Interview of TAdviser with the head of department of information technologies and communication of JSC ALROSA by Dmitry Chibisov

Dmitry Chibisov: The project of the organization of document flow conducts the history since 2007 when the ALROSA company performed system implementation BOSS-Referent in two Management personnels of the company in Moscow and Peace with a total quantity to 500 users. In 2010 the company made the decision on change of the platform for EDMS and selected the program from the Russian developer – Docsvision 4.5. In 2011 the new program was implemented and put into commercial operation. Development and deployment of Docsvision were performed by Utilex company (Novosibirsk) on the basis of the conducted preproject examination and the prepared accurate functional requirements from our party.

Dmitry Chibisov: Tasks of basic office-work: automate "office" and work with organizational and administrative documentation, to strengthen control of performing discipline, to provide electronic archive and sending correspondence from EDMS, to support mezhfilialnoye / cross-server interaction.

Dmitry Chibisov: Just at the initial stage of implementation it was decided to create own project team from specialists of ALROSA company and specialists of TIMLIS-CONSULTING company (Moscow, the partner of Docsvision) which then conducted on outsourcing general-system and the application software in JSC ALROSA. The task was to create also a uniform command for territories of the customer for the purpose of business design and technical support of the project. Since the beginning of the project in a command employees in Mirnyi the customer and 2 employees were involved from the partner company from outside. Design, development, administration, the 1st and 2nd support line of users in Moscow and in the territory of Yakutia belong to their duties. Besides, the project is kept with attraction of designer's service of the producer of the platform – DocsVision companies.

Dmitry Chibisov: The geographically distributed management personnel is located in Moscow and Peace. ALROSA is 32, in the most remote, structural divisions, 17 child and dependent societies across all Russia, with dominance of the Far East region.

Docsvision solution architecture in ALROSA

It is a little digits for understanding of scale: today in the reference book by staff of ALROSA of 6000 users. In a month about 4500 unique connections to EDMS, in peak time – 1200 simultaneous connections are performed. 2900 documents, 2300 approvals and 8100 tasks are daily created. About 500-900 cards of a system are transmitted through the module of interfilial exchange. Sizes of databases today such: 2.1 Tbyte in Mirnyi and 0.4 Tbyte in Moscow.

Dmitry Chibisov: Our management company is separated into 2 platforms – Moscow and Mirnyi therefore for work in EDMS we use the module of interfilial exchange developed by Docsvision company.

The functionality of our solution is constructed on standard systems capabilities of Docsvision – it was our initial principle, as well as desire is as little as possible to customize standard functionality. All our specific requirements managed to be implemented means of designing and scripts of Docsvision. So necessary customization is executed, but on the basis of basic subjects of the platform, and the means provided for this purpose by vendor. It provides compatibility with the next versions of the Docsvision 5 platform.

In 2016 EDMS JSC ALROSA upgraded to version 5.4 in full, we gradually enter new user groups. The current status of the project allows to plan replication of the solution for child dependent societies: 4 DZO - in current, and more than 10 in 2017-2018.

Dmitry Chibisov: Need to integrate an electronic document management system more than 2 platforms, to leave from descriptor security to flexible role, to leave from custom cards on regular functionality and not to lag behind development of the platform. We made the decision on complete transition to Docsvision 5 in July, 2015.

Dmitry Chibisov: Step by step, with completions of functionality of the platform from vendor and elimination of the nuances which are inevitably arising in large-scale IT projects. We developed the plan of transition for separate groups of document types, in passing resolved the available issues on functionality and on high-speed performance that managed to be made successfully with active participation of specialists of Docsvision. As a result we performed transition for 8 stages and within 5 months. Until the end of 2016 Docsvision of version 4.5 remains available to use, and further will be taken out of service.

Dmitry Chibisov: Now at us warranty (corporate) technical support from Docsvision works. Within the separate framework agreement paid completions are provided, and the annual agreement of designer's service prolonged by us provides the important additional consulting support closing the main part of our needs for support from vendor. For us the personal consultant-curator from DocsVision is selected, representatives of vendor participate in our weekly and unplanned meetings, carry out the review of all project solutions, giving on them consultations, the conclusions and recommendations in terms of optimal use of the platform. The technical support appears in the priority mode, separate incidents understand specialists through remote access. Besides, it is a possibility of inclusion of the functionality requested by us in planned development of the platform.

The qualified help and support of colleagues played a considerable role in the project.

Dmitry Chibisov: The main objectives defined at the beginning of planning of transition to Docsvision 5 like those remain and at the moment. From the new tasks which appeared later it is possible to select plans for legally significant document flow with partners. Also there was a focus shift regarding mobile work of heads from the former solution "Top manager" on a platformonezavisimy linking of the modules "Easy Client" and "E-mail client".

Dmitry Chibisov: As for the platform, despite the being available incidents, in a current status it shows the readiness for projects of such scale both on functionality, and on performance. Our principle of use of basic functionality which is most simplifying the subsequent support of the solution was sustained and confirmed the right to existence: the project is implemented based on regular designers, modules and the Management of Documents application. On this lifecycle of the platform, I consider, it is important to set quickly relevant accumulative updates of Docsvision (it is high-speed performance optimization, the corrected errors, new functionality), we will adhere to this position and further. I can also safely recommend involvement of vendor to participation in projects of similar scale to colleagues.

In general an electronic document management system at the enterprise, especially geographically distributed, – it is convenient and effective that confirms long-term experience of our users.

Dmitry Chibisov: In plans for development of EDMS in ALROSA - since 2016 to provide with mobile access to EDMS of heads of all function levels based on products the Easy client and the Docsvision E-mail client, in the closest plans - application of the strengthened qualified electronic signature for further internal e-document flow of the company and exchange with the external organizations, development and deployment of electronic archive based on Docsvision for all document file of the company, full-scale implementation of EDMS in 4 subsidiaries and affiliates of the company. Since 2017 inclusion in a uniform circuit of EDMS of ALROSA Group more than 10 societies with replication of the solution is planned.