Russian maritime register of shipping: the mark of one million documents is passed in EDMS THESIS

Customer:

The Russian maritime register of shipping (RS) – the classification society founded in 1913. Is a member of the International Association of Classification Societies integrating the leading national classification societies. RS, as well as any classification society, sets the technical requirements providing conditions of safe navigation of vessels according to their appointment, protection of human life and proper transportation of passengers and loads at the sea, prevention of pollution from courts. Classification of courts - the process covering creation of the standards fixing a certain level of safe operation of the vessel according to its appointment and systematic control on their execution. A concept classification of courts and floating constructions includes the next stages of activity: normative work; technical observation of design of courts; technical observation in shipbuilding and ship repair; technical observation in the industry; technical observation of courts in operation.

The structure of PC includes Head department, 109 representations and sections in Russia and 37 in other countries of the world. External document flow of the Register is about 160,000 documents a year. The Russian maritime register of shipping has about 5000 courts in the class and enters ten the largest classification societies of the world.

Situation:

In each production process (for example, survey of the vessel, consideration of technical documentation) the staff of different divisions takes part in different places in the world, including Head department in St. Petersburg, at the same time each participant of process needs to have up-to-date information about a status of the request for survey of the vessel and an opportunity to browse the relevant documents.

Earlier in RS the different software (based on the Visual FoxPro platform) for processing of requests on each of processes was used. At the time of implementation it was convenient and suitable for tasks of the organization, however 20 years later after numerous completions of software and changes in the legislation, this solution lost the relevance and began to require considerable efforts for maintenance of compliance of software to the growing requests of users and clients. Besides, permanent changes and technical support of a large number of different software required considerable organizational and finance costs.

It was possible to cope with these problems only using updating of a corporate system of electronic document management and unification of all business processes in structure of the organization.

Choice justification:

Selection process of the optimal software product for the subsequent implementation in all divisions of the organization took one and a half years. Competition on consecutive replacement of the software for business process automation which was won by Haulmont company was announced.

"Based on testing and collecting of opinions of divisions of RS on EDMS and their applicability for creation the THESIS system which was most meeting our requirements was selected from RS of the workflow system. Advantages of a system of steel for us: fully implemented web client, a system opportunity for work on low-speed communication channels, the modern platform and ease of its adaptation under tasks of RS, complex project cost", - the project manager from FAU "Russian Maritime Register of Shipping" S.V. Kirillov told.

The main objectives of an implementation project of the module on work with requests:

1. The organization of a common information space for all participants of processing of the request for survey of the vessel;

2. Implementation of complete traceability and possibility of control of process of survey;

3. Data migration from the old software in a new system.

Solution:

The I stage. Automation of requests for survey of courts.

In November, 2011 preproject examination is conducted, functional features and stages of implementation are approved. The decision at first to automate one of the most important processes – processing of requests from clients for survey of courts was made. Two months project development and test operation of a system continued.

The scheme of interaction of divisions and route of document flow in RS were built within several years. Considering rather extensive network of divisions of the organization worldwide, the developed features of work in different divisions, including owing to their different number (from one to several tens people), document flow in the Register was automated in different volume and had the different forms. For many years many employees adapted to work with less effective, but more usual system. In the course of trial operation some employees had to work at the same time in an old system and in the THESIS system, in parallel stating requirements and wishes to a new system. It was difficult to consider nuances of work of each individual employee therefore after start of a system in commercial operation within half a year it constantly was improved, acquiring new data structures, functions and reports.

In February, 2012 automation of processing of the request for all types of surveys – stages of receiving, the analysis of the request, appointment of contractors, accomplishment control is complete and also integration into the database of accounting of courts is provided. The solution allowed to trace time and amount of works on accomplishment of the request in each division. At first the THESIS system was implemented in head department of RS and a number of divisions in Europe, and since 2013 commercial operation of a system in all divisions of the Register in 34 countries of the world began.

The II stage. Automation of additional business processes.

In the course of system learning the staff of RS noted that for a full-fledged work with requests in the THESIS system there is not enough financial information on the bills which are made out according to the results of work. Specialists were forced to spend extra time to verify data on the request in the THESIS system and in the accounting system of 1C. Therefore during 2012 integration with an accounting system of the enterprise based on 1C was carried out, the module of work with accounts on requests and unloading of accounting records according to internal regulations is implemented.

Having estimated advantages of work at TEZIS with requests, in RS the decision to transfer to a system also processes of correspondence with partners and internal correspondence is made. In May-June, 2012 function of exchange of documents between the main divisions (process "internal correspondence"), including processes of approval and document approval is implemented.

Process of internal correspondence includes preparation of the document, approval of the document of the head, the signature of the document by the authorized person and transfer of the document to one or several addressees – to other divisions of the organization – on acquaintance, for preparation of the answer, or for other necessary actions. Process of internal correspondence is executed flexibly, under certain conditions some of its stages can be passed.

Process of internal correspondence in the THESIS system made controlled communications between divisions of the Russian maritime register of shipping, and these are about 100000 documents a year. As a result of implementation the speed of delivery of information between divisions (receiving happens, in fact, at the time of sending) considerably increased, there was an opportunity to keep track of efficiency of work of divisions, to reveal the "hung-up" requests, to simplify difficult options of interaction between divisions.

In May, 2013 implementation of one more project of expansion – automation of joint drawing up and approval of the outgoing document (reply to the request of the partner) and his subsequent approval by the head was complete.

Result:

In a project deliverable of implementation of the THESIS ESM-system in the Russian maritime register of shipping a common information space and continuous process of processing of requests for all types of surveys for a large number of geographically distributed divisions is created. The project was implemented in enough short time. At the moment load of a system makes 600-700 simultaneous connections daily that there correspond 1500 automated jobs. Process of management of requests for all types of surveys and auxiliary business processes are automated, at the same time requests are integrated with the accompanying documents at which it is possible to look at any stage of process and also with finance documents that minimizes the probability of loss of any document.

Unique features of the project consist in a wide geographically-distributed structure of divisions of the organization, in each of which different quality of communication channels and also in the large volume of users that conducts to a high load on a system. Besides, the Customer needed to complete automation of a basic process of processing of requests at head office and a number of key divisions in 4 months that is successfully implemented. During system implementation different business processes – management of requests, external and internal document flow, financial control and work with accounts, performance monitoring of accomplishment of requests by different divisions, integration with an accounting system based on the web client are integrated, adjacent and auxiliary tasks are automated.

After end of the first stage of implementation the Customer initiated carrying out substantive audit. The Corus Consulting company auditor concluded that the THESIS system carries out the tasks set for it and can solve them further, is rather reliable and available, and in general implementation can be considered successful.

2015: Russian maritime register of shipping: the mark of one million documents is passed in EDMS THESIS

In the workflow system THESIS in FAU "Russian Maritime Register of Shipping" (RS) the document card, million on the account, – the task created by Natalya Lazareva, the clerk of department of the organization of technical expertize and normative activity of RS was created at the beginning of 2015.

In EDMS THESIS all 52 divisions of RS in Russia and abroad work. A system provides automation of the main business processes of the organization, management of the general document flow, requests and drawing of accounts to services. In 2015 the module providing accounting of results of observation in the industry is put into operation. In the current year also commissioning of two more new modules - "FLEET" and Projects of Courts is planned. The volume of external document flow of RS is more than 160,000 documents a year. At present in the THESIS system about 700 users worldwide at the same time work.