The Gujarat government is in the process of signing an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) for the development of Integrated Workflow and Document Management System (IWDMS), for the state secretariat. TCS has been issued the letter of intent (LoI) by the state government for this e-governance initiative and the agreement will be signed by the third week of December. Speaking to FE, Pankaj Gupta, consultant (e-governance), TCS, said:

"The project will be taken up in phases and will be implemented in 26 different state government departments. TCS will act as solution provider and an R&D team of 80 people will be working to customise the present application software based on the need of the state government departments. After successful implementation of this project, Gujarat will be the second state in the country after Andhra Pradesh, to develop such kind of system for effective functioning of its secretariat."

The requirement study is completed and after signing the agreement, the first phase of the project will start where by necessary software development and settings will be formulated. The second phase will look after development and implementation of the system. The state government will utilise the already existing Local Area Network (LAN) and Gujarat state wide area network (GSWAN) for developing the document management system.

The system will include creating an Office Management System which will include building a knowledge repository, providing inter-departmental interface, developing a security system, a document management system and database system for government departments. The system will look after the communication and exchange of documents between the 2,500 employees of the state government department. Gujarat Informatics Ltd (GIL), anodal agency of the Gujarat government, has been assigned the task of implementing the project and is jointly working with TCS.

Speaking to FE, Neeta Shah, director (e-governance), GIL, said: "The state is investing Rs 5 crore for this project which will maintain and process large volumes of data and help in effective and smooth functioning of state secretariat. Besides other rural e-governance initiatives, the current project is an in-house project of the state government." "GIL will sign an agreement with TCS and the project will be implemented within one year. The project will include tracking the movement of documents and maintaining repositories, and focus on creation of paper-less office."