Technology

Affno makes strong impact on E-Government

Affno won the Gold Award in the E-Government Category at the National Best Quality Software Awards held recently. This was the third consecutive year in which Affno won Gold in this prestigious and important category. Here are excerpts of an interview CEO of Affno Suren Kannangara had with the 'Sunday Observer'

by Surekha Galagoda

Question: What is Affno's experience with E-Government projects?

Answer: Affno has won several E-Government projects in Sri Lanka as well as in the region in countries such as Tanzania and Mauritius.

The World Bank has funded most of these projects. The Information, Communication and Technology Agency (ICTA) has managed the majority of the projects in Sri Lanka.

The latest Gold Award that Affno won for E-Government was for the Legal Case Files Management project implemented at the Attorney General's Department. This particular project was managed by the Legal and Judicial Reforms Project.

Digital repository

Question: Can you explain about the E-Government project which Affno did for the Attorney General's Department?

Answer: The Attorney General's Department functions as the Legal Advisor to the Government and upper guardian of the Law.

They advise the Government including all its departments and institutions as well as represent them in criminal prosecutions and civil matters.

The Attorney General's Department would examine draft legislation for constitutionality and assist in matters pertaining to negotiation of international treaties, bilateral treaties and trade agreements. There are over 200 Attorneys attached to the AG's Department and some 25,000 new case files are opened each year.

Their wide range of work involves the collaboration of Attorneys in different teams on different jobs at the same time.

Affno's solution enables all case files to be accommodated in a digital repository and access made easier, faster, on a need basis and more secure.

The existing processes were adopted into a digital workflow. Some of the processes were also greatly simplified with minimum or no impact to the established way in which the department was functioning. In fact, the department was given a full digital workflow that integrated perfectly with their way of working and their culture rather than necessitating them to change their ways radically.

Hitherto impossible levels of management have also been enabled through the system. For instance, the Attorney General or the Solicitor General can personally check the macro status of all jobs at any given time and drill down to the grass roots level of any particular job if needed.

Similarly, the different levels of management can do the same at their respective levels.

Increasing demands

Question: What has been your experience of introducing this sort of latest technology to Government Departments?

Answer: Very positive. What we have consistently found is that some of the best brains in most fields are in the Government Departments. The quality of the individuals at top level is, I would say, even better than the quality that one would encounter in the private sector.

However, most of these Departments are bursting at their seams because their systems and infrastructure have in most cases not kept up with the increasing demands placed on these departments. This and perhaps political interference are what largely makes Government Departments not as effective as they should be.

There is of course always the problem of mixed computer literacy. Moreover, even though we may see computers on every table in the private sector, this is a common problem in our part of the world.

We are mindful of this situation and take steps so that this problem does not become an issue in making our E-Government solutions work. The design of our solutions takes this in to account and we also employ a wide range of comprehensive training for the users.

Better business

Question: How would E-Government projects in Departments such as the AG's Department help ordinary citizens?

Answer: Certain E-Government projects enable citizens to interact with the Government Department through the Internet for instance. There is no question about how citizens derive value in such instances.

Even in instances such as the AG's Department where the E-Government Solution is not for enabling citizens to interact with the Department via the Internet but for making the Department more efficient internally, citizens derive value indirectly.

Not only citizens; when pivotal Government Departments such as the AG's Department is made more efficient with technology, value is delivered across the board.

The improvements in the AG's Department has a direct bearing on the efficiency of the President and Parliament as draft legislation can be executed faster. Even the Judiciary can become more efficient when its biggest client is better organised. The police would be able to conclude criminal, drug related, terrorism related cases faster.

This in turn would give ordinary citizens more confidence that justice would prevail. All Ministries, Local Bodies and Government Departments would be able to get their legal advice, contracts and cases executed faster and they in turn would become more efficient in what they do for the citizens and the country.

So the impact would be felt by every one of the 20 million citizens in all 22 districts. The medium to long-term impact on the citizens would be a feeling that the rule of law and justice prevails in the country. The Government would not only improve its ability to do business better with the rest of the world but more importantly, the country would be able to improve its image in the eyes of the world.

Comprehensive study

Question: What are the critical success factors for E-Government projects?

Answer: A comprehensive study is paramount. One has to not only understand the business and the processes of the organisation thoroughly but also understand the culture of the organisation very well.

The software design has to be tailored to cater to the subtle nuances that are peculiar to each organisation. In our part of the world, giving local language capabilities is also an important factor for success. Finally, painstaking and patient training over a long period of time is most important.

Question: What is the cost of E-Government projects?

Answer: Affno's solution for the AG's Department as well as for all other E-Government projects has been completely web based needing only ordinary PC's for the users. In Government organisations that are widely dispersed across the country, regional branches are connected with little or no additional cost, except for the cost of PCs and internet access.

The software is deployed on a central server. This makes the maintenance very cost effective as opposed to a system where the software has to be deployed at the client's end as well. The product is built on open standards. Therefore, it can run on any hardware and operating system.

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HP launches new notebook computers

HP launched a series of new notebook computers last week in Sri Lanka. Strengthening its business notebook portfolio HP introduced seven new business notebook computers to deliver greater technology choice and connectivity to business users.

The new releases have a sleek new look, and the latest technologies such as illumi-lite display for weight and power consumption savings.

The HP Compaq 2710p Notebook PC is an ultra thin convertible notebook that combines conventional notebook productivity with table PC flexibility. It joins the HP compaq 2510p, HP Compaq 6510b, HP Compaq 6710 series, HP Compaq 6910p, HP Compaq 8510 series and HP Compaq 8710 series to round out the company's comprehensive portfolio of mobile offerings.

Category Manager, Notebook and Handheld Business Personal System K. P. Sim told the media that as a result of understanding business customers needs, HP is the top business notebook PC vendor. Offering a choice of technologies from mobile broadband to processor options, HP delivers the right mix of price, mobility and productivity.

HP's business notebook line-up is one of the first to offer Intel Centrino Pro Mobile technology which offers built-in remote managability and proactive security.

To take advantage of these new capabilities customers can use HP's Out of Band Management Console, a component of HP's Software's PC configuration Management solution to reduce the need for desk-side visits, improve security by protecting PCs from malware and ensure that critical management agents are up and running.

The notebooks also include HP security innovations such as drive encryption for HP protect tools, a full volume encryption technology that renders the hard drive unreadable if the notebook or hard drive is lost or stolen.

Improving reliability the new HP notebooks have intigrated features such as HP DuraKeys.

HP QuickLook allows you to browse e mail, calendars and contact information within ten seconds by pressing a button.

In addition to mobile broadband they offer convenient connectivity solutions, including next-generation 802.11n WLAN and Bluetooth technologies.

GW

BlackBerry Curve 8310 Smartphone launched

Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka's flagship telecommunications company, and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) launched the BlackBerry Curve 8310 smartphone in Sri Lanka.

The BlackBerry Curve 8310 is the smallest and lightest full QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone. Although compact in size, the smartphone is packed with features including advanced multimedia, built-in GPS and the renowned voice and data functionality that BlackBerry smartphone users have come to know and love.

It is a powerful and intuitive smartphone, making it easier for users on the move to make calls, send emails, surf the net, snap and send photographs, listen to music, watch videos, manage their organiser and access a range of business and leisure applications.

Through built-in GPS, the BlackBerry Curve 8310 can pinpoint the user's location and provides "out-of-the-box" support for a wide variety of location-based applications and services such as Google Maps.

"When RIM and Dialog Telekom launched the BlackBerry solution in Sri Lanka in 2006, we opened our customers' minds to a whole new voice and data experience," said Group Chief Marketing Officer, Dialog Telekom, Nushad Perera, "Since then, we have steadily brought the latest BlackBerry smartphones and technologies to the Sri Lankan market.

A few months ago we introduced the incredibly attractive BlackBerry Pearl 8100, and now we are glad to launch the BlackBerry Curve 8310. The BlackBerry Curve 8310 is a powerful, sleek, state-of-the-art smartphone that delivers the renowned functionality of BlackBerry smartphones with advanced multimedia features and built-in GPS."

Nine out of 10 computersin Lanka use pirated software

Nine out of ten computers used in Sri Lanka have pirated software, a global study on software piracy has revealed. Sri Lanka is ranked as the sixth highest country using pirated software in the world and the second in the Asia Pacific region.

These facts were revealed at a seminar on business optimisation with good governance and staying compliant with software asset management, jointly organised by Business Software, Alliance (BSA), Ceylon Chambers of Commerce, ICTA, European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and Intellectual Property Office.

The study was conducted by IDC, the IT industry's leading global market research and forecasting firm and the study for the first time covered Sri Lanka in 2006.

According to the study Sri Lanka has a 90% software piracy rate and the high piracy rate causes a retail revenue cost of US$ 86 million to the Sri Lankan software industry. The broader economic impact of software piracy is significantly greater than the retail value of pirated software.

Crippling of the local software industry due to competition with pirated software, losing tax revenue and jobs due to the lack of a legitimate market and decreasing business productivity from unsupported and unwarranted software are among the many negative consequences of pirated software.

The cost of piracy affects the supply and distribution chains. According to IDC, for every $1 in software sold, there is at least another $1.25 in services sold to design, install, customise and support the software.

The software and additional services derive nearly another $1 of channel revenue and most of these additional service or channel revenue goes to local firms. Therefore pirated software has a significant negative impact on the local software industry, BSA said.

The seminar noted that stemming the tide of piracy in Sri Lanka can only be achieved through industry education and awareness and proactive government led enforcement efforts.

BSA Director marketing for Asia Roland Chan said "The world over the most successful efforts to combat piracy have been the result of government efforts to increase the use of legitimate software within its own departments, vendor arrangements with PC suppliers to use legitimate software and increasing industry and government education and enforcement efforts.

According to the IDC study, the worldwide weighted average piracy rate is 35% and the median piracy rate was 62%, meaning half of the countries surveyed have a piracy rate of 62% or more. In just under a third of the countries the piracy rate is higher than 75%. In 2006 the study covered 102 countries and compared to 2005, the piracy rate dropped in 62 countries while it increased in 13 countries.

The IDC study covers piracy of all packaged software that runs on personal computers including operating systems, system software such as database security packages, business applications and consumer applications such as PC games, personal finance and reference software.

Chan said that there is no relationship between price and affordability of software and piracy. However, market analysts said that this is not true in Sri Lanka. This may be true for business users, but individual computer users mainly use pirated software due to the high price of original software.

Specially operating systems and other basic software prices are higher and as a result it is difficult for the average people to afford it. He said that strict enforcement of laws would affect the promotion of IT in the country.

GW

ICM Notebooks makebig impact

Since 1993 ICM worldwide, a member of ICM micro computer systems has established itself with a strong brand presence and built a solid reputation for manufacturing state of the art IT products.

The first company in Sri Lanka to assemble the ICM 1556GL centrino Notebook in year 2004 it has made a big impact on the market with sphere heading technology. ICM has assembled several notebooks, PC's, servers systems and printers, network installations for key stakeholders in the corporate and private sector.

It has also gained recognition by being selected to make contractual supplies of its products to the World Bank, ADB, JICA and USAID, AUSAID installing of nearly 13,000-13,500 computers and focusing on the customer's rapidly changing needs.

ICM has also had the distinction of being the first company in Sri Lanka to have won the ISO 9001:2000, SGS UK certificate and Prestige and Quality Award Europe-2006,. ICM supports a mammoth Assembling Factory with a square area of 3,500 square feet with controlled environment and top calibre infrastructure and an in-house testing centre.

With a strategic and clear cut incentive to push itself as a leader in the market, ICM now provides its clientele with two out of the box notebook systems. ICM Durabook and ICM Power Buddy for the first time in Sri Lanka.

ICM Durabook is a sturdy notebook with cutting edge technology and a breathtaking design, providing time and tests as a super durable invention that is fast becoming a 'must have' in the business and personal worlds.