Jan 8-10, 2008 AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman 1

NARIMS: Lessons Learned

Mahmoud RafeaCLAESARC

MOALREgypt

Jan 8-10, 2008 AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman 2

Purpose of this presentation

Give a brief idea about our experience while developing NARIMS and its expected future.

Meanwhile there will be no mention of: Technology or engineering issues No system demonstration or detailed

description

Jan 8-10, 2008 AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman 3

Outline What is NARIMS? Why NARIMS? NARIMS vision Usability Statistics Lessons Learned Current Activities Summary

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What is NARIMS? NARIMS stands for National Agriculture Research Information

Management System.

It is a Web based bi-lingual information system aimed at capturing and disseminating information about:

Research institutions Researchers of those institutions

Publications issued by those researchers Projects done or currently active

National Agriculture and Veterinary research plan in Egypt

It consists of: Backend that enables data management

Front-end that enables data browsing and searching

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Why NARIMS? Inefficient methodology for monitoring the current research activities

Weakness in agricultural development Ineffective formulation of research plans

Limitation in conducting research that address real agricultural problems

Inefficient use of resources Lack of cooperation and coordination

Conflict of interest Unnecessary competition Work redundancy with consequent loss of resources

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NARIMS Vision Work Flow within NARIC Agriculture Information Network National Agriculture Research Information

Center (NARIC) Organizational Chart

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Work FlowNARIC

NARIMS Computer ServersNARIC Unit

production of new content

retrieval of content

Administrationand

Data Validation

acquisition of contentData Entry

Data Verificationdissemination of content

Users of Agriculture

Network

NARIMS Vision

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Agriculture Information Network

Egyptian Universities Network (EUN)

Telecom. Egypt Cloud EUN

ARC Universities + Academy

Fiber Optics

Extension

NARIMS Vision

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NARIC Organizational ChartSteering

Committee

CLAES Director

Technical Director

IS Department

National Coordinator

EDICA Department

Network Department

Faculties of Agriculture

Research Stations

ARC Laboratories

ARC Institutes

NARIC Unit 1

NARIC Unit 2

NARIC Unit 37……... ……... ENAL Unit

NARIMS Vision

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StatisticsHits Total Hits 4029076

Total Cached Hits 4029076

Average Hits Per Day 11008

Average Hits Per Hour 459

Average Hits Per Visitor 16.1

Average Data Transferred per Hit

0.0 KB

Visitors Total Visitors 249926

Average Visitors Per Day 682

Average Time Spent 344 Seconds

Average PageViews per visitor 9.00

Average Downloads per visitor 0.04

Average Data Transferred per Visitor

0.0 KB

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Uniq IPs Total Uniq IPs 71040

Visitors Who Visit Once 56265

Visitors Who Visit more than Once

14775

PageViews and Downloads

Total PageViews 2249684

Average PageViews Per Day 6146

Total File Downloads 10770

Average File Downloads Per Day

29

Total Images 1243055

Average Images Per Day 3396

Total failed requests 98775

Total Incomplete File downloads requests

6919

Number of visitors bookmarked your web site

54826

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Lessons Learned Define a strategy for national agriculture

information management Develop a methodology to accomplish the

mission and follow it Establish a steering committee Institutional Capacity Building Organization restructuring Building helpful alliances A champion is needed Use of appropriate technology Financial aspects for sustainability

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Strategy Clear mission Define objectives that will

accomplish the mission Promote your strategy in order to

get support from decision makers Prepare a plan of action

Lessons Learned

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Methodology Establish Information Units (IUs) structure

Establish a Central Unit (CU or Focal Point) Establish IUs within Functional Elements Establish the steering committee

Design and implement network infrastructure Train staff Develop systems and tools according to the information

strategy Collect data for system in implementation Feed data to the system Verify data and publish it Promote the system Report staff performance to Institutes\ directors

Lessons Learned

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Steering Committee Creates an enabling policy

environment Facilitate management Ensure sustainability

Lessons Learned

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Institutional Capacity Building

Training of trainers on ICT and IM Training on information automation and

developed systems NARIMS

Training on Arabic AGRIS Application Profile, document indexing, and cataloging

Training on NARIMS Quantity and the quality of input into the

system are still very low

Lessons Learned

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Organization Restructuring Efficient structures and procedures

facilitate management Important for sustainability Usually organizational restructuring is met

with certain resistance NARIMS

NARIC is introduced into ARC structure EDICA problem Inefficient administration

Lessons Learned

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Alliances Ensure quality of the system Reduce risk failure Minimize production time Minimize effort and money NARIMS

Made by adopting and/or adapting existing standards, tools and methodologies, particularly those developed by FAO

The Electronic Information Management System (EIMS) software tool was customized and integrated in the “Publications” module

The AGRIS Application Profile (AGRIS AP) was translated into Arabic and chosen as the metadata standard

AGROVOC thesaurus (available both in English and Arabic versions) was adopted for indexing

Lessons Learned

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A Champion is needed Preferably from the agriculture top

management He is a key factor for success because he

can: Motivate the development Solve managerial problems Push when there is resistance

NARIMS Professor Dr. Fawzi Naeim X-President of ARC

and acting as a Minister consultant was the champion of NARIMS

Lessons Learned

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Use of Appropriate Technologies

This includes: Infrastructure

• Band width• Routers and switches• Security hardware and software (firewalls)

Computer hardware (servers) Software (OS, Services, DBMS)

Lessons Learned

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Financial aspects for sustainability

Continuous government support is essential

Lessons Learned

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Current Activities Development of a portal based on

distributed NARIMS Development a Researcher-Form module:

Backend: data is collected using a form on three-month basis.

Front-end: a report used in the promotion of researchers on 5-years basis.

According, the installation tool is updated. Statistical reports for data content Administrative reports for data entry

activities

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Summary Key factor of success are:

Good infrastructure The existence of champion Government support Continuous capacity building Organization structure Effective administration Adapt to improve stakeholders interest and

keep management satisfaction