E-Governance initiative of 2nd year students...

As being an apex IT and management institute in country IIITM Gwalior has always beaconed the crèche of innovations. Keeping up the in-things and ensuing the proficiency of P2P learning, a group of 2nd year students has done something spectacular what seems Herculean but endearing at their standard.

Their product is now successfully deployed in some of the M.P. Govt offices. And it's also being credited as first product of 'IIITM incubation center'.They developed 'File Tracking System', a product which is already existing in the market but with some unique features with fully open source technology. The most important part of it is their non technical marketing endeavor. They have convinced highly bureaucratic M.P. govt offices in deploying their product after coming in 3rd yr.

“File Tracking System (FTS)” is developed by IIITM students- Rohit Shukla and Vinit Ranjan under the guidance of Dr. Anurag Srivastava.

“File Tracking System (FTS)” is a system which effectively and efficiently track files, manages time and manpower involved in file-transaction among various departments of an organization. The FTS has been developed looking at the vital needs of every office using Internet/Intranet.
It minimizes unnecessary use of manpower for transferring files or letters through one office to other in any organization, Reduces the chance of losing or manipulating the information about incoming/outgoing Files or letters. The ability to store and search through various options like subject, duration, name, date etc. makes FTS user- friendly.

FTS is fully open source technology based product. The use of open source technology in the development of FTS has increased its acceptability technically as well as economically. Incorporation of Bi-lingual (Hindi-English) ability enhances the implementation process of FTS.

Awards and Accolades:

• Best Software Award in e-Governance(2008-09) by M.P. Government
• FTS is currently deployed in CENTRAL BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, Gwalior(M.P.) and ABV-IIITM,Gwalior.
• *1st prize in HRM-SUMMIT’09 2nd prize in ENIAC(under Magnum-opus,IT-BHU annual technical fest)Salient Features of File Tracking System (FTS)

Salient Features of File Tracking System (FTS)

• FTS enables easy monitoring and tracking of files in a typical government office.
• It enables quick gathering of necessary information about the file (source, destination, time lapsed, remarks by concerned officials). A useful log is made available about various transactions in the system.
• It reduces chances of losing or manipulating the information about incoming/outgoing files or letters. This feature is especially important in today’s RTI regime.
• The ability to store and search through various options like subject, duration, name, date etc. makes the FTS more user- friendly.
• Quick search on files/letters enables to save time by transferring file/letter through electronic mode from one office to other in any organization.
• FTS being developed on the philosophy of open source technology does not require procurement of additional proprietary software.
• Bilingual (Hindi-English) feature makes FTS easy for implementation.
• Web enables access allows FTS to network various offices in a typical government setting.
• FTS enables optimum use of various resources such as manpower, time and budget.
• The ability to generate periodic work reports helps in getting objective evaluation of staff performance.
• FTS is platform independent (O.S. independent)software, so no need of dependency on particular Operating System.
• The tabular log information about pending files helps to handle deadlines and timelines effectively.
• Forbidden time-manipulation motivates the staff to be attentive and cautious thereby increase in the efficiency of department.
• FTS gives pre and post file transaction information through alert messages and thus always keeps the file transaction status in user’s knowledge.

Methodology of implementation:

• A Prototype was presented in the inaugural session of SF-FOSS at ABV-IIITM, Gwalior and was well appreciated by the officials of Department of IT, Govt. of India as well as persons visiting from IBM, India.
• Suggestions have been well taken by the technical as well as administrative team of FTS in upgrading the product.
• Beta version was developed in the month of October 2008 and was tested in one office of ABV-IIITM and on the basis of feedback received from the users it got modified again and finally deployed in January 2009 in that office and also extended for other offices and sections in Feb, 2009.
• FTS was presented to the masses in the workshop “FOSHTE” jointly organized by SF-FOSS and NRC-FOSS, Chennai in November 2008 and got remarkable appreciations and up-gradations were made on the feedback by the experts.
• The product has got wide publicity and on an invitation of Central Bureau of Narcotics, Gwalior Beta version of FTS was presented to them and according to their requirements modifications have been done and alpha version was developed specifically for that office and deployed for testing.
• The final version of FTS was deployed in Central Bureau of Narcotics, Gwalior on 6^th march, 2009.

S/W Screen Shots: