Dcument management proposal

PROPOSAL FOR REVIEW DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DESIGN FEBRUARY 20, 2014

WWW.CODAFRICA.ORG COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA Ref No.0100/SICS/136

SICS

+251 116 620161 www.sicsoutsourcing.com

COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA (CoDA)

TABLE OF CONTENT 1. DOCUMENT IDENTIFICATION

2

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMERY

2

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT

2

4. SCOPE

3

4.1 SERVICES: SICS SHALL PERFORM

4

4.2 EXCLUSIONS

4

5. OBJECTIVES

5

6. PROPOSED SYSTEM

5

7. DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY

7

8. TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION

8

8.1 COMPANY PROFILE

8

8.2 WHY SICS?

8

8.3 PAST PERFORMANCE

9

8.4 TECHNICAL TEAM

1

10

8.4.1 GIDEON BEREKET, PROJECT MANAGER

10

8.4.2 MR. ZEKARIAS NEGASH, SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

10

8.4.3 WALLELIGN CHERINET, SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

10

SICS

1. Document Identification

This document is a proposal for an Electronic Document Management System. The document serves as a brief and clear depiction for the illustration of the envisioned solution.

The purpose of document management is to manage repositories of documents and historical information for large user groups or for specific projects, and to ensure a consistent style and approach to creation, update and format of documents.

2. Executive summery

Everyone organizes their documents, emails, scans electronic faxes, graphics, etc. in some fashion, whether or not they use a document management system (“DMS”). More sophisticated users develop naming conventions to make identifying and retrieving documents easier.

The question is, what does a “document management” specifically mean?

Just as everyone organizes their documents, so too has everyone not using a document management system spent too much time hunting for “lost” documents, often even re-typing them, hunting for subdirectories that were “dragged and dropped” who knows where, and so on. These are some of the issues that typically drive firms to adopt a document management system.

Today, companies are swamped with information that goes beyond traditional “documents,” including emails, faxes, scanned documents and pages saved from the Internet, as well as traditional documents generated by the firm. A Document Management System is the traffic cop that brings order to this chaos: organizing it by client/matter, categorizing the types of documents you have and directing them to the proper place. So by “documents” here we include all these items.

This document has three purposes: 1. To make the case for document management 2. To raise issues and functionality that a document management system can (or should) provide that perhaps your firm had not considered 3. To consider some of the best practices involved in implementing and using a document management system Thus some sections of this paper have a more general conceptual approach, while others have more of a “how to” flavour.

3. Problem Statement

If you're in business, you create documents. Whether they're legal records, product plans, strategy memos, or even just records of meetings or casual brainstorming sessions, those documents have value to somebody somewhere in your organization.

But without a document management system in place, that value can easily be lost --

SICS

2

COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA (CoDA)

especially as companies grow. Document management systems help organize how documents are created and what happens to them -- who gets to view and edit them, who has to approve them, and where and how long they're stored.

The basic activities associated with document management can be summarised as: Creation: Document management systems describe and enforce how documents are created so that users can later find and get useful information from them. For instance, they might have consistent templates for particular types of documents like invoices, and define which metadata (descriptions about the document) has to be entered and where it's stored.

Workflow: Often, document management systems offer a way to describe and enforce the flow of documents through different people -- creators, editors, and approvers, for instance. There may be tools to aid collaboration as well, like simultaneous editing, shared workspaces, and links to communication software like email or instant messaging programs.

Storage and distribution: Systems must have a consistent way for documents to be stored (for instance, in libraries or a single big repository) and retrieved (through a URL or via search). Most systems also let users or IT staffs set and enforce policies on who can view and edit particular documents.

Archiving: Once a document is no longer active, it may still need to be stored for compliance or other purposes.

Publishing: Many document management systems have ways to publish content to the Web or an intranet site.

In conclusion, an electronic Document Management System (DMS) is basically a collection of technologies that are used to capture, index, distribute, review, maintain, store, retrieve and dispose of information assets. Traditional non-electronic document management has shortcomings in ways of retrieving, searching, maintaining and distribution. The solution here proposed shall bridge these shortcomings and also help to audit the use and distribution of the documents.

4. Scope

This Statement of Work describes the activities, tasks, and methods required to deploy a document management (DM) solution. The project team will deliver focused services that facilitate rapid deployment of a document management solution, satisfying the following objectives: • To familiarise the technical and other staff with the issues surrounding document management, scanning and workflow processes • Define roles and responsibilities related to document management • Define the infrastructure used by the project to accomplish document management • Define the standards for document preparation and review

3

SICS

• To provide an opportunity to test and confirm the robustness, quality and suitability of the system • Reduce the amount of time staff spent searching for documents/filing • To allow staff access to view documents on-line A summarised depiction of tasks and associated deliverables can be seen in the following list:

4.1 Services: SICS Shall Perform • • • • •

Assessment and Planning, Infrastructure Analysis and Data Gathering Services Configuration Services (Feature-by-feature, Deployment to Production) Documentation Services Warranty Support Services, and Training services to CoDA end users

4.2 Exclusions • Provision of computing resources such as servers, workstations, routers, network and Internet connectivity that shall be used by the system during implementation, user acceptance testing, training and production.

• Integration of software, user (exits) modifications, data handling/conversion other than specified in the agreed Scope of Work/Service document.

• Systems design and development to modify or extend functionalities outside the stated area.

• Provision of personnel who shall be trained and shall operate and administer the system in production.

• Provision of product licenses (if any) for the operating system and server database that shall be used by the system during implementation, for production.

• Actual scanning and uploading of documents for back file conversion and/or day forward operations.

This Statement of Work describes the activities, tasks, and methods required to deploy a document management (DM) solution. The project team will deliver focused services that facilitate rapid deployment of a document management solution, satisfying the following objectives: • To familiarise the technical and other staff with the issues surrounding document management, scanning and workflow processes • Define roles and responsibilities related to document management • Define the infrastructure used by the project to accomplish document management • Define the standards for document preparation and review • To provide an opportunity to test and confirm the robustness, quality and suitability of the system • Reduce the amount of time staff spent searching for documents/filing • To allow staff access to view documents on-line

SICS

4

COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA (CoDA)

5. Objectives

An electronic document management system involves storing documents digitally, capturing both image and text. Once this is done, users can then retrieve information easily using a PC. Electronically converted purchase invoices, for example, can be archived immediately and readily accessed by anyone who may require the information, reducing the need for multiple hard copies and speeding up the delivery of these documents to departments. Document management systems also offer the opportunity to streamline procedures through the management of work queues.

The principal objective of this proposal is to develop and publish document management software that will allow the company to introduce document imaging, management and workflow. The project would be to identify the challenges faced by the company and design suitable solutions. The various problems identified in the current system will be considered in the design and added with basic DMS functionalities.

6. Proposed system

The answer for an increasing number of businesses - large and small - is a document management system. The best Document management system will help your office go paperless which frees up valuable office space that can be put to better use as workspace for your employees. In addition, document management software makes your office much more environmentally friendly.

Document management is an organizational method. More specifically, it is a technology-based means of storing documents. Documents (and sometimes images) are held in a single storage area (repository) that simplifies managing and retrieving the files when necessary. Since organizations have varied needs, systems are often custom designed.

Document management typically begins with the electronic document usually we use a scanner to convert paper (physical) documents into digitized images. Once all files are electronic, it is easier to organize the information. In addition, where possible, all new documents are prepared and saved in a permanent digitized format.

When you need to retrieve a document from the system, you perform a search by entering the document's name. The request is processed and the information is retrieved.

Document management systems include security measures to ensure that only authorized users have access. These measures determine which documents certain people can read, and what actions or modifications they can make.

The proposed system will: • Provide a single logical repository for documents which may be accessed by multiple users in multiple on-site or remote locations.

• Provide separate libraries or document collections (for different functional areas or groups).

• Provide the ability to store all object types, including document images (TIFF Group IV), document and desktop files (Microsoft Office, HTML, XML); PDF, JPEG, TXT RTF, photos,

5

SICS

video, audio, e-mail (Exchange/Outlook), etc.

• Provide document security.

• Provide the ability to set security at the user and group levels • Provide the ability to limit what users can see and do based on security level • Provide the ability to support short and long-term storage repositories Provide the ability to maintain audit log for user changes (e.g. index or document changes.

Below is a preliminary mock-up of the proposed system interface:

The system will have all the necessary features that any Document Management System must have. Features include, • Authenticity – the record can be proven to be what it purports to be, to have been created or sent by the person that created or sent it, and to have been created or sent at the time it is purported to have occurred.

• Reliability – the record can be trusted as a full and accurate representation of the transaction(s) to which they attest, and can be depended on in the course of subsequent

SICS

6

COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA (CoDA)

transactions.

• Integrity – the record is complete and unaltered, and protected against unauthorised alteration. This characteristic is also referred to as ‘inviolability’.

• Usability – the record can be located, retrieved, preserved and interpreted. Typically, electronic records management systems have the following attributes that seek to ensure these characteristics are maintained.

• Security – the system should have the feature to set up, maintain and edit security principals that will interact with the system. This means the system will provide functionality for defining users and user groups that have privileges for creating, maintaining, editing and achieving documents through the system.

In summary, the system will provide a user friendly document management system with the ability to access the system in a secured manner both on an Intranet and Internet.

7. Development methodology

A summarised depiction of tasks and associated deliverables can be seen in the following list: • Project Initiation: NO VENDOR DELIVERABLES • Requirements Definition: The Requirements Definition will set the stage for subsequent installation, development, configuration and integration of the document capture and management solution. Requirements definition includes the analysis of the E-Filing requirements in order to determine and document the optimal architecture for the solution. During this phase, document types, metadata and security requirements will be identified and documented by the Vendor. Processes will also be defined for document capture and import. The results of this phase will be fully documented by the Vendor in the Solution Architecture and Design documents, which, when accepted by CoDA, will validate the scope and configuration parameters for the solution deployment in the development and production environments.

Vendor Deliverables for this phase: • Solution Architecture Document • Solution Design Document • Installation and Configuration of Development Environment: In this phase, the development environment will be installed and configured in accordance with the solution architecture and design documents. Vendor activities during this phase will include: • Setup of development environment hardware • Setup of capture station(s) at pilot site (single capture location) • Installation of document management and capture software • Configuration of document management and capture software

7

SICS

• Configuration of document types, metadata, workflows, security profiles and other settings as outlined in the solution architecture and design documents • Test scripts development for unit testing cycles • Unit testing cycles Vendor Deliverables for this phase: • Configured Document Management • Configured Capture and Imaging Development Environment • Successful Unit Testing of vendor configured environments • Installation and Configuration of Production Environment: NO VENDOR DELIVERABLES.

8. Technical qualification 8.1 Company profile SICS IT OUTSOURCING P.L.C. is a subsidiary company of DECSI Inc. The company was established in May 2010 comprised of data entry, software development and online support team in order to provide an outsourcing option for its mother company, DECSI Inc. With the primary focus on software development, data capture and workflow solutions, SICS has provided customers with cost-effective services that enable its clients to use information technology (IT) to enhance business performance, increase productivity and improve customer service.

SICS is also able to provide customers with workflow automation, data extraction and electronic document storage solutions both under hosted and deployed environments. With SICS’s hosted solution, customers will be able to benefit with turnkey workflow automation and capture technologies with minimum initial investment. In partnership with industry’s leading companies, SICS utilizes a form recognition technology to automatically classify scanned documents as well as extract relevant data from the documents. Coupled with secured web-access to workflow activities for authorized users, our hosted solution provides rich set of online reports to provide visibility to document transactions and workflow activities.

8.2 Why SICS? We at SICS Outsourcing have been engaged in the development of various types of web applications. Whether you need to develop a new Product for your business or are looking to overcome a challenge with a web-based solution, our expert web development team can help you.

Our team has excellent capabilities in PHP/My-SQL and ASP.NET/SQL for web application development.

We use 3-tier architecture for most of our applications and believe in modular approach to development. We work on frameworks and standardized coding. We document all our codes and ensure our applications are robust and easily extensible.

SICS

8

COALTION FOR DIALOGUE ON AFRICA (CoDA)

We use incremental approach to any development and follow Agile Development methodology. All our projects start with analysis and prototyping.

8.3. Past performance We have rolled out a products and services to clients, which provide huge help to overcome their business challenges. In fact, our Flagship product, known as APSmart, is a product, which closely relates to the solution proposed here.

APSmart is a web based application which provides the users with the capturing, workflow control, search, achieving, storage /distribution and publishing of invoices.

This product is currently in use by more than 6 companies based in the US. Our US based partner required us to develop a web based invoice capture and management solution that will allow it to store and manage invoices online while automating part of its account payable department.

The challenge was to develop a web-based solution that works in coordination with another OCR application (Auto Store) developed by our partner, which we use to capture our client’s scanned invoices.

To accomplish this task we had to design a product that can: • Classify and categorize different type of invoices.

• Extract invoice data from the different type of invoices.

• Provide a secure access to the client to manage their invoice approval process.

• Provide a secure access to the client to search and view all invoices found in the database.

• Provide a secure access to the client’s vendors to monitor the status of submitted invoices.

• Provide report generation of statistical data to aid decision-making.

In the course of the development, we at SICS were successful in the development of web-based invoice management application using the latest technology that automates the client’s every aspect of their accounts payable processing.

SICS provided a web-based solution "APSmart" that allows the customer to manage the digitally stored invoices using Microsoft Technology with the following features: • Safely classify PO (Purchase Order) and non-PO invoices eliminating the need to scan different category invoices separately.

• Extract invoice data by reading the line item data from the invoice.

• An interface to manage the different exceptions that may.

• An interface to manage the Invoice Approval Workflow in special circumstances.

• An interface to allow supervisors to perform day-to-day management on activities of invoices.

• An interface to allow supervisors to manage paused invoices that are passed on by data entry clerks for further approval.

• An interface to provide different type of reporting.

9

SICS

8.4 Technical team This project will have three primary team members, who are briefly described below.

Gideon Bereket will be the project manager and will oversee the overall project.

Zekarias Negash will be the team leader and main point of contact with the client while Waleligne Cherinet will be responsible for programming and developing the backend of the system. Other team members will take part in UI designing and testing of the system.

All staff members are experienced professionals who have produced similar outstanding products for various clients in the past. This project will follow an innovative process we have adopted over the past few years working on similar projects.

We use a combination of online tools, customer interactions, and milestones to ensure that your project goes from execution to completion within the allotted time and budget with the best end product.

8.4.1 Gideon Bereket, Project Manager

Gideon manages projects, consults with clients regarding creative vision and approach, and coaches team members to successfully plan and execute creative development. As SICS’s project manager, he has successfully managed number of projects for companies here and in the US. Gideon has a B.A. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University and M.A. degree in Computer Science from University of Westminster in London, UK. 8.4.2 Mr. Zekarias Negash, Senior Software Developer

Zekarias, an accomplished software developer and system analyst, specializing in object-oriented approaches to network and platform development.

Extensive background in full life-cycle of software development process including requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, debugging and maintenance. He has a proven track record of implementing and coding in flexible solutions, which support frequent user interface and functionality changes.

Zekarias has a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Arbaminch University and is currently attending masters program in Software Engineering at HiLCoE School of computer science and technology.

8.4.3 Wallelign Cherinet, Senior Software Developer

Waleligne is part of the development team that will be responsible for the implementation of the system. He will be employing up-to-date technology and best practises along with collaboration with other members of the development team to realize the delivery of an effective product. As SICS’s development team member, Waleligne has been engaged in various development tasks.

Waleligne has a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from HiLCoE School of computer science and technology and is a MSCTS on MS SharePoint implementation and configuration.

SICS

10

SICS

+251 116 620161 www.sicsoutsourcing.com FEBRUARY 20, 2014