Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai

Lawmaking Process Automation System for the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai Based on the Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office Product Families

Automation of lawmaking processes of a representative authority is a complex task covering multiple processes, procedures, and services. The multifaceted nature of this task requires using modern hi-tech means of automation. The choice of Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office for the purposes of automation of processes of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai made it possible to create a single information space with services available to both the staff and deputies of the Legislative Assembly. Support of process automation, electronic templates of documents, electronic bills, and drafts of the plenary session agenda, as well as powerful analytical functionality made it possible to take the efficiency of operations to a qualitatively new level.

The Client

"This project proved challenging for us. The considerable ramification of lawmaking processes required painstaking work at the analysis stage. The scope of process models obtained was enormous, and the implementation timeline was rather short. But even as the implementation of the last couple of processes was being finalized, it was obvious that the right choice of software solutions made it possible to accomplish the task in the most efficient manner," says Oleg Balabolin, project manager, ICS Group.

"The choice of the underlying platform for information systems of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai represented a responsible step in long-term planning of IT infrastructure development. We realized that by choosing

a unified platform we would eventually be able to considerably reduce the cost of support for the IT perimeter of the Legislative Assembly. After choosing SharePoint as this platform, we started automating some of the simple tasks, specifically the information portal. Now we are putting into operation a robust system that encompasses all processes of this representative authority. Only two specialists of the Legislative Assembly are needed to support this platform and solutions based on it," says Viktor Chulkov, IT Department Director, Administration of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai.

The specifics of operations of this representative authority called for an integrated approach to their automation. The lawmaking process automation system of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai automates the full life cycle of documents – from their submission to the Legislative Assembly until their fulfillment has been checked. This has considerably improved the efficiency of documentation support for lawmaking processes and internal interactions within the organizational structure of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai:

Natalya Nikolayevna Shlykova,

First Deputy Chief of Staff, 1st Class Public Advisor of the Perm Krai

The election of the Krai Parliament in December 2006 finalized the unification of two constituent territories of the Russian Federation (the Perm Region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous District), with the formation of the single Legislative Assembly – the representative (legislative) authority of the Perm Krai.

The Perm Krai Parliament currently has 60 deputies, over 600 aides to deputies, as well as 136 employees of the administration. The Parliament has five committees and five factions of deputies, who consider bills.

The Legislative Assembly is working actively to develop the region's social and economic infrastructure. It also gets non-profit organizations, NGOs, and the local population involved in the decision-making process.

The Case

Since 2002, documents of the Perm Krai Parliament were mostly managed using the DOCS Open electronic document workflow system. Electronic data arrays of the parliament constantly receive new data. Databases contain laws and resolutions, draft agendas of Legislative Assembly sessions, and other public documents.

Yet there was no unified solution that would ensure both registration and storage of documents and complete automation of document preparation and processing with automatic monitoring functionality.

The architecture of the proposed solution was predefined by the concept of a single information space based on portal technologies used at the Perm Krai Parliament.

The objectives were clear:

Improve the efficiency of documentation support for lawmaking processes of the Parliament;

Improve the efficiency of internal interaction processes within the organizational structure of the Parliament.

At the analysis stage it became obvious that the task is far from easy.

The considerable ramification of lawmaking processes required painstaking work. The scope of process models obtained was enormous, and the implementation timeline was rather short.

Choice of the technology

The electronic document workflow management system of the Legislative Assembly is based on Microsoft platforms, specifically the Microsoft SharePoint platform and the Microsoft Office suite, as well as the proprietary platform FlowPoint for SharePoint.

The following Microsoft modules are also used as basic infrastructure software: Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Hyper-V.

Portal technologies considerably improve the efficiency of information support for the lawmaking processes, as it is exceptionally important for both deputies and their aids to receive up-to-date and complete information as part of the lawmaking process, and get materials for the upcoming session in a timely fashion.

The choice of SharePoint as the system platform made it possible to solve another task – data consolidation in a single

information space and a single point of access to such data and the search service. The portal of the Legislative Assembly is currently a full-fledged information resource for personnel. It is used to publish news, announcements of events, notices, instructions, and surveys.

The FlowPoint for SharePoint platform has made it possible to implement the system functionality within the shortest timeframe up to quality expectations.

The FlowPoint for SharePoint has not only reduced the amount of time required for development and implementation of document workflow management and lawmaking processes, but has also significantly simplified the support of the solution by means of visual process design tools without using program code. Meanwhile, add-ons for the FlowPoint user interface have made the work of Perm Krai Parliament staff very comfortable.

The Solution

The specifics of operations of this representative authority called for an integrated approach to their automation. The lawmaking process automation system of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai automates the full life cycle of documents – from their submission to the Legislative Assembly until their fulfillment has been checked.

It is possible to single out three major blocks of processes within Parliament operations that are automated using the the lawmaking process automation system (LPAS).

  1. "Classical" document workflows

  

  • Registration of an incoming document

  • Preparation of an outgoing document

  • Preparation of an order

  • Processing of report memos

  • Processing of requests

  • Preparation of initiative mandates

  • Fulfillment of a mandate, resolution, or document

  2. Contract management

  • Registration and approval of an offer

  • Contract drafting and approval

  • Registration of a document evidencing contract performance

  • Preparation of contract-related documents

  3. Lawmaking processes

    • Submission of a bill / draft resolution and preparation for review 

    • Drafting and passage of the bill by the Perm Krai Legislative Assembly

    • Drafting and passage of the resolution (enactment) by the Perm Krai Legislative Assembly

    • Drafting of opinions, analytical memos, action plans

    • Drafting of agendas, decisions, minutes, resolutions

    • Preparation of extracts from minutes

• Drafting and processing of amendments, proposals, comments

  • The LPAS is based on portal technologies and functionally comprises:

  • Document workflow processes execution system.

  • Electronic document templates.

  • Interactive reports.

  • Analytical reports.

  • Electronic draft of the plenary session agenda.

The document workflow processes execution system performs the routing of tasks of document workflow processes (taking into account inaccessibility and delegation), monitors compliance with the prescribed fulfillment timelines, and provides efficient tools for analyzing the process history.

The system for drafting documents on the basis of electronic templates enables LPAS users to automatically

create documents from templates at a specific stage of the process, eliminate document formatting mistakes, automatically change the document view depending on the document status.

Interactive reports, which serve as an electronic data card of a law / resolution, provide the following functionality:

Automatic population of the data card of a law (resolution) with documents Access to up-to-date information in real time Viewing of documents accompanying the lawmaking process in electronic form Presentation of information contained in the data card of the law (resolution)

in a user-friendly format

Availability of the history of changes in sections of the law (resolution) data card

Access to documents and information on the monitoring of compliance with the law (resolution)

The electronic draft of a plenary session agenda makes it possible to automatically generate a list of issues to be considered on the basis of data from document

workflow processes, maintain an archive of sessions, and provide real-time access to documents relating to the issues being considered.

The full list of analytical reports includes over 100 printed forms and enables structural divisions of the Perm Krai Parliament to analyze document workflow data against multiple criteria.

Advantages

Implementation of the LPAS is expected to accomplish the following results:

• Faster delivery of information to users

• Completeness, reliability, and currency of stored information

• Document approvals will take up to 3 times less time owing to parallel approval routes

• Safety of data storage and handling processes within the system

• Document conformity to applicable formatting requirements

• Transition to paper-less document technologies of both Perm Krai Parliament staff and deputies

• Interconnected processes will encompass the entire life cycle of documents

• Distribution of roles and powers in the course of the process

• Automated passage of the document through the organizational structure (minimization of manual input from users)

• Real-time monitoring of fulfillment of mandates and resolutions, including automatic monitoring of compliance with the prescribed timelines

• Access of each process participant at all times to information on stages and status of document passage

• Full history of process participants, tasks, decisions taken, and document processing timelines

 

Microsoft products 

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft Hyper-V

Additional information

Information about other projects made possible by Microsoft technology is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/rus/casestudies (Russian) orhttp://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies (English). For additional information about products and services, please contact Microsoft’s information center at (495) 916–71–71 (Moscow) or (800) 200–80–01 (all cities in Russia). Microsoft website:http://www.microsoft.com/ (English),http://www.microsoft.com/rus/ (Russian).

For more details on SharePoint products and solutions, visithttp://sharepoint.microsoft.com/ru-ru

For more details on the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Krai, visit

http://www.parliament.perm.ru/main/index.php

For more details on ICS Group, visit http://www.ics.perm.ru/

The Partner

ICS Group was established in 1990. It is a system integrator developing and selling solutions, providing integrated enterprise

infrastructure services, and operating its own service center. ICS Group is a participant of the Microsoft Partner Network program with 3 gold

competencies and 12 silver competencies in different areas. The company has been on the market since its inception in 1990, or for 21 years. Its manpower exceeds 400 employees. The multi-skilled personnel of the company excels in different fields of expertise.

Over 30 employees of the company have passed the MCP exam.

It has operations across Russia with the primary focus on Perm and the Perm Krai, Moscow, and the Urals.

ICS Group sales in 2010 totaled RUB 756 mln. The structure of sales toward the end of 2010 is as follows: Retail -  5%, System integration - 20%, Corporate deliveries of hardware and software - 36%, Services - 29%, Software development - 8%; IT consulting - 2%.

In recent years, ICS Group's performance has been highly rated by analytical agencies: - СRN/RE, Top 25 regional IT companies of Russia, 2010 (ICS Group has been in the Top 25 since 2004); - CNews, 100 largest IT companies of Russia, 2010 (ICS Group has been in the Top 100 since 2002); - @ASTERA, Rating of Russian IT Companies, 2009 (ICS Group has been occupying top spots in this rating since 2003);

- Express-Ural Analytical Center, Largest IT Companies of the Urals and West Siberia, 2010 (ICS Group has been occupying top spots in this rating since 2003).

Major customers of ICS Group: Perm Krai Government, Uralkaliy, Perm State Technical University, Main Directorate of the Russian Central Bank, TGC-9, Silvinit, Ministry of Public Safety of the Perm Krai, Ministry of Education of the Perm Krai.