Help countries achieve Infrastructure SDGs by building digital public goods that make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
The DIGIT Works platform is being built as an open source Digital Public Good to expand capabilities in public infrastructure. It is designed to work across boundaries at varying levels of capacity and complexity.
As per a recent article in Economic Times (2022), “Capital investment outlay is being increased steeply by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore. This will be 3.3% of GDP. Will be almost three times the outlay made in 2019”
The majority of this capital investment (capital expenditure) which is on civil works is managed in offline or independent systems lying within the executing agencies. This is a massive problem as information is not exchanged between planning, executing, owning, financing, auditing and other authorities which leads to payment delays, poor quality of execution, poor financing and auditing amongst many other issues.
Works Management Systems are massive and complex. While many agencies are building their own products and solutions, these are independent systems that do not exchange data. This leads to inefficiencies in carrying out projects that are closely linked by nature, type, location, citizens etc.
The goal of this works platform is to allow a seamless exchange of works-related information (such as projects, vendors, assets, attendance, estimate, contracts, bills etc.) between
1. Works and finance systems to accelerate payments
2. Different agencies for better project coordination
3. Share open data & registries to avoid duplication and misuse of resources
The Works Platform on DIGIT can be used by any Agency (National, Sub National, Urban/Rural local bodies, para-statal agencies and others to create any kind of civil project.
The platform will become a “shared source of truth” that all stakeholders can use to align resources and decisions to achieve operational and financial efficiency. The platform will therefore greatly improve the transparency and competency of agencies executing Works.
A Works Management System (WMS) is typically used by various departments in the government to track end to end lifecycle of a project (scope and finances).
The input to Works could be a decision that is taken in the legislature for the construction of new capital works or demand that is generated from within society or officers, for maintenance of existing projects.
Examples:
Construction of new metro rail is of nature capital works (New Works)
Repair of existing roads is of nature operations and maintenance (O&M)
Once the project is identified, the next step is estimating project costs. This is followed by tendering, contracting, sharing the work order with the contractor, tracking milestones, payments and closure.
The platform design provides the capability to integrate smart payments with iFIX. The integration enables departments to track project milestones and simplify vendor payments. The multi-layer architecture design ensures transparency, visibility and fast decisions all of which translate to an accelerated pace of development. The registries and APIs ensure information flows seamlessly across channels removing the challenges of siloed data structures and facilitating interoperability.
Read more about our multi-layered platform architecture design rationale here
The DIGIT Works Platform is designed to enable delivery at scale, across various aspects of public Works, and multiple agencies. Using the platform approach, we will create an end-to-end flexible, open, configurable, and reusable platform to plan, manage and close any public works projects such as new constructions or existing works maintenance so there is timely project completion and payments.
Offers key capabilities required by state/dept/ULB/other entities to manage Works (new and old)
Interoperable with other applications such as engineering estimation, measurement, attendance tracking, and billing apps.
Can make use of its own registries or existing shared registries for projects, assets, beneficiaries, contractors etc.
Configurable for both ULBs and state departments & understands both books of accounts.
Reports & dashboards with real-time data to monitor progress and make decisions
Uses a template-based approach for creating & issuing new documents to save time and avoid mistakes
