Case Study
Digitizing IT Asset Management for GVWV & VSWS Department
Bridging Governance Gaps With Digital Excellence
The Challenge of Grassroots Governance
The Andhra Pradesh government, in its visionary push to ensure last-mile delivery of government benefits, established the GVWV & VSWS Department. The move was bold and encompassed establishing 15,004 offices throughout the state, translating governance into a tangible presence in every village. These offices became the nerve centers for digital service delivery, focusing on providing certificates, benefits, and more to the grassroots population.
However, as with many pioneering initiatives, the GVWV & VSWS Department faced challenges. One pressing issue was the management and maintenance of the vast IT infrastructure spread across these offices. Given the urgency and the scale of deployment, devices were distributed without a robust process, creating a vacuum in vendor communication, asset tracking, and maintenance management.
The Scale of the Challenge
The size of the problem confronting the GVWV & VSWS department was immense, revealing a tangled web of overlapping concerns. Diving into the details:
The KPIs
To gauge the success of the forthcoming solution, several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were set:
Leveraging Modern Tech
BeyondScale envisioned a web portal, leveraging the robustness of Django and the responsiveness of React, to address the challenges. Containerisation through Docker and deployment on AWS ensured scalability and reliability.
Key Features of the Portal
Unified Procurement & Assignment: Centralized system for adding inventory, assigning them to districts, and managing user roles.
Efficient Ticketing System: Village secretariats could raise issues, which vendors could directly access and resolve.
In-depth Analytics: Higher authorities could derive insights on asset health, vendor performance, and more.
User & Role Management: Differentiated access to Village Secretariats, Mandal & District Authorities, Admins, and Vendors, ensuring data integrity and streamlined workflows.
Vendor Customisation: Recognising the unique needs of different vendors, the portal provided custom frontends linked to a unified backend, allowing vendors to work within familiar environments.
Unexpected Hurdles
While the plan seemed perfect on paper, the reality brought unforeseen challenges. The diverse vendor landscape, with different workflows and device batches, initially seemed a Herculean challenge. Additionally, onboarding thousands of devices and training users to use the portal efficiently required significant effort.
Training & Webinars
BeyondScale organized multiple brainstorming sessions, resulting in creating custom frontend designs for different vendors while retaining a common backend.
An extensive training regimen, complete with webinars and hands-on sessions, was set up to help offices onboard devices and use the system efficiently.
The Results
In 18 weeks of operation:
Benefits Realized
The Road Forward
The success of the portal signaled the dawn of a new era in IT asset management for the GVWV & VSWS Department. With plans for automated device monitoring, comprehensive Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions, and more on the horizon, the future looks promising.
Conclusion
BeyondScale's innovative solution for the GVWV & VSWS Department stands as a testament to the transformative power of digital tools in governance. Through collaboration, innovation, and dedication, a challenge was converted into an opportunity, setting a benchmark for future endeavours.
The Andhra Pradesh government, in its visionary push to ensure last-mile delivery of government benefits, established the GVWV & VSWS Department. The move was bold and encompassed establishing 15,004 offices throughout the state, translating governance into a tangible presence in every village. These offices became the nerve centers for digital service delivery, focusing on providing certificates, benefits, and more to the grassroots population.
However, as with many pioneering initiatives, the GVWV & VSWS Department faced challenges. One pressing issue was the management and maintenance of the vast IT infrastructure spread across these offices. Given the urgency and the scale of deployment, devices were distributed without a robust process, creating a vacuum in vendor communication, asset tracking, and maintenance management.
The Scale of the Challenge
The size of the problem confronting the GVWV & VSWS department was immense, revealing a tangled web of overlapping concerns. Diving into the details:
- Multiple vendors had provided IT assets, complicating the landscape.
- A massive number of devices, including desktops, computers, printers, smartphones, scanners, and more, were in circulation without a centralised tracking system.
- Village secretariats lacked systemic channels to contact vendors for maintenance, resulting in a potential threat to service delivery.
- Vendors, swamped with calls from different offices, struggled to provide timely service, further exasperating the problem.
The KPIs
To gauge the success of the forthcoming solution, several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were set:
- Device onboarding rate and tracking efficiency.
- Ticket resolution within the Service Level Agreement (SLA) timeframe.
- Average time to respond to tickets.
- Monthly ticket generation and user satisfaction rates.
Leveraging Modern Tech
BeyondScale envisioned a web portal, leveraging the robustness of Django and the responsiveness of React, to address the challenges. Containerisation through Docker and deployment on AWS ensured scalability and reliability.
Key Features of the Portal
Unified Procurement & Assignment: Centralized system for adding inventory, assigning them to districts, and managing user roles.
Efficient Ticketing System: Village secretariats could raise issues, which vendors could directly access and resolve.
In-depth Analytics: Higher authorities could derive insights on asset health, vendor performance, and more.
User & Role Management: Differentiated access to Village Secretariats, Mandal & District Authorities, Admins, and Vendors, ensuring data integrity and streamlined workflows.
Vendor Customisation: Recognising the unique needs of different vendors, the portal provided custom frontends linked to a unified backend, allowing vendors to work within familiar environments.
Unexpected Hurdles
While the plan seemed perfect on paper, the reality brought unforeseen challenges. The diverse vendor landscape, with different workflows and device batches, initially seemed a Herculean challenge. Additionally, onboarding thousands of devices and training users to use the portal efficiently required significant effort.
Training & Webinars
BeyondScale organized multiple brainstorming sessions, resulting in creating custom frontend designs for different vendors while retaining a common backend.
An extensive training regimen, complete with webinars and hands-on sessions, was set up to help offices onboard devices and use the system efficiently.
The Results
In 18 weeks of operation:
- 30,000 users adopted the platform.
- Peak concurrent usage hit 10,000 users.
- 10 lakh devices across 8 types were tracked and monitored.
Benefits Realized
- Efficiency: Vendors, no longer overwhelmed by scattered communication, could now systematically resolve issues.
- Transparency: Higher authorities had clear visibility into the health of the IT infrastructure, enabling timely interventions.
- User Satisfaction: With a streamlined ticketing and resolution process, end-users experienced quicker and more satisfactory solutions.
The Road Forward
The success of the portal signaled the dawn of a new era in IT asset management for the GVWV & VSWS Department. With plans for automated device monitoring, comprehensive Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions, and more on the horizon, the future looks promising.
Conclusion
BeyondScale's innovative solution for the GVWV & VSWS Department stands as a testament to the transformative power of digital tools in governance. Through collaboration, innovation, and dedication, a challenge was converted into an opportunity, setting a benchmark for future endeavours.