 The ultimate aim of eOAS is the electronic management and administration of all documents of the Civil Service, as well as the automation of the procedures and regulations that rule their creation, archiving, security, confidentiality grading, distribution and disposal, including their final destruction or long term preservation for future accessibility by the public and researchers.
The system, which is web-enabled and platform independent, was developed in accordance with the European (MoReq, PRO) and other international standards, and enables remote access for tele-working from abroad and/or home.
eOAS is a pioneering system in the area of Document Management, since it satisfies all the requirements of an integrated Electronic Records Management System and is currently the only one in Europe hat provides such a degree of completeness in functionality.
The system incorporates predefined electronic workflows, which automate the formal procedures and rules, providing thus, the right information to the right person at the right time. The remote access facility for tele-working from abroad and/or home is very essential for the officers that have to have access to their organisation’s documents, while they are in a meeting either in Cyprus or abroad.
Currently, the Project is at the stage of roll out to the entire Civil Service.
It is worth mentioning, that the next version of eOAS will provide special facilities for employees with disabilities (e.g, with vision difficulties). | ------------------------------------------------------ * USER REVIEWS * ------------------------------------------------------
"The eOAS has brought a revolutionary way of administering documents in the public sector. The organisations have become more flexible and can easily and quickly adjust to the rapidly changing circumstances and requirements of the present age. The positive effects and benefits brought to the operation of the organisations are multidimensional. It is suffice enough to say that the system has significantly contributed, not only to the increase of the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation, but also to the reduction of the administrative cost, modernisation of the public service, and to the improvement of the working environment, benefiting the employees" (Costas Agrotis, Director of The Department of information Technology) |
 Functional Characteristics
The main functional characteristics of eOAS are:
eOAS is document centric and supports the capture, storing and processing of all standard electronic document formats, including multimedia files.
Inbox style processing capabilities to facilitate the management of the assigned jobs.
Extensive Search and Retrieval facilities based on certain criteria or on a free text basis.
Bring-up Diary Management.
Documents Disposal and Retention through predefined workflows.
Folders and Documents Confidentiality Grading.
Document accessibility and forwarding, according to predefined authorisation rules.
Electronic Signature support.
Detection and protection of documents, which include personal data.
Audit trail.
Electronic Document Exchange between Government Organisations.
Management tools for workload monitoring, jobs monitoring and status tracking, as well as reporting tools.
Government Organisations using eOAS
Till today, the Office Automation has been installed and operates in real environment at the following Government Organisations:
(a) Ministry of Finance,
(b) Department of Information Technology Services,
(c) Secretariat of Council of Ministers,
(d) Central Information Service,
(e) Permanent Delegation of Cyprus in the E.U (Brussels),
(f) House of Representatives,
(g) State Archives,
(h) Public Administration and Personnel Department,
(i) Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
(j) Presidency and Presidential Palace.
Benefits
The key benefits, resulting from the implementation of the Office Automation System, are:
Increase of effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of the Civil Service.
Standardisation of business processes, procedures and documents confidentiality regulations, facilitating thus, the transfer of interchangeable staff from one Organisation to another.
Significant time-saving during documents archiving.
Availability of all documents in electronic form and significant reduction in paper.
The documents cannot be vitiated and/or counterfeited, as these are stored on optical disks.
Electronic communication and exchange of electronic documents between the Government Organisations.
Electronic signature for all electronic documents.
Electronic files and documents cannot be misplaced or lost, as it might happen with physical files and documents.
Controlled access to files and documents (i.e, only by authorised staff).
Increased security of documents.
Easy and fast access to the documents.
Simultaneous access to the same document by more than one officer.
Easy and fast finding of documents based on certain search criteria.
Remote access to the system and tele-working from abroad and/or home.
High protection of personal data.
Accessibility of selected documents and information to the public.
Automatic electronic transfer of important and/or historically valued documents from any Organisation to the State Archives.
Lower administrative cost, due to less use of paper and post and less storage space.
Organisations of the Broader Public Sector have shown interested in purchasing eOAS
The successful implementation of the system in the Civil Service has created a great interest amongst other organizations of the broader public sector. In particular the following organisations have already signed a licence agreement with the Government, in order to install and use eOAS:
(a) University of Cyprus
(b) Technical University of Cyprus (CUT)
(c) Cyprus Police
(d) Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO)
(e) Commissioner of Telecommunications and Postal Regulations (OCECPR)
The following organisations have also shown interest in purchasing eOAS and their applications have been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for further processing:
(a) Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber
(b) Cyprus Sports Organization (CSO)
(c) Water Board of Limassol
User Reviews
--------------------------------------------------- "For an innovation to be implemented successfully, the culture of the people using it has to be changed. We, the eOAS team, are proud that the system has triggered a change to the way of thinking and working of the employees in their daily work, through the effective use of technology. In the first Departments, were eOAS has been operating for almost eight years, a new breed of officers has emerged, that have moved beyond the time-consuming procedures and the other shortcomings of the manual system; using in this way the best of the automated system" (Kyriacos Constantinides, Project Manager, IT Officer A’).--------------------------------------------------- |
| "With the implementation of eOAS, the working environment has been greatly improved. Paper usage has been significantly reduced, whereas paper folder distribution has been completely abandoned. Offices are not cluttered anymore with paper documents and folders. The employee works now in a modern, pleasant, cleaner environment" (Marios Vassiliou, IT Officer A, President of the Administrative Board of the Departmental Union - PASYDY). --------------------------------------------------- |
| "I have been one of the few people that had the opportunity to live through the conception and materialization phase of the idea, for the creation of the eOAS System. Being a member of the analysis and design team of a leading, innovating and revolutionary system as the eOAS, is something that makes all the members of this team very proud for what we have achieved. We have managed to create a system, which offers a lot of benefits to the Public Sector. Our reward for the above effort is the fact that the eOAS has reached a point of competing at an international level and being awarded prizes, proving in this way its capabilities" (Stella Agrotou-Demetriadi, IT Officer). --------------------------------------------------- |
| eOAS is a revolutionary advancement that offers both immediate and long term benefits. In particular for the House of Representatives, where a large volume of documents are generated, which must be easily accessed by a lot of people, eOAS offers great advantages to this end (Andreas Chimonidis, Research, Studies and Publications Officer, House of Representatives). --------------------------------------------------- |
| "Τhe Office Automation System inaugurates a new era for the State Archives, that of electronic records. The eOAS enables the State Archives to safeguard and preserve its historical collections in a more efficient manner. The permanent problem of acquiring new repositories, as well as the dangers from the various deteriorating factors regarding paper records can now be considered solved…" (Efrosyni Parparinou, State Archivist, State Archives, Ministry of Justice and Public Order) --------------------------------------------------- "The Office Automation System enhances the citizen’s ability to access historical collections, housed in the State Archives. The researcher is, thus, able to exercise his democratic right to information and transparency without triggering the dangers that usually threaten paper records, i.e. the deterioration of documents during inspection and photocopying as well as the risk of theft. Furthermore, the eOAS provides for simultaneous access to the same document by many researchers. A revolution in its own kind in historical research…" (Kyriacos Anastasiades, State Archives Officer, State Archives, Ministry of Justice and Public Order) |
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eOAS Awards
The Department of Information Technology Services with its Office Automation System, achieved the highest distinction in the FileNet’s international competition. The award was announced on 24 May 2007 at an international conference in Rome. It is worth mentioning that, it is the first time a software application developed in Cyprus receives such a distinction. (More….).
Award for the Department of Information Technology Services on national level as well. The Department won the Cyprus Innovation Award of The Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation, for the broader public sector. The award was announced at a special ceremony at the Cyprus Hilton Hotel on 11 June 2007 (More….).
It is worth mentioning that the Department of Information Technology Services has recently submitted the Office Automation System to the Best Practice Awards competition of the European Union. The results of the competition will be announced on 20 September 2007, at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference, which will be held in Lisbon.
From the ceremony for the innovation awards by FileNet
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From the ceremony for the Cyprus Innovation Awards by OEB
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