ESTABLISHME

NT OF AN
ELECTRONIC
ARCHIVING
SYSTEM
NSIWC
MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION
DEPARTMENT

JULY, 2014

Introduction
An Electronic Archiving System is a variant of Enterprise Content
Management solution. In a clear term, the latter is a branch of the
larger Electronic Document Management System, which is a
digitalised

means

(in

metadata)

of

organising,

capturing,

preserving, retrieving and storing documents, and other contents

like graphical outlays, photographs, drawings, etc., that relate to
the inner processes or workloads of an agency. The term,
Electronic
methods

Content
and

tools

Management,
used

to

encompasses

achieve

the

strategies,

afore-mentioned

throughout the lifecycle of the contents (inclusive of the

converted documents).
It is a fact that documents are a flow of incoming and outgoing
information within an organisation which sometimes relate to the
data

(unprocessed

information)

exchanged

between

the

organisation and third parties. Without much ado, the importance

of documents in the well-being of the Commission cannot be overemphasised.
The conceptualisation of an Electronic Archiving System for the
Commission is borne out of the need to maintain and improve the
lifespan of generated documents, circulars and reports for future
references and usage. The Commission, by virtue of her mandate,
is

the

sole

custodian

of

institutional

memory

on

salary

administration in the country which, in itself, has necessitated the

preservation of various documents ranging from circulars, reports
of different committees of government and other policy materials.
The approach will lead to the conversion of these paper-based
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Electronic

Archiving

System

materials to their digital format for proper storage in the

computer server and made accessible online from any location.

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Expected Deliverables
The following are the likely benefits derivable from the Electronic
Archiving System project to the Commission:
a) Preservation of existing circulars, reports and policy materials
from aging, loss and distortions;
b) Ease of referencing and retrieval for further research to make
case for arguments during negotiations between government
and the organised labour unions;
c) Maintenance of different versions of generated reports or
circulars on salary scales to curb infringements by different
MDAs;
d) Elimination of encumbrances associated with movement of
paper-based materials from one location to another;
e) Seamless integration to other back-end solutions
electronic

mails,

newsletters,

announcements,

like

bulletins,

newspapers, etc.;
f) Provision of audit trails for every single document to aid
tracking and usability;
g) Improves productivity and performance of officers as it
provides information on-demand under a multi-level secured
environment;
h) Assists in maintaining a unified working environment whereby
authorised officers can access different versions of documents
for report generations;
i) Encourages electronic storage of other professional reports
from the three operation departments of the Commission;
j) Encourages electronic storage of financial documents like
vouchers, invoices, receipts, waybills, delivery notes, etc.;
k) Provides instant alternatives in the advent of fire outbreak or
flood;
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Electronic

Archiving

System

l) Serves as an on-the-spot secured reference to research

associates

in

our

tertiary

institutions

and

other

public

stakeholders.
Methodology
The project is expected to cover detailed information about
individual document as they are indexed according to predetermined classes for ease of reference. These classes will have
the semblance of the conventional paper-files containing paper
documents.
At the inception of the project, documents/reports housed in the
following offices will be converted to digital format:
a) Chairmans Office,
b) Secretary to the Commissions Office,
c) Office of the Director, Compensation Department,
The second phase will involve the conversions of documents from
the rest of the departments and units viz.:
a) Office of the Director, Prices, Productivity and Income
Department,
b) Office of the Director, Management Information Department,
c) Office of the Director, Administration Department,
d) Office of the Ag. Director, Evaluation and Grading
Department,
e) Office of the Ag. Director, Finance and Accounts Department,
f) Office of the Head, Press and Protocol Unit,
g) Office of the Head, Internal Audit Unit,
h) Office of the Head, Legal Unit.

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Archiving

System

Technology
The department is recommending the deployment of Microsoft
SQL Server 2012 Platform for the project.
Major corporate information technology experts attest to the
availability

and

affordability

of

Microsoft

software

despite

appreciable licensing cost increases of other platforms like IBM

and Oracle. Microsoft has in its offerings wide arrays of
dependable

software

development

solutions

which

make

crossover, upgrade, update and deployment of applications a less

daunting task for the organisational support teams.
Another baseline factor for the choice of Microsoft SQL Server
2012 platform notwithstanding the huge admiration enjoyed by
Oracle RDBMS, IBM and Sybase across the globe, is its licensing
policy which is not in any way hampered by bureaucracies like
others. Accessibility to major after-sales updates is a major key
indicator

in

achieving

successful

deployment

of

most

proprietary software applications.

In addition, the Commission must consider, as a matter of utmost
importance, the acquisition of, at least one (1) unit of highcapacity scanner with a minimum of 50 pages per minute, a
resolution of not less than 600x600 dpi Hardware and 600 dpi
Optical, automatic document feed (ADF) feature and paper size of
not less than 8.5 x 34. This high-capacity scanner can further
serve the Commission in other areas like Library Digitisation etc.

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Archiving

System

The project will also require a minimum of nine (9) mid-range

scanners, stationed at all the strategic locations where documents
will be converted to their digital formats.
Cost Estimates of the Project
The cost indices for the project are expected to cover, among
other exigencies, the following:
1) Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server RDBMS and
other software tools
2) Software Development using external consultants N36.65m
3) Capacity Building
i)
For officers of the user departments/units
N14.0m
ii)
For officers of the technical staff members
N16.0m
4) Provision of one (2) units of ADF-enabled,
page-feed Scanner @ N400,000 each
5) Provision of one (1) unit of High-capacity
Scanner
The cost estimate of the project comes to Eighty Two million,
Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand naira (N82,350,000.00) for the
Electronic Archiving System.
Project Schedules
The timelines for the project, from commencement to conclusion
are as outlined below:
a) Software Development: Coding, debugging, testing
and implementation
b) Installation of the concluded application along with
updating of the server and attaching the scanners to
different strategic locations across the Commission
week
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Archiving

System

c) Data capturing: Scanning, tagging and uploading

weeks
d) Building capacity for the support team
e) Building capacity for the user departments

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Archiving

System