Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman1 NARIMS: Lessons Learned Mahmoud Rafea CLAES ARC MOALR Egypt

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman2 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, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman3 Outline What is NARIMS? Why NARIMS? NARIMS vision Usability Statistics Lessons Learned Current Activities Summary

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman4 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman5 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman6 NARIMS Vision Work Flow within NARIC Agriculture Information Network National Agriculture Research Information Center (NARIC) Organizational Chart

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman7 Work Flow NARIC NARIMS Computer Servers NARIC Unit production of new content retrieval of content Administration and Data Validation acquisition of content Data Entry Data Verification dissemination of content Users of Agriculture Network NARIMS Vision

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman8 Agriculture Information Network Egyptian Universities Network (EUN) Telecom. Egypt Cloud EUN ARC Universities + Academy Fiber Optics Extension NARIMS Vision

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman9 NARIC Organizational Chart Steering 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman10 Statistics Hits Total Hits Total Cached Hits Average Hits Per Day11008 Average Hits Per Hour459 Average Hits Per Visitor16.1 Average Data Transferred per Hit 0.0 KB Visitors Total Visitors Average Visitors Per Day682 Average Time Spent344 Seconds Average PageViews per visitor9.00 Average Downloads per visitor0.04 Average Data Transferred per Visitor 0.0 KB

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman11 Uniq IPs Total Uniq IPs71040 Visitors Who Visit Once56265 Visitors Who Visit more than Once PageViews and Downloads Total PageViews Average PageViews Per Day6146 Total File Downloads10770 Average File Downloads Per Day 29 Total Images Average Images Per Day3396 Total failed requests98775 Total Incomplete File downloads requests 6919 Number of visitors bookmarked your web site 54826

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman12 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman13 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman14 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman15 Steering Committee Creates an enabling policy environment Facilitate management Ensure sustainability Lessons Learned

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman16 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman17 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman18 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman19 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman20 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman21 Financial aspects for sustainability Continuous government support is essential Lessons Learned

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman22 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

Jan 8-10, 2008AARINENA-RAIS Focal Units Workshop, Muscat, Oman23 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