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.