Next 7: Central Reserve Police Force

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Project SELO, which stands for CRPF's motto of SErvice and LOyalty, was conceptualized way back in 1997 and due to its scale, was finally signed off in November last year. Interestingly, 1997 was also the year when Intranets  take off in the country. To think that a govt controlled body like CRPF also conceptualized its own massive Intranet at that time and completely changed the way it functions is quite commendable. The entire approach to computerization in this project is very innovative and systematic, which is only to be expected from the armed forces.

Business problem  Managing a large force over manual processes
IT solution Complete computerization and Intranet with an integrated application
Implemented by Brigadier J S Sawhney (Retd); P Valsa Kumar, Additional DIG Police (EDP), CRPF
Technology platform  Microsoft, Oracle, Lotus
	Brigadier J S Sawhney (Retd)CRPF

The entire command and control structure of CRPF was covered by SELO, right from the Directorate General, to sector and range headquarters, group centers, and battalion headquarters in the fields. As a first step, they brought the IT culture into the workforce, so that the force would be ready to accept and appreciate the computerization when it happened. For this, CRPF used its Central college of telecommunications at Ranchi to train 1500 officers and men. They even sanctioned Internet access to everybody to let them explore the power of the Internet and computers on their own.

Next, the software requirements were identified and a tailor made application was created for the work force. This is much better than simply dumping PCs and other hardware across all divisions. This requirement analysis took three months, and everybody from the dealing assistant to the Director General were approached. Based on this, the application was broken up into five different modules. One was to track personnel information, which is extremely essential given CRPF's 2.4 Lakh strong force. An operations module kept track of CRPF deployments; a finance module tracked finances, budgets, auditing, etc. An inventory management module ensured that troops were never deprived of any requirements.

Lastly, was a workflow and document management system, having an email system and posting of all rules and regulations of the workforce set by the government. Like any other Intranet, the key to a successful Intranet is regular updating of data. CRPF maintains it regularly, with data updations happens 24x7.

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