Case Study — Eastern Naval Command (FMU)

Development of total office automation system on a Web platform

  Introduction
 
    The IT boom in India is touching different sectors of the economy today. One such domain that
    has not remained untouched is that of Defense.
   
    The Eastern Naval Command with its center at  Vishakhapatnam (Vizag) was instrumental in trying
    to automate their existent office management systems. In its attempts to create a consummate
    database with all pertinent details related to Communication, Payroll, Administration, Inventory
    and Defect Management across the Command, the ENC joined hands with PCS
 
  The challenge  
 
     Had a series of small, segregated applications catering to administration, personnel, communications
       in the Command located at Vishakhapatnam . 
     The requirement was for a centralized and seamlessly integrated system which would be a
       comprehensive one stop center for all data related to the
     Sailors, officers and civilians in the Command.

  The Solution
 
      All the above challenges were addressed by  developing modules detailed below and tightly integrating
      them to form an integrated suite of applications. 
 
         Admin: This module would act as a comprehensive database of details of all officers and staff in
           the ENC, their temporary deputations, housing advances, sanctions, allowances, the entire process
           of disciplinary actions, training requirements, and payroll. There are different Payrolls for
           civilians and sailors and this is being treated as a separate module in the application. 
 
        Works Management: This module looks into all the civil work being undertaken by  the ENC like
           laying of tarmacs for instance. It entails details of all work orders right from time of their
           generation to their completion. 
 
        Annual Confidential Report: The ACR module contains data about the appraisals undertaken for
          both sailors and officers. The methodologies and processes right from training, disciplinary
          action, to promotions are listed here. 
 
        Mail Tracking: This module is different from the normal mail tracking system.  The Navy uses
          a series of messages like Hand Messages, Navygrams etc for different occasions across the Command
          and these may be in different formats. The Total Office Automation System takes all these formats
          nto consideration and converts them into an acceptable format to be relayed to the recipient.
          Since the Navy makes frequent use of the Radio Frequencies, Radar among other mechanisms, these
          are also taken into account and converted by the system. 
 
          All real time tracking from the time the message is sent to the time it reaches the recipient is
          made possible here. Once you type the message and select the format in which it is to be sent,
          the application tracks it and sends you an alert when the recipient receives it.

        Inventory Management: This module monitors, tracks and analyses the stock present in and required
          by  the ENC. In what is termed Defects on  board ship in Navy parlance, all inventory on ships in
          the docks of the Command are kept track of. Whenever a ship undergoes repair, the defective
          component is looked into by  the Engineers. They rectify it and often replace the component so that
          the ship can sail back into the waters. This module keeps track of the defective component which has
          been sent for repairs, the replacement which has been inserted in the ship  and the status of
          defective part till its insertion back into ship.

        Defect Management: The name of the module explains what it intends to address.

        Production Planning: This module is the heart of all the processhappening at the Fleet Management
          Unit of ENC. This module has a robust  workflow engine built to handle budget approvals, process
          quality approval etc. This module tracks status of the repair work from the time it enters the shop
          floor till the time it is delivered and deployed in the relevant ship.

  Key Technologies

    The platform selected was Microsoft DOT Net using ASP.NET and the backend used was Oracle lOG.

  Key Features & Benefits

     Segregated applications being integrated into one comprehensive system.
     Better tracking and networking of information by different departments over a large area.
     Central server in Vizag.
     Hardware and software requirements catered to. So  PCS emerges as a Total Solutions Provider.