SRIT was recently awarded the contract for design, development and implementation of Indian Forestry Research Information System (IFRIS) at ICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education), Government of India, through an initiative to develop a software solution for a comprehensive Research Information System. The evaluation and selection of SRIT was made through a highly competitive bidding process. SRIT’s proper understanding of the client’s requirements helped it in obtaining this contract. The contract qualifies as one of the major e-Governance projects for SRIT.

ICFRE is a Central Government body that formulates, organizes, directs and manages forestry research; transfers developed technologies to states and other agencies; and imparts forestry education. ICFRE handles e-governance developments leading to the transformation from a manual to an electronic environment. 

SRIT’s undertaking at ICFRE was to transform the present manual working environment into an automated system. The project was mainly to design a Research Information System for IFRIS.
While Wipro Ltd. was chosen as the consulting firm, SRIT was selected as the software developer for the project.

A system study was conducted at ICFRE by SRIT’s functional consultants. After arriving at the right set of software requirements, the contract with SRIT and Wipro was finalized. A warm-up lecture on ‘Change Management’ was delivered in Jan 2008. The project took-off in Feb 2008 at Research Policy Committee meeting. Mr. Rakesh Pant & Mr. Tijo Thomas (Project Managers) represented SRIT at the meet.

The key activities of Master Project Plan for Design, Development & Implementation of IFRIS include:

• Software Requirement Specification (SRS) and System Design (JAN 2008 - APR 2008)
• Software Development (MAY 2008 - AUG 2008)
• Legacy Date Entry (APR 2008 - SEP 2008 )
• Deployment of Software on pilot basis  & User Acceptance Testing (UAT) (SEP 2008)
• Rolling out of Software and UAT (DEC 2008)
• Training (JAN 2008 - FEB 2009)                                  

The key focus areas of IFRIS are:

• Translate current manual working systems into automated systems
• Enhance responsiveness through workflow automation and knowledge management
• Increase access, efficiency, transparency and accountability of services
• Real-time information management of research projects
• Enhanced monitoring of ICFRE engagements with external stakeholders
• Enhance convenience of users & stakeholders in accessing information & services
• Need based MIS Report generation
  

The implementation phase of the project proved to be quite a challenging task. Change Management was one of the first issues addressed by SRIT. SRIT accomplished this by intelligently sensitizing employees and stakeholders about the benefits of the project. As a result, newsletters were drafted and distributed among the employees. The employees had to be prepared for a shift towards the digital environment and its acceptance. For this, e-champions (change agents) were trained to assist other employees in the organization. Trainings were planned at various locations like Dehradun, Bangalore, Simla, etc..Various bodies like Technical committees and institute apex committees are formed within the organization to ensure participation from all employee levels. Also, the size of the organization added to the connectivity and performance issues.

In spite of these hurdles, SRIT has successfully completed its first phase of SRS and System Design within the committed time. The next phase, Software Development, has already begun. SRIT plans to effectively implement the remaining phase of the project.

About ICFRE
Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) was constituted as an autonomous body of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, in December 1986. It is an apex body in the national forestry research system, and has been undertaking the holistic development of forestry research through need based planning, promoting, conducting and coordinating research, education and extension covering all aspects of forestry.
   
The mission of ICFRE is to generate, preserve, disseminate and advance knowledge, technologies and solutions for addressing issues related to forests and promote linkages arising out of interactions between people, forests and environment on a sustained basis through research, education and extension.