Growing information and communications technology firm, i-Global limited has called on key actors in the ICT industry, particularly the government to adopt the Electronic Document Management Solution (EDMS), to mitigate the risk bedevilling the effective management of information in Nigeria.
Being an integrated system use to track and store paper or hardcopy documents electronically through use of set of computers, the solution also reduces the danger of tree felling for paper production, as well as finance and time in the delivery of services.
Other benefits the solution provides include easy access to files, reports, minutes at a click of a button and save cost of administration considering the ever shrinking resources.
The protection of intellectual property, reducing physical storage cost, transparency and improvement of employee skill, improved document management collaboration and knowledge management are other areas of benefits captured by the new system.
Founder/CEO of i-Global limited, Lawal Abdullahi, who spoke to Blueprint in an interview held in Abuja, stated that the first step towards promoting the adoption of the solution, is to increase awareness and improve skill in manpower to enable users learn how to properly apply the technology in their various scope of work.
This lack of knowledge about the solution and human capacity to deploy it, according to him, are some of the challenges limiting the penetration of the technology across the country.
He also highlighted the erratic supply of power to infrastructure as another factor crippling the efficient deployment of the EDMS.
The “will of the people” to embrace change is another very important issue that must be looked into to ensure the smooth transition from paper to electronic based information management.
To address the aforementioned problems, Abdullahi said, “Policy has to come in to drive the solution so that people can easily adapt to the new form of information and record keeping.”
He said his organisation has being training people on the use of the solution as way of closing the existing knowledge skill gap, and urged other development partners both public and private to collaborate and initiate ideas on how to encourage the use of electronic document management solution in Nigeria.
i-Global is an ICT Enterprise Solution Firm, providing solutions and services in records and document management, from the creation, through storage, to secure destruction of records and documents.
