Government Electronic Mail System: Anytime-Anywhere Mailing Facility

That morning,
Janet felt on top of the world. One of her dreams was about to come true. She
could almost feel the romance of Paris, the splendor of Switzerland and shopping
at Harrods! As Janet switched on her computer and imagined herself rubbing
shoulders with the rich and famous in Monte Carlo, her smile vanished.

Only one thing clouded her high
spirits. She might have applied for her annual leave, a shade too late. This
trip to Europe was so unexpected. Her electronic submission for leave was only
two days old and the trip was two weeks away. Janet keeps her fingers crossed.
But she need not have worried. As the approval for her leave flashed on her
monitor, her smile returned.

Messaging setup


In the past, Janet would be on tenterhooks for days, as her supervisor filed
her leave application for processing at the human resource department. Today,
the Government’s centralized mail system built on a robust messaging
infrastructure is turning out to be a real gem. Janet and her colleagues can now
send memos across ministries, effect leave applications, submit transport claims
and even make reservations for functions or meeting rooms online.

Today, there is an
enterprise-wide system that offers government ministries, statutory boards
connectivity and more. And the first mission critical system running under it is
the Government Electronic Mail System (GEMS)

Seamless user integration


Regardless of physical location, GEMS enables the civil service community
and statutory boards to seamlessly exchange information and communicate with one
another using workgroup communication tools. GEMS operates on a strong messaging
infrastructure which aims to achieve a high level of system integrity,
reliability, availability and serviceability.

Based on Lotus Notes, a
Government-wide directory of current mail users can interact with the system
everyday for intra and inter-organization workflow and document exchange. They
can access documents and data for necessary reference, processing, co-authoring
or feedback. This facilitates different government bodies to work together in
real time on the same case or project. These applications expedite replies to
online enquiries and processing of public transactions. It also performs
tracking for easy analysis of data such as the number and nature of public
enquiries and staff suggestions.

Now, organizations no longer need to employ a
large pool of technical and operations staff to design, build and maintain a
Notes infrastructure. In short, GEMS helps organizations cut costs in manpower.
Its powerful email facility is directly responsible for a significant dip in
paperwork and overheads. Productivity is climbing together with organization
effectiveness as a central user administration allows for indefinite scalability
with expert WAN and LAN management.