has to set up border outposts (BOPs) and monitor all the construction work. These projects are usually executed by lo­cal contractors who rarely follow any professional practices or procedures for monitoring the construction work.

"Many of these projects have to be carried out in very difficult ter­rains. The total quantum of work to be executed at a single location is small, so professional agencies do not find it economical to participate in the construction process. There­fore we have to depend on local contractors," explains Anil Agrawal, IPS, inspector general, Lucknow Frontier, SSB.

The Lucknow Frontier of SSB has been responsible for development of infrastructure at 217 remote loca­tions along the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand borders. Agrawal recol­lects when he took charge about 6 years ago he couldn't even find an­swers to some basic questions: How many projects are going on? How many BOPs have been constructed and how much work is left? "No one had any idea, and being in charge of the overall management I had to find ways to collect this information," he remembers. "The primary concern was to improve the effectiveness of execution of multiple projects at multiple remote locations."

Agrawal decided to transform SSB Lucknow's project management systems and create a completely modern IT-enabled system.

Reaching Out With IT

SSB's existing processes of col­lecting information from multiple projects and generating reports were not just time consuming but prone to lot of errors and mismanagement. Monitoring the construction projects involved visits by field engineers to these remote sites, inspecting the quality, issuing directions for improvements, recording measure­ments, and compiling and sending this information to supervisory offices in predetermined formats. "The system had become abso­lutely routinized over time and I was finding it tough to contribute to improvements in the quality of execution in a meaningful manner," says Agrawal.

Although the SSB had an existing Wide Area Network (WAN) in place, many of the locations were out of its coverage.

The only way to reach out across such widely dispersed locations was through the internet. Therefore it was decided to set up a cloud-enabled project management system. Such a solution would not only prove more cost-effective but would also be much faster to imple­ment and scale up as and when required.

The key objectives of the cloud-enabled PMS were:

• Integrate multiple projects on a common platform to enable effec­tive monitoring and management.

• Enable field engineers and officers to record all the information related to their projects in an organ­ized mannerce
• Provide online access to all team members based on their levels of authorization and work allocation.

• Improve the speed of data collation and processing across the various stages, from sanction to completion.

• Ensure availability of up­dated, accurate information about multiple projects to all the senior officers.

• Enhance communication and collaboration across different departments.

• Streamline all records and generate comprehensive reports as and when necessary.

• Comply with all the CPWD procedures and stipulated security guidelines.

In order to achieve these objects, the department sought the services of ISG Software as the company had prior experience in implementing a similar project monitoring solution for the UP government.

Returns on Investment

• Projects worth `117.57 crore are being managed with an investment of just `9.65 lakh (0.08 %) on the PMS

• Availability of online status reports saves almost 200 reams of paper costing `50,000

• Billing time has been brought down from 3 to 4 days to only 2 to 3 hours

• Online access to information has brought down the expenditure that was incurred for physical delivery of documents

• Quality control has improved a lot now as engineers have more time for field visits

• The PMS has significantly improved the monitoring and management of projects, thereby increasing overall efficiency and productivity

• Improved access to data also helps in taking faster and more informed decisions

Creating a Cloud Based PMS

SSB Lucknow set out with an objec­tive to streamline the process of building BOPs-from assessing requirements to inviting proposals, estimations and final execution. They evolved a concept of ‘One BOP-One Estimate' so that all the requirements could be gathered at one time to avoid any confusion or duplication. An effective project management system had to be cre­ated to collect the relevant informa­tion from construction sites and enable effective supervision.

After a detailed study of hard­ware and software requirements, timelines and costs involved, it was decided to go in for a cloud based model, where field engineers could upload the data directly on the online system, and supervisory offic­ers could view the data in a number of formatted reports. It was also decided to go in for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model to minimize the hardware and software costs and implementation timelines.

The PMS had to be designed keeping in view all the security and procedural norms of the government. Although ISG had an existing solu­tion based on CPWD procedures, it required a number of customizations and additions to meet the needs of SSB Lucknow. "The solution was limited to project monitoring, whereas we were looking for a more comprehensive system for overall management. We also wanted to make the interface extremely user-friendly for our field staff," explains Agrawal.

"Managing such large projects was a challenge for us as there was no precedent. People in the industry have been skeptical whether a cloud computing based SaaS model will be workable for projects monitoring. But the initial hiccups only made us wiser and more resolute to make it work," says Pawan Jain, president & CEO, ISG Software.

The entire process of customiza­tion and solution development was carried out for about 8-9 months. Additional features were created for billing, pre-contract proce­dures, and overall management. The system engineers and officers could access the system from remote locations spread across the country. They could view, edit, and generate reports in different formats-picto­rial charts, MIS dashboards, etc. This information could be accessed by the supervisor and senior officers to view the status of each project and initiate action as required.

The Change Agents

Some of the key people involved in this project and what they have to say:                   

"Implementation of the PMS was a herculean task for us. As change is  generally resisted, the new system was welcomed with numerous queries and hurdles. But gradually the field engineers found that the bills and reports generated through it were actually reducing their drudgery."-Anil Agrawal, IPS, inspector general, Lucknow Frontier, SSB

"The maximum resistance to implementation came from the senior engineers. The junior engineers are young, enthusiastic and comfortable with technology. However the older guys have a ‘know-all' approach, are too rigid, and do not want to take the trouble of learning at all" -Mukesh Khandelwal, executive engineer, Frontier headquarters, Lucknow

"Adapting to newer technology gives me a sense of empowerment. When I talk to my friends working in private companies, I also feel a sense of equality...working in the government sector does not always mean using older methodologies" -Rahul Singh , sub inspector pioneer, Frontier headquarters, Lucknow

"Such innovative technological interventions are the need of the hour as they could go a long way in providing good quality governance in the country. They will also help address the problems of inefficiency and corruption that often come up due to lack of transparency" -Pawan Jain, president & CEO, ISG Software

 

The Impact

The shift from manual project moni­toring to a SaaS based system has brought about a complete transfor­mation of the work environment. Although the project faced initial resistance from the older employees, the junior engineers immediately lapped up the new system.

The field engineers can now regularly upload data about the progress made in every project and post photographs showing the exact status during field visits. All the people involved can directly track and monitor all the projects at respective levels in an integrated, seamless manner, anytime, any­where round-the-clock.

As project reports can be com­piled, viewed and communicated instantaneously, supervision of projects has become much easier. The quality of work done is showing distinct improvement. Any kind of bottlenecks and delays are instantly reported and addressed. Regular communication and connectivity among the team members enables better faster execution of projects and reduces unnecessary cost over-runs.

The billing function, which is among the most useful features added, has made it much easy to generate bills and facilitate pay­ments. Automatically generated project reports can be used to get a detailed view of the project.

Transparency and Transformation

Use of technology has not only increased transparency but has also provided access to more accurate data, thereby enabling the manage­ment to take important policy deci­sions. All these factors have also led to faster delivery of projects and an overall improvement in quality of work done.

If such IT systems are imple­mented across more government departments, it would certainly help transform the work environment and help them keep up with times. And automation of processes might just reduce the chances of manipulation of data and other corrupt practices that currently rule government departments