Company Profile The Punjab Forest Development Corporation was established in 1983 to develop forestry, agro-forestry and other activities relating to planting, cutting and sale of timber in the State of Punjab.  The specific objectives of the Corporation are to develop aid assist, initiate, promote, organize, finance and provide technical, managerial and marketing assistance to such private units and agencies, societies and companies concerned with the raising of forest product and plantations to be raised on their lands; and to aid, assist, initiate, promote, expedite, accelerate, and or execute development projects, enterprises, companies, to promote , advance the production of forest produce for industrial and other uses and also to provide planting material and inputs for the same and to promote forest based industries.

The Punjab Government has been using a Forest Management Information System (FMIS) for strategic, tactical and operational planning and implementation, and operational control in and across administrative units. FMIS is envisaged as an integrated system which is used to support the planning, implementation and monitoring of multi-objective forest management activities. Project Objective The prime objective was to upgrade the current running FMIS system from an older system to a newer system. The current setup was causing numerous issues which included effort duplication and data inconsistencies, leading to increased workload, longer processing times, delays in decision making, low levels of transparency and accountability.

The need to upgrade the operating system was one of the prime reasons for the department as it could no longer live with the inherent security holes of the older operating systems, particularly on the administrative network. Liabilities stemming from virus propagation, compromised data, and damaged operating systems had become too great for the limited support resources the department has available.

The Punjab Forest Department wanted to improve overall business operations by moving the current system from Windows 98 to Windows XP but it wanted to ensure that the migration happens seamlessly so that the end users do not have any issues whatsoever, in a nutshell the end user should simply not know that the FMIS system was moved from one operating system to another; but at the same time they wanted to get documented everything so that all the steps could be replicated by their IT team as well. Solution Provided GrayCell Technologies Exports first understood what the client’s internal requirements were and then assessed the FMIS system completely to fully understand its workings. By knowing what the enterprise objectives are, knowing why Windows XP and Oracle XE will support them, and knowing how to adapt the system to the changing marketplace were the key functions. The system was moved to Windows XP and the database was moved to Oracle XE thereby ensuring increased network security, system efficiency, usability and life span of the existing system while integrating new technologies.

GrayCell Technologies Exports came up with a more efficient FMIS system which was structured by business activity thus enabling more transparent and targeted intervention. We provided the Punjab Forest Department with a reliable FMIS ensuring high security, avoidance of unexpected downtime, data corruption, data loss, performance issues and any technical incompatibility issues. Result GrayCell Technologies Exports helped the Punjab Forest Department by providing a cost effective solution that got the job done. We saved major expenditure of the department funds by migrating the FMIS application from Win 98 to Win XP and moving the database from Oracle 8i to Oracle XE. All this required a keen insight, commitment and thorough understanding of business dynamics.

The Punjab Forest Department is now running an efficient and effective FMIS. Using our excellent practical industry know-how and in-depth knowledge of the IT products and services, we have benefited the Punjab Forest Department by providing an economical and practical solution that has helped them save expenditures and achieve business success.