5-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

FOR IT ROADMAP AND SUSTAINABILITY PLAN FOR

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT NSITF HEAD OFFICE ABUJA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Total gratitude goes to the staff and management of NSITF who gave us all the much needed
cooperation and support for the execution of this project.

FORWARD
Automation of the workplace is the current revolution in the world as infectious diseases have
taken over, also the need to generate more revenue and reduce human errors, it becomes
necessary to automate every process in other mitigate these challenges.

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Contents
Overview 4.

Overview of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund and the 5-year strategic plan for
business development.

Physical Infrastructure Assessment 5.

Assessing the physical network and equipment infrastructure currently existing at

the Headquarters.

Workforce Assessment 6.

Assessing the capacity of the current workforce at the head office with regards to
understanding their level of conformity with ICT standards.

Software Infrastructure Assessment 7.

Assessing the current software infrastructure and all of its components existing at the Head
Office with particular interest on efficiency, suitability, scalability, time-saving techniques,
overall service delivery

,
Technology Harmonization 11.

Developing means for the harmonization of existing technologies/software

infrastructure where harmonization is necessary and expunging of certain
technologies/software infrastructure where necessary.

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New Technologies 13.

Identifying new technologies/software/hardware infrastructure for NSITF

headquarters required to sustain the business model of NSITF for a 5-year term.

Scheduled Events Timeline

Timeline for design, development, implementation, training, support and

maintenance of new software infrastructure within the 5-year term.

Support

Designing a support framework needed to support the current workforce at the ICT
department with regards to the infrastructure available.

Recommendations

Advisory and suggestions

Add-Ons

Extra offers and services required for continued effective service delivery

Concluding notes

Notes concluding the entire exercise.

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Overview 1

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Labor and
Employment with a workforce of about 5000+ saddled with the responsibility of providing
workplace insurance and prompt payment of employees claims in the event of workplace related
accidents and injuries.

NSITF has a total number of 23 departments listed below:

1. MD’s Office 11. Procurement

2. ED, Admin 12. Servicom
3. ED, Finance and Investment 13. Social Security
4. ED, Operations 14. Health, safety and environment
5. Legal Services 15. Claims and compensation
6. Corporate Affairs 16. Inspection
7. Information and Communications 17. Estate and maintenance
Technology 18. Actuarial, Planning, Research &
8. Audit and Inspectorate Development
9. Investment, Treasury and 19. Enforcement
Management 20. Informal Sector
10. Admin, Human Resources & 21. Risk Management
Maintenance 22. Board Secretariat

These departments on a daily basis perform varying degrees of work-related activities,

assignments and tasks. The 5-year IT roadmap is designed to help plan time-based processes of

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automation that will sustain the core mandate and objectives of the fund progressively over a 5-
year period.

The roadmap design will include amongst other things:

• An assessment of existing technology infrastructure,

• Assessment of the current workforce to ascertain how work-ready or compliant they are
with contemporary standards
• Key recommendations with regards to the existing infrastructure
• New infrastructure planning with additional infrastructure
• Then finally a support, maintenance and staff retraining scheme that will oversee a 5-
year period.

Different studies, research, data gathering and data analysis patterns were employed in the
course of developing and designing the roadmap to reposition the fund and prepare it for the
future ahead.

We were able to gather on the spotlight an understanding from members of staff what they feel
has been going technologically and what they feel should be done to improve the current status
of technology within the fund.

And also information concerning other aspects of technology, technology usage, user
experience, technical and non-technical reviews were gathered from across all the departments
of the fund with different data gathering schemes.

In one of the surveys, members of staff across the fund were asked to rate the IT services at
NSITF on a scale of 1 to 10 in other to ascertain generally how much they feel technology has
penetrated the fund, and they provided interesting feedbacks which were well captured
pictorially and in tabular forms below.

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Question: On a scale of 1 – 10, how will you rate the IT services of NSITF?

IT SERVICES RATING OF NSITF

IT Services Rating of NSITF

Enforcement
APRD
Claims
Servicom
Maintenance
Human Resources
Corp. Affairs
Procurement
Investment
Audit
Finance

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fig. 1.0

On a tabular form;

Scores F/A Audit Inv. Proc. C.A. H.R. Maint. Serv. Claims APRD ENF
(a) 8 5 1 5 4 6 6 5 6 5 5
(b) 8 2 2 8 5 6 6.5 4 2 5 1
(c) 7
Avg. 8 3.5 1.5 6.5 4.5 6. 6.5 4.5 3 5 3
Table 1.0

Another survey was geared towards ascertaining user satisfaction and sense of fulfillment while
using the IT services available at NSITF.

These surveys are going to give us an insight into what the staff of NSITF already feel or
understand about the technology workspace.

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It launches us into the event of making a thorough evaluation of existing infrastructure and all of
its components.

Question: How do you feel while using IT services available at NSITF?

User Review

APRD
Enforcement
Claims
Servicom
Maintenance
Human Resources
Corp. Affairs
Procurement
Investment
Audit
Finance/Accounts

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Good Very Good Bad Very Bad

Fig 1.1

On a tabular form;

Scores F/A Audit Inv. Proc. C.A. H.R. Maint. Serv. Claims APRD ENF
(a) G. G. V.B. V.G. B. G. G. G. G. G. G.
(b) V.G G. V.B. G. B. G. G. B. B. G.
(c) G.
Table 1.1

Legends used:

G. is Good B. is Bad V.G. is Very Good V.B. is Very Bad

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Materials used for data collection in the whole entire exercise includes:

• Questionnaires
• Paper Tests
• Equipment tests
• Interviews
• Meetings

The data extracted were processed, modelled, analyzed and results published.

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NETWORK
INFRASTRUCTURE

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Network Infrastructure 2

2.1 Overview
The network infrastructure model at NSITF is quite dynamic and a mix of different
implementations characteristic of a modern network infrastructure system. There is a pure
network infrastructure implementation taking care of the entire internetwork, it's components
such as segments, connecting nodes, distribution systems, firewalls etc and an active directory
implementation that takes care of users on a network, their departments, their units, their
authentication, access to network resources, then properly controls and audits their activities.

This is also classified as a client-server model where clients are the individual connecting nodes
or systems connected to a central server that provides resources to them and totally takes care
of the administration, management and running of the entire client-server implementation.

Fig 2.0: The client-server model

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The clients access resources from the server after proper authentication and authorization, the
server identifies the client and registers them on the network, then henceforth puts them in a
managed situation. In trying to properly understand the entire network infrastructure, we will
have to look at the network diagram below:

Fig 2.1 Physical network topology diagram

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The diagram above comprises of two broad segments which is the main building and the annex,
they are both linked from a central connection point that distributes over the both of them. The
annex is connected to the central point through fiber optics, external links such as the
GalaxyBackbone internet bandwidth and cloud storage support brought about additional
connectivity to the existing infrastructure.

The main block or main building and annex has its nodes or systems connected to the central
connection point through different connection means or modes such as wired and wireless
systems.

Fig 2.2 Connection modes

The wireless system distributes connectivity to wireless clients mostly through wireless access
points such as the UbiquitiTM range of wireless devices.
This connection setup is very efficient as the access points are wireless 802.11n compliant which
can give connection speeds of up to 450Mbps over a range of 150 feet depending on how free
the broadcast area and line of sight is in terms of physical obstructions.

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The wired connection setup is built with direct links connected with CAT6e Ethernet cables
delivering fast Gigabit Ethernet which supports speeds of up to 1000Mbps or 1Gbps. This
network is directly connected to the central station via distribution systems such as CISCOTM
switches and routers and neatly broken up into subnets of class B IP addresses which indicates
also the category and size of operations NSITF is currently running or plans to run in feature.

This connection mode is marred with some issues where certain ports within the departments have
become blind spots which results in packet losses, parity check problems, latency and redundancy
impairing the overall network performance. Lack of routine maintenance is the culprit here.

Maintenance of this infrastructure hasn’t taken place in the past 9 years. Last maintenance was in 2013
so it is safe to say that network connecting ports in the departments are going blind as a result of packet
losses, increased latency, reduced or suppressed throughput etc

2.2 Central Control

In further understanding the overall network infrastructure, we will have to beam our searchlight
on the central control room which houses equipment and infrastructure that controls the entire
network.
The central control is like the brainbox of the entire technology infrastructure for which if
anything goes wrong with it, the entire technology workspace will be greatly affected.

The assessment of the central control room took place on the 23rd of February 2022, and
anchored by a brilliant network engineer from the ICT department who took us on a tour of the
facilities, equipment, technologies that is available at the central control room, and exposed us
greatly on its strengths, drawbacks, challenges and vicissitudes that has redefined the course of
the entire operation.

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On first observance or impression, the central control room is neatly arranged and ordered,
server workstations, routers, switches, connecting cables, the racks, distributors, virtualization
equipment, firewall systems etc.
From this room, the administration and running of the entire technology workspace of NSITF is
done. The diagram below gives a glimpse of what the central control room looks like.

Fig 2.3 The Central Control Room

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2.21 The Distribution System

D. SWITCH
ISP

CYBEROAM
FIREWALL D. SWITCH

( D. SWITCH

Fig 2.4 Distribution system

The Internet Service Provider link goes into the Cyberoam firewall module which serves as a
firewall and filter then forwards the traffic to a distribution switch which in turn breaks the link
down into two more distribution switches. This goes on to feed the rest of the network.

The CISCO ISE (Identity Services Engine) is meant to provide network level authentication and restrict
unauthorized users from accessing any network resource but unfortunately the ISE is down and not
operational at this moment and it’s supposed replacement, the SOPHOS module is yet to take off.

The control center is suffering from inadequacy or inadequate equipment such as the expected SOPHOS
meant to provide a much better network level authorization and authentication. This has exposed the
entire network to a certain degree of vulnerability where users can plug in their systems when in
possession of a network cable to do so and from this end an experienced attacker can cause a certain
degree of unwholesome acts for which a basic denial of service attack can happen from within thereby
aggravating the overall performance of the entire network already marred with blind connecting ports

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2.22 The Power Backup System

A standard power backup system is supposed to provide backup power in the event of power
outages. This is a standard requirement for any datacenter. There is available backup power
within the Central Control room. The power team provided information with regards to power
configuration of the central control room and also that of the entire infrastructure.

DATA
UPS 2 CENTER
32
BATTERY

32 UPS 3
BATTERY

UPS 1 60 32
BATTERY BATTERY

POWER INVERTER INVERTER 60

PANEL 1 2 BATTERY
changeover

Fig 2.5 Power Support System

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Inverter 1 and 2 feeds UPS 3 which in turn feeds the data center. The changeover switch helps
to change between inverter 1 and 2 weekly or monthly because it can’t be working at the same
time.

Installation was done in 2014, three 40KVA inverters, out of which two is for failover/backup of
the datacenter and the other one is for the building.

The two has been down since 2016. Only one power system, a 20KVA UPS is now supporting the
datacenter with no backup.

Other descriptions for the diagram in 2.5

• Inverter 1 and inverter 2 are rated 40 KVA each

• The power panel has supply from either the AEDC or generator.
• UPS 1 carries ground floor, 1st floor and 2nd floor.
• UPS 2 carries 3rd floor and 4th floor.

2.23 The Cooling System

A standard cooling system is supposed to provide proper and adequate cooling to the machines
and equipment at the datacenter. This is a standard requirement for any datacenter. There is
available cooling system within the Central Control room.

There is cooling system provided at the datacenter but it is not adequate. It is required that an industrial
cooling system be used to replace the home-based air conditioner at the datacenter.

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2.3 Network Performance

Network performance data was collected by administering network performance tests both at
the main building and the annex. And also network performance reviews were also collected
from members of staff.
This data was randomly collected by running performance tests on any branch, node or
segment of the entire network. This greatly helped to establish certain positions about
performance and was able to give on-the-spot assessment of the entire network. It also
involved different modes of testing where a device was tested on itself or it was tested with
another device typically computer systems to establish the level of their inter-communication.
Test Modes;
• Network device self-assessment
• Device-device network traffic assessment

Different measurement yardsticks were used in running the tests and collating the data in
other to make sure that the tests were adequately done.

2.31 Latency
Network latency, sometimes called lag, is the term used to describe delays in communication
over a network. Latency meaning in networking is best thought of as the amount of time it takes
for a packet of data to be captured, transmitted, processed through multiple devices, then
received at its destination and decoded.

These tests took a considerable number of days to achieve with latency been measured in every
way from main building to annex using computer systems running real-time network operations
within different departments.

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Here terms of measuring latency:

Latency of < 150ms (less than)

Is good latency. Anything above this number indicates a network struggling or having its network
performance impaired.

Fig 2.6 Latency results

Several network data packets and traffic were analyzed and this trend was established.
For latency not to be an issue, it is advised that the network connection ports within each
individual department be thoroughly serviced and other pending issues with the electronic
workspace be resolved in other to smoothen the process of network transactions etc.

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annex intranet exhibited traits of a network bugged with network delays from the results of system
interconnectivity tests within the annex alone

2.32 Packet Losses

Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling across a computer network fail
to reach their destination. Packet loss is either caused by errors in data transmission, typically
across wireless networks, or network congestion.

This is a metric or yardstick for measuring network performance as a high optimal network will
have little or no packet losses comparatively. It will help us analyze the speed and performance
of our network at NSITF.
This factor was measured by observing deliberately forwarded network traffic from one node or
system to the other and observe the status of all the packets that were transmitted in other to
establish if they all delivered or had some or all of its packets lost. The two systems being
members of the network.

From the image below you’ll notice that after reviewing the data of a group of packets, the above
result was established, main building had more of packet losses than the annex which may be
attributable to the fact that some of the connection ports in each individual department have
already started failing. This also means main block is threatened with reduced network
performance.

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Fig 2.6 Packet loss results

2.33 User-Provided Performance feedback

A survey was conducted on understanding the performance of the entire network from user
perspectives, this helps greatly in understanding the overall network performance when you
incorporate responses from the direct users of the network itself.
There are sharp contrasting patterns when considering responses from the main building and
responses from the annex. Users spoke in ways they felt the network experience have affected.
These responses of course also capture with it sentiments concerning the performance of the
internet as members of staff aren’t so IT knowledgeable to totally differentiate their private local
area network from the public internet.
The answers provided are published below.

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Fig 2.7 Network Sign-in experience survey to ascertain network performance

Annex Main Block

Good 2 5
Slow 2 9
Total 4 14

In order to strategically obtain answers concerning the true performance of the local network
infrastructure, users were asked questions regarding their sign in experience whenever they
come to work since there is a central authentication system provided by the active directory
platform of the Windows server in use.

Respondents from the main block gave the sign in experience a much lower score compared to
that of the annex which gave somewhat of a balanced assessment.

Note some systems especially some of them at annex are not connected to the local area network
infrastructure and the active directory responsible for authenticating users centrally.

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Overall Network Delivery (User Provided Feedback)

The image below tends to describe how users reacted when asked about their entire network
experience, this very question as quoted earlier will contain answers informed by the internet
experience since network is may also mean the internet as well.

Annex Main Block

Good Poor Good Poor

Fig 2.7 User survey to ascertain network

performance

Annex Main Block

Good 1 0
Slow 4 4
Total 5 4

From the foregoing we can observe that users were equally distributed in answering the
questions, 5 respondents answered for the annex while 4 answered for the main block. They
relayed their overall network experience as it affects them and their work. The respondents were
randomly picked in the two blocks from different departments.

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2.4 System Administration

The NSITF network infrastructure incorporates a client-server model, this is greatly

emphasized in the implementation of Windows Server 2008 Network Operating System
(NOS) which serves as the apex of that infrastructure coordinating every other activity that
has to do with system administration which entails provision of access to network resources
to network users after proper authentication brokered by the Active Directory module
within the network operating system.

System administration provides the tech workspace, the core and the base of every
business-minded organization where business units synergize, pull resources and work
together for the overall good of their organization.

Primary Domain
OUs Controller

MAIN

ANNEX

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Fig 2.8 Active directory topology

OUs are organizational units in AD

OUs with active directory coverage
OUs without active directory coverage

System administration exposes us to another type of network infrastructure built on top of the
already existing one.

NSITF Headquarters has an interesting Windows server network infrastructure comprising of

the Network Operating system Windows Server 2008 and its clients which are mostly Windows
10 based clients and operates a class B IP address structure with well deployed subnet
structure done at the first network infrastructure implementation level.

Figure 2.8 describes the active directory network topology of the NSITF where the AD (active
directory) was well-configured yielding the classification or grouping of departments as OUs
(Organization Units), and prompt grouping of users into different OUs.

From investigations, it was affirmed that networks users indeed log in from anywhere and log
into the central windows server database, though there are minor situations where a system
does not have access or means of logging onto the network via active directory as seen in some
instances in annex. These areas are deemed not to have active directory coverage as seen in
the topology diagram.

Multitude of virus/malware attack complaints from user feedbacks

Unfettered use of secondary storage devices such as flash drives which undoubtedly has contributed to
the malware/virus pandemic ravaging the entire electronic workspace.

Group policies unseen or not configured as proper configuration would help in preventing flash drive
usage and encourage the creation and usage of department-based network directories or folders which
will greatly facilitate intra-departmental and inter-departmental file sharing and exchange

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2.5 Equipment Analysis

NSITF has a combination of different categories of electronic/digital devices used for the
day-to-day activities of members of staff. These devices include all but:

• Laptops • Scanners
• Desktops • Photocopiers
• Printers

There is an estimated number of 2000+

desktop/laptop systems at NSITF and
pockets of printers, scanners and copiers
which are mostly all-in-one devices.

In each department you’ll find an

arrangement of desktop computers, laptops,
printers, scanners and copiers.

And each of these devices are shared

equitably amongst the departments. The
diagram on the left shows what devices look
like at NSITF.

Fig 2.9 Snapshot of desktops and laptops

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There is a fair usage of Lenovo manufactured Windows-based desktop and laptop systems. And
these systems also come with some fairly good architecture, running Intel core i5/i3 processors
mostly and an average of 4GB RAM which is fair for a business environment ran by NSITF where
there is just about a lot of text-based paperwork operations, less graphic-intensive operations.

Most of these systems are old, obsolete legacy devices which were purchased 9 – 10 years ago hence
their unsuitability for continued usage for which much of the times complaints about system freezing
abound due to the fact that these systems microchips or chipsets has had its run and is supposed to be
retired.

MACBOOK usage was witnessed in some places within the offices, this is discouraged as MACs are
unsuitable for a business environment dominated by Windows-based machines and there is a certain
learning curve that exists for MACs compared to Windows based systems with regards to ease of use,
navigation and user experience.

There is little or totally absent routine and scheduled preventive maintenance program for these
systems in about 6 years running as previous service level agreements that took care of this has either
been terminated or expired. This has created room for gross inefficiency and poor productivity on the
art of the systems as many of them have continued to malfunction and perform far below expectation.

Service support provided by the in-house IT support team is also inadequate as a result of lack of
enough manpower to take on the challenges support scenarios present. There has to be in place a
formidable support team when maintenance has been put in place in other to maximize the potentials
and results of the business environment.

2.51 Printers, Scanners, Copiers

At NSITF, much of the printers, scanners and copiers are all in one devices or equipment.
Meaning that they all have one manufacturer, a particular set of service / maintenance
technicians. This is good as it greatly aids support, maintenance and general usage.

The products are mostly made of Xerox, the American manufacturer of very high quality, high-
end printing and imaging devices with great quality speed. Few others in certain situations where
some departments buy just printers alone are made by Hewlett Packard, another big American

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manufacturer of similar devices. Below is a snapshot of what printers, scanners and copiers look
like in NSITF.

The printers, scanners and copiers are fairly

modern as they were not procured anything
later than 3-4 years back.

They are relatively new devices in terms of age

and are very suitable for the workplace
environment as they were built or designed for
business.

Their efficiency is also great with regards to

reviews made by users in various departments.

Workplace friendliness here refers to devices

that adapt or perfectly blend into a workspace,
has a great ease of use, not confusing, with
little or no learning curves etc.

Fig
2.10
Snapshot of scanners, copiers and printers

Most of the time there is unavailability of consumables like printer or copier ink, papers and things. This
has also impacted on the progress and productivity of employees of the fund.

Just like in the case of laptops and desktops, there is also no routine maintenance program or support
for these systems as previous service level agreements that took care of this has either been terminated
or expired.
MDA Registration

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2.51 Assessment of devices

There is a dominance or prevalence of Windows operating systems at NSITF. A physical

assessment of the operating systems at the NSITF revealed that Windows 10 operating systems
are dominant or mostly used, followed by Windows
8.1 then Windows 8. This is quite good but it is
advised that all operating systems running Windows
8.1 or 8.0 be upgraded to Windows 10 in other to
take advantage of all the benefits Windows 10 has
to offer.

Microprocessors on the average are any of Intel

Core i5 or Core i3 which is perfectly suits the
business environment in terms of required
processing power.

Fig 2.11 Operating systems distribution

The minimum RAM (Random Access Memory) of desktops and laptops is 4GB (Gigabytes) which
is ok since there aren’t serious
graphics intensive operations at
the moment but with time this will
change as new application
software and automation that will
require a great deal of processing
power and memory will be
needed.

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Fig 2.12 Graph of Page file vs. RAM usage

As seen in the graph of figure 2.12, we all can witness a common trend where page file increases
with increase in RAM usage.

Page files are virtual memory set within the system to help or assist the work of the RAM (Random
Access Memory).

2.511 Systems connected to the Network

Investigations made revealed a pattern where a certain number of systems were seen to have
network connection while others aren’t. Network here refers to either connected to the Internet or
local area network, where part of the systems connected to a network may be connected to the
internet only and not the local area network as seen in some situations at the annex.

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Connected Disconnected

Fig 2.13 Real-time connected systems at one instance

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As seen in the chart above, cumulatively results from both main block and annex were collated under
this chart. The results were arrived at after checking network connectivity of the systems and
observing that they were disconnected.

2.52 User reviews

User reviews on devices and equipment were collected at the headquarters complex. This gave
an insight on how users feel about the devices they use in the discharge of their day-to-day
activities and duties.

2.521 Printer connection and system freezing

Printer System Freezing

Connection

Freez
es,
Connected 96%
Not Connected Freezes Doesn't

Fig 2.14 and 2.15 Printer connection and system freezing user reviews

From the above figure 2.14 and 2.15, it could be observed that users perceived as seen in figure
2.14 with
regards to the ‘not connected’ category with 75 percent that their printers are not connected to
the network but only accessible or usable when they go directly to it to print from the system it
is directly connected to.

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This also points to the fact that network configuration with regards to active directory is yet to
address the necessary work-related issues.

It is recommended that all printers be linked to the active directory inventory for proper administration
and ease of use so that staff will easily print from anywhere instead of copying documents with flash
drives to approach a printer and print directly.

In the figure 2.15 where reviews were made on system freezing, 96 percent respondents stated
that their systems freeze. This is also an indicator that these devices need to be either replaced
in situations where that necessitate replacement, better support and maintenance adequately
provided in situations where support and maintenance is the problem.

2.521 Equipment efficiency

Survey was also conducted round the fund to ascertain user perception on the efficiency of
systems, devices and equipment they use daily in executing their day-to-day tasks and activities.

This yielded the below results;

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APRD

Enforcement

Claims

Servicom Inefficient
Slightly Eff.
G. Admin
Efficient
Corp. Affairs
Very Efficient
Procurement Average
Investment

Audit

Finance/Accounts

Fig 2.16 Departmental user reviews on equipment efficiency

From the data above, we can clearly understand how the survey was carried out and the nature
of data that was collected.

5 key probable answers with regards to equipment efficiency were presented to the user for
which they are meant to answer 1, these are:

• Inefficient for cases where the equipment is inefficient

• Slightly efficient for cases where the equipment is slightly efficient
• Efficient for cases where the equipment is efficient
• Very efficient for cases where the equipment is very efficient
• Average efficiency for cases where the equipment is of average efficiency

The above result is further represented collectively in the pie chart below

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Very Efficient
9% Inefficient
18%

Slightly Eff Efficient

46% 27%

Inefficient Efficient Slightly Eff Very Efficient

Fig 2.17 Departmental user reviews on equipment efficiency

In the above image, it will be seen that most respondents went for “slightly efficient” which is
followed by the respondents that went for “efficient” before that of “inefficient” at 18%.
Respondents who stated that the devices and equipment are very efficient constitute the least
percentage of 9 percent.

2.522 Speed of Completing processes electronically

Survey was also conducted round the fund to ascertain user perception on speed of completing
processes electronically for a single task at least, this criterion becomes instructive since it tends
to measure equipment efficiency in another way where it is understood that most software such
as office suite used by the staff are non-browser based applications and not utilizing network
resources, so efficiency totally lie on the machine.

The results are below;

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APRD

Enforcement

Claims

Servicom
Takes All Day
G. Admin
Timely
Corp. Affairs
Slow but completes
Procurement

Investment

Audit

Finance/Accounts

Fig 2.18 Departmental user reviews on speed of completing a process electronically

From the data above, we can clearly understand how the survey was carried out and the nature
of data that was collected.

3 key probable answers with regards to equipment efficiency were presented to the user for
which they are meant to answer 1, these are:

• Takes all day for cases where completion a task takes all day
• Timely for cases for cases where completion of a task completes within record time
• Slow but completes for cases where completion of a task is slow but completes eventually

The above result is further represented collectively in the pie chart below

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All Day
5%
Timely
28%

Slow but
complete
s
67%

Fig 2.19 Departmental user reviews on speed of completing processes electronically

In the above image, it will be seen that most respondents with 67 percent score went for “slow
but completes” which is followed by the respondents that went for “Timely” at 28 percent before
that of “All Day” at 5 percent.

Vulnerability Impact Assessment

Network vulnerability threat exist to a certain degree because the Cisco Identity Services Engine
(ISE) that was used to authenticate network users is currently out of operation and meant to be
replaced be a SOPHOS Module which is yet to happen and also the unfettered arbitrary usage of
flash drives can pull a network segment down. In situations where flash drives may run unverified
software which may end up been very harmful to the entire network.

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WORKFORCE ASSESSMENT

Workforce Assessment 3

Assessment of workforce is a key activity or event in the process of drafting a 5-year strategic
plan for IT roadmap and sustainability plan for business development. You will need to know how

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technology-ready, IT compliant or proficient your current workforce is in other to prospect for

the future technologically.

You wouldn’t ignore a set of employees or staff that do not understand how to properly and
basically utilize some technology in discharging their day to day activities as the world is gradually
hearken on to the call of total automation.

The emergence of covid-19 and infectious diseases has made it difficult and almost impossible
to continue with the manual way of doing things or using manual processes and as a result
assessment of staff of any organization in terms of compliance with basic IT skills is extremely
important. A roadmap will be useless if the people who will put it into practice are bereft of the
knowledge to do so.

With the foregoing, an IT compliance test was designed to at least test staff and employees of
NSITF on basic IT knowledge which will ascertain how technologically fit they are for the role they
have been playing.

The test, which is a very basic computer appreciation test is not sufficient enough but a good
beginning, can be classified as level 1 and was designed to test staff on the very basic things, it is
only when it is certified that they have gone above this level will it be necessary that a level 2
test takes place.

The test took place on different days for different departments as there was no proper official
communication to all the departments about the test and for them to get ready for it, this also
led to supervision problems as some departments didn’t give enough room for supervision which
of course they weren’t properly intimated official about the test and its modus operandi.

The chart below shows the results of the test.

Cumulative results of staff of departments in the basic ICT compliance test administered.

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APRD 66

Claims 67.6

Risk 76

Enforcement 67.6

GA/Training 90

Corp Affairs 87.5

Human Resources 90.8

HSE 94

Investment 83.2

Audit 96

Legal 91.2

Finance/Accounts 92

Admin 93.2

Procurement 90

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Moderate Supervision Low Supervision

Fig 3.0 Cumulative results of staff of departments in the ICT compliance test

In the above chart, we can see the sharp differences between two broad categories, the set of
departments with low supervision and the set of departments with moderate supervision. In
interpreting this chart, we can easily understand why the departments with low supervision
had very high scores.

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Supervision was low. In the departments with moderate supervision, the results were more
reflective of the reality surrounding the true nature of their IT knowledge.

So for better results it’s recommended this test or it’s like is repeated now with good supervision,
this will give us the true nature of the depth of basic IT knowledge of the workforce. Below is
another chart now showing how the departments contributed human resources to the
compliance test.

Participants
Proc
APRD
5%
11% Admin
7%

F/A
Claims 6%
12%

Legal
7%
Risk
1%

Audit
7%
Enf
12%
Inv
7%
GA/TR
HSE
6%
Corp Aff HR 6%
6% 7%

72 staff members participated in this survey

Fig 3.1 Departments staff contribution for the ICT compliance test

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Raw Test Scores

Department Test Score Percentage Department Average

Procurement 25 100% 90
Procurement 24 96%
Procurement 23 92%
Procurement 18 72%
Admin 22.5 90% 93.2
Admin 24 96%
Admin 24 96%
Admin 23 92%
Admin 23 92%
Finance/Account 23 92% 92
Finance/Account 22 88%
Finance/Account 24 96%
Finance/Account 23 92%
Corporate/Legal 24 96% 91.2
Corporate/Legal 21 84%
Corporate/Legal 23 92%
Corporate/Legal 22 88%
Corporate/Legal 24 96%
Audit 25 100% 96
Audit 25 100%
Audit 24 96%
Audit 21 84%
Audit 25 100%
Investment 21 84% 83.2
Investment 24 96%
Investment 19 76%
Investment 19 76%
Investment 21 84%
HSE 24.5 98% 94
HSE 23.5 94%
HSE 23.5 94%
HSE 22.5 90%
Human Resource 23 92% 90.8
Human Resource 23.5 94%
Human Resource 23 92%
Human Resource 21 84%

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Human Resource 23 92%

Human Resource 19.5 78% 87.5
Corporate Affairs 23 92%
Corporate Affairs 22.5 90%
Corporate Affairs 22.5 90%
GA/Training 21 84% 90
GA/Training 24 96%
GA/Training 23.5 94%
GA/Training 21.5 86%
Enforcement 10 40% 67.6
Enforcement 15 60%
Enforcement 10 40%
Enforcement 23 92%
Enforcement 21 84%
Enforcement 15 60%
Enforcement 13 60%
Enforcement 20 80%
Enforcement 23 92%
Risk 19 76% 76
Claims 16 64% 67.6
Claims 22 88%
Claims 22 88%
Claims 16 64%
Claims 15 60%
Claims 20 80%
Claims 16 64%
Claims 10 40%
Claims 15 60%
APRD 19 76% 66
APRD 14 56%
APRD 12 48%
APRD 14 56%
APRD 18 72%
APRD 18 72%
APRD 18 72%
APRD 19 76%

This is the results as answered by the staff of NSITF.

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IT Staff Training / Retraining Plan

Existing training and retraining plan of ICT staff is enumerated below :

SN Staff Training/retraining plan Type Duration Frequency

1. ITIL: Beginner to expert IT 4 WEEKS YEARLY

2. PRINCE 2 IT 4 WEEKS YEARLY
3. Cyber Security IT 4 WEEKS YEARLY
4. Mobile App Development IT 6 WEEKS YEARLY
5. Network Security IT 4 WEEKS YEARLY
6. A+ IT 4 WEEKS YEARLY

The above training set is standard. Increasing the duration will be of much help.

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SOFTWARE
INFRASTRUCTURE
ASSESSMENT

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4. Software Infrastructure Assessment

The software infrastructure environment at NSITF is a dynamic one. A combination of different

categories of software technologies at different stages of deployment, user environment,
design etc.

Software infrastructure assessment tends to understand the true nature and position of any
type of software within the NSITF most especially the type of software typically known and
called application software which is what end users utilize in a typical business environment.

Region for in-house software

rd
Region for 3 party vendor software

Cloud-based Proprietary
applications software on-premise
Applications

Fig 4.0 Software Infrastructure Map

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Then understanding their components with particular interest on efficiency, suitability,

scalability, time-saving techniques, overall service delivery.

The figure above clearly shows an outline or an outlay of the software composition at NSITF. A
software infrastructure map detailing how software is constituted. Application software usage
and utilization is very important and vital for a business-minded entity such as the NSITF.
Technology and automation is what drives businesses in this 21st century.

Without automation a lot of things will either be stale or undone, this means that software and
automation is an industry or an area to be taken seriously and not to be joked with, most
especially this period ravaged by the scourge of infectious diseases.

We will have to analyze the different compositions of application software at the NSITF with
the software map provided above and a subsequent table provided below.

There are two broad categories of software at NSITF, in-house application software and 3rd
party vendor-provided application software.

These two broad categories define the environment any application software found at NSITF
belongs to.

App P. L. FW D. A D. F. F. D.S.
E-ECSA Cold fusion Cold fusion Agile Browser Cloud
HRMS Python Django Agile Browser/mobile Cloud

DOCUSAN Python Django Agile Browser On-Premise

SPMS Python Django Agile Browser On-Premise

Table 4.1 NSITF Custom-made Applications Design/Architectural Information

Legends used in table below

P. L.: Programming Language
FW : Programming framework used (C# ASP .NET MVC 5, Java Play, Python Web2Py PHP
Symphony, etc)
D.A.: Design approach like top down model, Rapid design etc
D.F.F: Design form factor such as web/browser based, desktop, mobile, other devices
D.S.: Deployment scheme such as on-premise or cloud-based.

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DOCUSCAN MAIL-
SPMS ENABLE

E-ECSA OFFICE
HRMS SUITE

Region for in-house software

Region for 3rd party vendor software

Custom-made software Proprietary software

Cloud-based applications Applications on-premise

Fig 4.1 Software infrastructure map

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From Figure 4.2, it is clearly seen how the present set of software at NSITF is shared amongst
different categories divided along the lines of 3rd party vendor-sourced proprietary systems to
in-house custom-made applications.

4.1 In-house Application Software

In-house application software is defined as that software designed, developed and engineered
by the in-house design and development team at NSITF. They also belong to the category of
‘custom-made’ software since they were customized or tailored to specifications primarily for
the organization they support and work for.

DOCUSCAN
SPMS
DOCUSCAN
E-ECSA SPMS
Pytho
n
Django

Browser
based
HRMS Agile
Design E-ECSA

Cold
MOBILE Fusio
n

Android Java Native

HRMS

Fig 4.1 and fig 4.2 In-house Software architecture

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And the in-house application software at NSITF can further be classified as ‘Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) Software’ or ‘internally facing software’ since they were designed for the
organization’s internal usage.

The in-house applications found at NSITF are also further sub-divided into two more groups,
cloud-based software and on-premise software.

Software Testing Criteria

1. Performance is measured by efficiency, scalability and other time metrics like average load time and
latency.
2. Efficiency is measured by the quality of output with regards to input.
3. Overall service delivery is measured by suitability, feature set, deployment scope and performance

4.1.1 Cloud-based Software

This is the range of application software that is domiciled, hosted and resident in the cloud. The
cloud here is the storage system in the internet. Storage systems domiciled in the internet are
typically called the cloud. This is also where the term cloud computing came from.
software

Internet
connection

Cloud Storage

End user
with a laptop

Fig 4.3 The process of accessing software from the cloud

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The access to the cloud-based software happens when an end user with a computer or laptop
uses the internet to hook up to the cloud storage with a request to access the software or
application on the cloud storage for which with appropriate authorization an access is made.

There are basically two cloud-based in-house application software at NSITF namely:

• e-ECSA
• HRMS

4.1.1.1 Infrastructure Component Analysis

(a) e-ECSA
The platform ‘e-ECSA’ stands for Electronic Employee Compensation System Application. It is
designed for a variety of uses including making payment of employees claims, registration of
clients/employers and other related information.

Much is not known about the total functionality and feature set of this platform but it is
established that it is an ERP on the cloud or an internally-facing software used primarily by the
staff of NSITF and is currently and actively used for registration of clients.

From the little assessment and observations made with an admin-navigated demonstration, it is
efficient and scalable within the minimal usage scope it was subjected to, the software was built
to cater for the bulk of the fund and was just recently launched in January 2022 but at the
meantime only 4 branches are utilizing it.

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Software Metadata

Design Architecture
Architecture Data
Language Cold Fusion
Framework Cold Fusion
Design Approach Agile
Design Form Factor Browser-based

Deployment Information
Information
Deployment Scheme Cloud
Current Environment Production (In Use)
Coverage Area Fund Wide

Support & Maintenance

Information
Support Scheme N/A (In-house software with in-house support)
Maintenance Scheme N/A (In-house software with in-house maintenance)

Software Testing Results

Observed results from admin-navigated exhibition

Time Metrics & Speed

Information
Average load Time 9 seconds
Average latency 30 milliseconds

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Efficiency

Score 76%
Output responded to input within record time
and delivered results

Suitability

Score 38%
This software is still evolving, is yet to attain
sufficient suitability for its core objectives

Feature Set

Score 27%
Software is still evolving and is yet to have
enough features suitable for it’s category

Scalability

Score Not available

Not enough data collated to determine scaling
capability for the required audience base

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Performance

Score 69
Standard performance metrics are efficiency,
scalability and time differentials

Overall service delivery

Score Not available

Not enough data to make an assessment,
platform is new and still evolving

Observations

• This platform is still new, just launched and working with a minimal number of about 4
branches.
• Developer/development team is experienced within the scope and scale of what they’ve
been able to produce.
• Much utilization and usage hasn’t happened.

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Recommendations

• This platform has a one-man development team, it is recommended for the sake of
prompt and timely delivery and also for the sake of rich, enhanced and quality feature set
that the development team includes more developers.
• This platform is designed currently with cold fusion technology, the platform intends to
expand across the entire fund, support real-time processes and deal with traffic that will
ensue when it’s coverage and usage area or scope is enlarged, it is recommended that
cold fusion be reviewed as it is not the technology that immediately comes to mind when
running and scaling enterprise systems.

(b) HRMS
The platform ‘HRMS stands for Human Resources Management System. It is designed chiefly and
solely for the Human Resources department to manage employees, take care of their needs and
create a communication channel between them and their employees for proper engagement.

This software is still in development environment. Has two decent modules at this stage namely

• leave application
• nominal roll

The development team has done a lot of engagement with the user department Human
Resources in data gathering, needs assessment and in trying to fill the void created by lack of
automation in this area.

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This software comes in two flavors, a web-based/browser based application and an android
application.

Software Metadata

Design Architecture
Architecture Data
Language Python and Java
Framework Django
Design Approach Agile
Design Form Factor Browser-based and Android Native

Deployment Information
Information
Deployment Scheme Cloud
Current Environment Development (Not In Use)
Coverage Area Not available

Support & Maintenance

Information
Support Scheme N/A
Maintenance Scheme N/A

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Software Testing Results

Observed results from admin-navigated exhibition

Time Metrics & Speed

Information
Average load Time 11 seconds
Average latency 42 milliseconds

Efficiency

Score 89%
Output responded to input within record time
and delivered results

Suitability

Score 64%
This software is quite suitable for what it is
intended for with its scope and objectives

Feature Set

Score 27%
Software is still evolving and it’s features yet
to attain the level of a standard HRMS

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Scalability

Score Not available

Not enough data to make an assessment,
platform is still in development

Performance

Score 87
Standard performance metrics are efficiency,
scalability and time differentials

Overall service delivery

Score Not available

Not enough data to make an assessment,
platform is still in development

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Observations

• The platform has two form factors, a web-based or browser-based application and an
android native application.
• Both the android and browser-based versions are hosted on cloud and has shown
recognizable performance.
• This platform is still in development; accurate performance information is not available
for it.
• Developer/development team is experienced within the scope and scale of what they’ve
been able to produce.

/
Recommendations

• This platform has a one-man development team, it is recommended for the sake of
prompt and timely delivery and also for the sake of rich, enhanced and quality feature set
that the development team includes more developers.
• This modest project has been started by the development team and they have invested
some effort in needs assessment and data gathering, it is recommended that the they be
given all the necessary support to see to the end of this project as it is currently suffering
from unavailability of required resources such as computers and other logistics support.
•

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4.1.2 On-premise Software

This is the range of application software that is domiciled, hosted and resident at the NSITF local
datacenter on the premises. This means that the software is directly sitting on servers close to
the in-house users. And they have a very direct access towards it.
software

Local area
network

Local server

End user
with a laptop

Fig 4.4 The process of accessing software resident on-premise

The access to the on-premise software happens when an end user with a computer or laptop
uses the local area network connection which maybe wireless or wired means to connect to the
local datacenters with a request to access the software or application for which with appropriate
authorization an access is made.

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There are basically two on-premise in-house application software at NSITF namely:

• DOCUSCAN
• SPMS

4.1.2.1 Infrastructure Component Analysis

(a) DOCUSCAN
The platform ‘DOCUSCAN’ simply imply document scan and it’s an electronic document manager
or document management software. It is designed simply for the purposes of turning physical
document versions to electronic copies for proper management and archiving.

This project has some good features, attained a certain level of suitability with regards to the
purpose of its design, has gone into production and in use but can get better and also improve
far above its current feature set. It is only currently used by the ICT department and there isn’t
much utilization of it.

From the little assessment and observations made with an admin-navigated demonstration, it is
efficient and scalable within the minimal usage scope it was subjected to, the software was built
to cater for the bulk of the fund but it is yet to attain a sizeable coverage area of the fund.

Software Metadata

Design Architecture
Architecture Data
Language Python
Framework Django from Python
Design Approach Agile
Design Form Factor Browser-based

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Deployment Information
Information
Deployment Scheme On-premise
Current Environment Production (In Use)
Coverage Area One department (ICT)

Support & Maintenance

Information
Support Scheme N/A (In-house software with in-house support)
Maintenance Scheme N/A (In-house software with in-house maintenance)

Software Testing Results

Observed results from admin-navigated exhibition

Time Metrics & Speed

Information
Average load Time 6 seconds
Average latency 34 milliseconds

Efficiency

Score 76%
Output responded to input within record time
and delivered results

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Suitability

Score 60%
This software is quite suitable because the
goals are clear and straight to the point

Feature Set

Score 45%
Software yet to attain its full potential and
has some features but yet to be feature-rich

Scalability

Score Not available

Current utilization and coverage is quite low,
scalability cannot be determined at this time

Performance

Score 88%
Standard performance metrics are efficiency,
scalability and time differentials

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Overall service delivery

Score Not available

It is yet to render the expected amount of
service to the fund.

Vulnerability Impact Assessment

The vulnerability status is low as a result of the fact that most of the software applications don't
have public access or are not publicly utilized and also due to the fact that the coverage areas of
most of the in-house applications are low, and also due to the fact that a great deal of them are
still under development plus the fact that good security mechanism have been put in place such
as saving the hash value of user account information on the database.

Observations

• This platform has attained a good level of suitability with regards to the original intents,
purposes and objectives.
• The current features are good but not enough yet and needs improvement.
• Developer/development team is experienced within the scope and scale of what they’ve
been able to produce.

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Recommendations

• It is recommended that the features and functionality of this project be scaled up and be
put to use for most of the fund. The coverage area has to expand more than what it
currently is.
• This platform was built with a one-man development team, it is recommended for the
purposes of scaling up and planned improvements that the development team includes
more developers because as it is the features aren’t sufficient yet.

(b) SPMS
The platform ‘SPMS stands for Staff Performance Monitoring System. It is designed chiefly and
solely for the Human Resources department to manage employees/staff performance, with
performance measuring metrics and others.

This software is still in concept stage. Development is yet to start and no data to make any
assessment.

Software Metadata

Design Architecture
Architecture Data
Language N/A
Framework N/A
Design Approach N/A
Design Form Factor N/A

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Deployment Information
Information
Deployment Scheme N/A
Current Environment N/A
Coverage Area N/A

Support & Maintenance

Information
Support Scheme N/A
Maintenance Scheme N/A

Software Testing Results

Observed results from admin-navigated exhibition

Time Metrics & Speed

Information
Average load Time N/A
Average latency N/A

Observations

• No observations since development is yet to start on this project.

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/
Recommendations

• For all intents and purposes, it is advised that this software be fused into the existing
HRMS. No need of it standing alone since it is going to be of the same architecture with
HRMS.

4.2 Third Party Vendor Software

Third party vendor software or applications are a variety of application software sourced
externally from an external vendor or provider. Two of the third-party vendor software existing
at NSITF are proprietary software and are listed below:

• MailEnable (Cloud-based)
• Microsoft Office Suite (On-premise)

4.2.1 Proprietary Software

This is a category of software applications where the licensing is of commercial basis and can
also be called commercial-ware. Here, the providers are not targeting anybody in particular but
anyone interested in using their products. No custom designs for anyone in particular and
updates and maintenance are regularly done.

Cloud based and on-premise proprietary software can be accessed the normal way like in figure
4.1 and 4.2

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4.2.1.1 Infrastructure Component Analysis

(a) mailEnable
The proprietary software ‘mailEnable’ is an e-mailing application software built for users and
very large organizations who can buy the license off the shelf.

It is quite a wonderful email application that rivals its contemporaries like the Microsoft
Exchange Server in the Windows emailing applications domain. mailEnable has lived up to
expectations and has done well in improvements, customer satisfaction, scaling techniques etc
over the years.

As it currently is, mailEnable is been provided to NSITF by another 3 rd party provider who hosts
the mailEnable software on behalf of the fund, not much information was collected for this
event.

Software Metadata

Design Architecture
Architecture Data
Language Unknown (possibly .NET)
Framework Unknown (possibly .NET)
Design Approach Unknown
Design Form Factor Browser-based

Deployment Information
Information
Deployment Scheme Cloud-based
Current Environment Production (In Use)
Coverage Area Fund Wide

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Support & Maintenance

Information
Support Scheme Third Party Support
Maintenance Scheme Third Party Support

Software Testing Results

Observed results from admin-navigated exhibition

Time Metrics & Speed

Information
Average load Time 14 seconds
Average latency 37 milliseconds

Efficiency

Score 87%
Output responded to input within record time
and delivered results

Suitability

Score 93%
This software is very suitable for the all needs
and purposes it was meant for.

Feature Set

Score 45%

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Software is feature-rich and competes

favorably with it’s contemporaries

Scalability

Score 94
This software was built to scale and it does
scale very well.

Performance

Score 89%
Standard performance metrics are efficiency,
scalability and time differentials

Overall service delivery

Score Not available

This software has rendered the required
service to the right audience base.

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Observations

• Reportedly, some members of staff aren’t using this mail system yet or have boycotted
its usage.
• There are complaints by members of staff over this software but the complaints cannot
be substantiated.
• Software is proprietary and licensed

Recommendations

• It is recommended that members of staff get retraining on using this software and re-
sensitized on the importance of using organization’s email system for official purposes.

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4.3 In-house Software Analysis

In this section we analyze collectively all the performance test results and information we
gathered on all the in-house application software previously discussed.

4.3.1 Current Environment

Here we analyze the different environments all the in-house software applications at NSITF
belong to. Environments can either be Production, Development or Concept.

Environment
In Concept
Stage
25%
In
Productio
n
50%
In
Developm
ent
25%

In Production In Development In Concept Stage

Fig 4.5 Software environments distribution

Production Environment

These are software applications that has gone live and actively in use, not in any of the testing
phases and neither in development mode/stage.

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Staging Environment

These are software applications that has passed the development stage and is in a test
environment getting prepared to move to production stage when the test checks out.

Development Environment

These are software applications that is still in design or development mode/stage, not in any of
the testing phases, or pre-release.

In Concept Stage

These are software applications that is in idea stage, not in development, staging or production,
but still having the whole entire idea being worked on.

4.3.2 Maximum potential and feature set

Here we analyze feature set of each

application, their current status and
100
how they’ve been able to attain their
90
80 maximum potential.
70
60 This is collectively measured by the
50 44 scores of each application’s feature
40
26 27 set and other indices such as the
30
20 overall service delivery.
10 4
0
DOCUSCAN HRMS e-ECSA SPMS
Fig 4.6 Maximum potential

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4.3.3 Coverage Area

Coverage area is defined here as how much terrain or departments of NSITF each application has
covered or penetrated. It tries to show the depth of penetration each application has had
considering all the departments of NSITF.

e-ECSA Docuscan HRMS SPMS

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
BS LE ICT FA IN EN A U CL GA AP RK HSE PR CA

Fig 4.7 Software coverage area

Legends used in Chart Above

BS: Board Secretary IN: Investment AP: APRD

LE: Legal Services EN: Enforcement RK: Risk
ICT: Information AU: Audit PR: Procurement
Communication Technology CL: Claims CA: Corporate Affairs
FA: Finance/Accounts GA: General Admin

So the chart above clearly shows how much coverage area each software has considering the
size of NSITF.

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4.3.3 Suitability

The suitability analysis graph tends to show how suitable each application software is with
regards to the original intent, or what was conceptualized or envisaged.

100
90
80
70 64
60
60
50 40
40
30
20
10 2
0
DOCUSCAN HRMS e-ECSA SPMS

Fig 4.8 Suitability

From the above we can see the different levels of suitability which directly indicates how
suitable the software is with regards to its proposed objectives, ideas and problem solving
directly compared with what they should have been.

4.3.4 Performance

Performance as earlier stated is measured by efficiency, scalability and other time metrics like
average load time and latency. These are the dimensions that critically evaluate the performance
of an application software which is very important in conducting an important survey.

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Below are performance graphs and charts in other to understand the overall performance of the
in-house applications at NSITF.

4.3.4.1 Page Load

Page load is measured in seconds, it tends to check the average time an application loads it’s
user interface for a user to engage in using it. On the chart below, page load is on the y-axis while
latency is on the x-axis.

4.3.4.2 Latency

Latency like earlier explained in networking is

PAGE LOAD VS. LATENCY
best thought of as the amount of time it takes
12
for a packet of data to be captured,
10
8 transmitted, processed through multiple
6 devices, then received at its destination and
4 decoded.
2
0 Fig 4.9 Page Load vs. Latency
42 38 34

Same thing happens when loading a software or a web application which transmits data over the
network.
Performance Graph
On the performance graph, the application
100
software that has the lowest score is ‘SPMS’
80
because there is no data from it as a result of
60 the fact that it is yet to get into development.
40

20
Fig 4.10 Performance graph
0
DOCUSCAN HRMS e-ECSA SPMS

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4.4 Cloud Services

NSITF utilizes to a certain degree cloud services which is used to host their internet based
applications and software. Only when such application becomes resident on the cloud or the
internet could anyone access it remotely from anywhere. The diagram below illustrates this
transaction.

From the diagram on the

right, we will basically
understand that users are
trying to access user-based
Disenfranchised
applications on the cloud Users

but from NSITF.

And while trying to access

NSITF
the network channel, it
may become epileptic.

Same thing happens when

Galaxy
another user tries the
Backbone
internet to access the
same and may get the
same result.

All these problems stem

from the fact that an Unsteady direct fiber optics or internet-based links
turbulent storage access
epileptic cloud vendor is in Direct strong links End user applications
use.

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4.4 Cloud Services Challenges

The problem of the cloud services provider is not a new one but a known issue. The service has
become epileptic and the best thing to do is to find another government-licensed cloud provider.

When a cloud provider services become epileptic and ineffective, the following problems
become inevitable:

• Impaired user experience

• Application malfunction
• Application inefficiency
• Poor service delivery

Impaired user experience

Users will find it difficult navigating through pages, utilizing page functionalities, stylesheets and
scripts that load through the network that makes usage more pleasant and convenient.

Application Malfunction and inefficiency

Application will normally malfunction on the user end since network resources aren’t adequately
functioning. Same happens with application inefficiency.

Poor service delivery

On the overall, service delivery will be poor and the said application will be seen not to have
lived to expectations or deemed to have failed.

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4.3 User Reviews

Members of staff across different departments were asked to provide reviews with regards to how
their day-to-day activities have been automated and the answers below were their responses.

APRD
Enforcement
Claims
Servicom
G. Admin Not Automated
Corp. Affairs Automated
Procurement
Investment
Audit
Finance/Acco…

Fig 4.11 User reviews on how automated their daily tasks are

Not Automated Automated

Fig 4.12 User reviews on how automated their daily tasks are

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From the above, we can deduce that most people asserted that their daily tasks are very much
not automated. This means that staff members don’t think technology has done anything to
help their daily tasks and as it is, something must be done.

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Recommendations
1

The in-house development team should be given all the needed support to complete the
projects they’ve embarked on most especially the HRMS. They have produced some level of
automation in some of these projects they are currently working on, with the right tools and
support they will be able to do more.

Cryptographic services should be employed in the course of continued development in

safeguarding account information of users in the database.

It is hereby recommended that for most of the software projects embarked upon by the in-
house development team be built with a uniform, scalable, efficient technology and
framework.

The fact that some applications were built with Python technology and another was built with
Cold fusion doesn’t help the concept of team-enhanced project/application/code management
and administration.

When applications are built with different technologies by different people within the same
workspace, proper vetting, scrutiny, harmonization becomes a problem because at that
moment they are not working as a team but as individuals.

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TECHNOLOGY HARMONIZATION

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5.0 Technology Harmonization

The technologies at NSITF needs a sort of reconciliation which involves harmonization, removal
or re-organizing. This stems from the fact that there are technologies currently at NSITF that in
ideal cases don’t need to stand or survive alone but needed to be fused into another one for the
purposes of proper management, easy program updates and patches.

Then on the other hand, identify technologies that aren’t needed anymore that needs removal
or expunging.

This section will initiate this process. We will need to enumerate technologies that needs
harmonization and later the ones that will need to be expunged then later develop means for
the harmonization of existing technologies/software infrastructure where harmonization is
necessary and expunging of certain technologies/software infrastructure where necessary.

5.1 Technologies to be expunged

Here we talk about hardware and software technologies that no longer fit into the NSITF
electronic work environment and will need to be expunged or removed.

5.11 Hardware

CISCO ISE (Identity Services Engine)

Currently this device is inoperative and not in use, it was initially used as a security firewall but
the module has since long stopped working and its relevance and popularity has been overtaken
by events.

The much anticipated Sophos module tipped to replace the ISE module should be procured and
used to replace it.

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Oracle ExaData Servers

This Oracle implementation is inoperative, unsuitable and has outlived its usefulness as the fund
is currently not operating data requiring Oracle storage. It is meant to be removed.

Old outdated legacy devices

There are so many old and outdated legacy devices at the NSITF, these
devices/technologies/hardware needs to be expunged/expelled/removed from the electronic
workspace. They typically include laptops, desktops, printers, scanners, etc.

These devices have had their chipsets worked out over the years, keeping them in this work
environment is akin to forcing a dead man to go to work.

MACBOOKS

MacBooks are currently unsuitable for this work environment. Apart from the fact that there is
a learning curve attached towards learning how to use or familiarizing oneself with a MacBook,
it is not so user friendly compared with a Windows Machine.

There is a dearth of IT knowledge amongst the staff members of the fund, no need of
complicating it with the introduction of MacBooks. Windows are more suited since most the
server modules are windows and there is a windows dominance within the electronic workspace
of the fund.

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5.11 Software

SPMS

This software technology concept will need to be expunged as there exists another software
technology this concept can be implemented inside it.

5.2 Technologies to be harmonized

HRMS / SPMS

These two software technologies will need harmonization and integration as they both represent
almost the same concepts. SPMS should be a module within HRMS.

Ideologies shared together

• Built for Human Resources department

• Designed for management of staff

Technologies shared together

• Python Django framework

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HRMS / SPMS with Docuscan

Docuscan will require integration into HRMS/SPMS as a critical aspect of HRMS/SPMS

deals with documents and document archiving. Integration is possible as HRMS requires
Docuscan for performance. Docuscan can always be invoked within HRMS.

Ideologies shared together

• Documents archiving is required in HRMS/SPMS

• Designed for management of staff

Technologies shared together

Python Django framework

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES

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6.0 New Technologies

The electronic workspace of NSITF headquarters is currently pillaged by technology

infrastructure deficit. There is a gap generally in every aspect of required technology or
automation needed to drive the business model of the fund.

With the absence of such infrastructure, everything moves with a snail speed, staff will work
themselves out in a day and still don’t achieve meaningful progress. Quality of life reduces.

Technology and automation is the oil that drives development, advancement, innovations,
results, revenue and wealth. Since the emergence of infectious diseases, every relevant
private/public institution or entity around the world has embraced automation.

With technology and automation, you cut down excessively on your spending overheads, reduce
the rate of human errors, give staff more room to breathe, and achieve the desired results within
record time.

Without technology and automation, your revenue generation will fall far below what it is
supposed to be. You will be schemed out from areas you would have multiplied ten times what
you are currently making.

Since technology will bring about overhead cuts and maximize revenue generation, why don’t
we embrace it? If NSITF is doing 140, 000 employers or clients out of a pool of about a possible
3, 000, 000 employers, why can’t we use technology and increase the 140, 000 to 1,500,000?

And at the same time spend less in overheads by doing a lot of things like reducing the amount
of paper we print and mutilate the workplace with, the cost of printing physical certificates

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where certificates can be automatically sent by the system to the email addresses of the
employers and be verified independently by calling the API interface of NSITF.

Here is a guarantee that with the right technology infrastructure put in place, revenue will be in
the region of 5 times of what is currently being made.

The Aberdeen Report

Aberdeen, research consultants based in Aberdeen published a report on how automation grows
business and revenue in 2016. A snippet of that report states thus:

Fig 6.0 Research conducted by Aberdeen reveals that automation grows revenue by 220%

Snippet from Aberdeen:

“Research suggests that all companies using business automation see more than double revenue
growth, significantly higher overall profits, and average deal sizes that approach 9x those of
companies that don’t use automation.

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Companies using business automation grow revenue 220% faster.

Business users worldwide are using automation to speed up formerly time-consuming processes
and close operations gaps that traditionally involve hours of manual spreadsheet work (and
frustrating manual error).

Specifically, automation combined with API-level integrations helps professionals in marketing,

sales, support, finance, HR, and IT connect all their most important business applications to
freely flow and sync data.”

6.1 Infrastructure Planning

6.11 Physical Infrastructure

6.111 New Hardware requirements
A bunch of new hardware will be required to run things at NSITF if we are really intending on
maximizing revenue times 5. We will need sharper and faster devices such as:

a. Laptops and Desktops

Whether laptops or desktops, the specification below makes up for a sound business
computer. We need to get it right at this time and get these devices, anything short of it
will still take us back to where we currently are.

RAM Microprocessor Disk space Staff

8GB 11th Generation Intel Core i5 Minimum 256 GB Minimum (SSD) Regular
16GB 11th Generation Intel Core i7 512 GB (SSD) ICT

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Manufacturers can be any of:

• Lenovo
• Dell
• HP

b. Self-service kiosks
A self-service kiosk situated within or outside of the office complex will help members of
the public make quick inquiries on the status of a lot of things and also log quick requests
for some other things instead of going inside to bother the staff.
Things like status of their compliance certificates, agreements, making requests for new
compliance certificates and other similar requests.

c. Power systems
Power backup systems will need to be rammed up. As pointed earlier about 40KVA
backup power is currently down and will need to be restored. A business environment
without adequate power will not only collapse but will fail to deliver the required services
to its clients and customers.

The 40KVA power backup system will need to be restored.

6.112 Maintenance/Support SLAs

The maintenance and support service level agreements with the vendors will have to be
restarted. It is in our opinion unfortunate that systems, network installations and other critical
equipment at NSITF has gone without maintenance for 6 – 9 years running now. Neglecting this
any further will cause more damage.

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6.113 Network Infrastructure

The introduction of Information Security Management System (ISMS) is instructive and very
important for the network systems and server infrastructure. This is a critical need that will aid
in the protection of the entire network systems infrastructure and provide the much needed
security.

6.12 Software Infrastructure

In determining new technologies and designing software infrastructure, we had to do an
extensive study on the administrative structure of NSITF trying to understand the hierarchical
structure of staff and their departments, their roles, duties and obligations. We got the following
to be the functions and obligations of departments at NSITF.

6.121 Functions of departments

RISK MANAGEMENT
• Providing support and business information for enforcement purposes and procedures,
• Monitoring strict adherence to set regulations that ensure overall quality of NSITF operations.
• Analyzing and appraising risk issues from all departments, branches and regions.

CLAIMS AND COMPENSATION

• Ensuring due diligence is performed in processing claims and compensation,
• Providing healthcare and disability support for all branches and regional offices.

ACTUARIAL, PLANNING, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

• Initiate and develop workshops, seminars, and courses to enhance proficiency and staff performance,
• Monitor developmental trends and suggest change to management,
• Strategize budgeting process and financial plans for firms’ product development,
• Prepare schedules to monitor and evaluate activities within departments e.g. corporate social
responsibility records.
• Compile statistical data and write narrative report.

HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

• Oversee, manage, coordinate and administer the environmental and occupational health, safety and
risk program and activities.
• Conducts inspection compliance audit as relates to Health, Safety and Environmental processes by
various industries,

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• Creation of class and subclass classification of all institutions in Nigeria for the purpose of assigning
each to a class or subclass according to their risk status.

INVESTMENT AND TREASURY MANAGEMENT

• Research and Identify potential investment vehicles and tactical investment strategies against the
backdrop of capital market money and bonds and treasury bill markets,
• Insure all NSITF properties,
• Analyze and monitor market trends to be able to make recommendations about investments and
investment policies,
• Negotiate the company’s tax liability with relevant statutory bodies.

SERVICOM
• Vet charters of the fund,
• Coordinate meetings of stakeholders’ consultation forum on service delivery,
• Supervise the investigation and resolution of service complaints,
• Collation of quarterly reports on complaints.

ENFORCEMENT AND INSPECTION

• Compilation of data writing report on defaulting or fraudulent organizations,
• Issuing of certificates of compliance to employers who meet the requisite conditions,
• Monitoring and evaluation of performances in relation to set targets; monthly, quarterly or annually,
• Provide coaching and guidance to ensure maximum efficiency,
• Liaise with Regional Branch offices for necessary data and feedback on State Government Contract
Bids,
• Initiate and develop quality control polices.

SOCIAL SECURITY DEVELOPMENT

• Monitor the implementation of social assistance programs.
• Liaise with technical partners, stakeholders and relevant MDAs in the implementation of social
protection,
• Midwife the amendment of the NSITF Act to conform with the social security aspirations of the fund,
• Review global social security journals and articles in view of being in tune with global best practices.

CORPORATE AFFAIRS
They are charged with;
• Managing the company’s public image by Identifying and protecting the company from reputational
risks,
• Drafting Press Release and produces information materials for dissemination,
• Managing relations with both internal and external stakeholders of the fund.

LEGAL
• Provide legal advice and guidance on formulation and development of Board Policies and check
compliance,
• Ensures drafting, preparation and execution of contracts and other agreements on behalf of the Fund,
• Manage litigations.

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PROCUREMENT
• Administration, planning, organizing and supervising the funds procurement processes,
• Evaluate Technical and Financial Bids as well as educating relevant vendors and customers on the
Fund’s terms and conditions,
• Establishment and maintenance of effective network with other organizations to identify value for
money initiatives,
• Supervise, motivate, develop and appraise staff to ensure they work effectively
• Issue a No Objection Certificate,
• Manage supplier companies and deliverables for the Fund.
• Liaise with the Legal department for the execution of contract agreements.

ADMIN/HR/
• Formulate and review strategies, policies and procedures with ensuring they are communicated and
implemented throughout the fund,
• Develops and maintains remuneration strategy and appropriate terms and conditions of service,
recruitment, selection and induction of staff,
• Workforce planning, succession planning, training, and management of core competences to ensure
best practices.
• Responsible for effective and timely resolution of payroll matters and variations update,
• Conveyance of management directives to Regions Branches and Departments

MAINTENANCE
• Conducts autonomous assessment of administration policies and procedures.
• Ensure maintenance work is carried out according to specification.
• Run Periodic Building Inspections, Facilities Management Service, Architectural Designs and
Consultancy Services, Vetting of Bills and Bids Evaluation

FINANCE AND ACCOUNT

They are responsible for
• Overseeing the financial information system of the Fund
• Ensures all enquires and complaints as regards payment and other financial matters are dealt with
urgency
• Liaising with Administrative department for proper record of NHF Passbooks
• Preparing tax payments
• Computation of pension contributions.

AUDIT & INSPECTORATE

• Formulating Audit policies aimed at realizing goals of the fund
• Preparation of monthly/annual audit and inspection program,
• Carries out physical verification of assets and reconciles with records, and safeguarded against losses
arising from fraud, waste, extravagance and inefficient administration,
• Periodic re-appraisal of system to ensure compliance.

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6.122 Infrastructure Planning

Then we had to look at the structure of the management. NSITF has a rich managerial structure
starting from the:

• MD
• the Board Secretary
• The Special Assistant to the Board Chairman

A hybrid software system is proposed for NSITF comprising of a multi-ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) system for internal controls, processing and local automation and a cloud-based
system that interfaces with the public on the internet which provides a bridge between NSITF
and its clients, partners, consultants, providers, contractors etc.

End User
application platform

LOCAL ERP Cloud servers

The Public
Sync system

Fig 6.1 The hybrid software infrastructure

In the above image, the ERP system is connected to the cloud/internet-based user platform
through a synchronizer that synchronizes updates on the public user platform with the ERP
system since some of the data some departments such as enforcement or Claims use come from
external sources.

Members of the public use the cloud/internet-based user platform to communicate to the fund
and feed them with data to work with.

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The synchronizer is important because we cannot afford to patch NSITF directly to the internet
application, this will have some serious cost that cannot be paid for, that is epileptic internet
source. So we will need a synchronizer to download data for the departments that require
external data to work with anytime the internet connectivity is good and also update immediate
changes.

So the relationship between the end user on the internet application with the staff at the NSITF
headquarters will mostly be an action-response hybrid system. The Public in the image refers to
members of the public who are either employers, contractors, partners etc and interface with
the NSITF via the cloud-based web application.

6.1221 Enterprise Resource Planning

An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is a suite of application software built for an
organization’s local and internal processing and automation of all its services across its
departments and service branches.

So we deploy an ERP system in this hybrid setup, this ERP will contain a suite of applications for
all the departments at NSITF whereby each department has a module of its own catering for its
own internal processing and providing distinct features for each user.

This system first of all will have to take cognizance of the managerial structure, take into proper
account the different levels of management, roles and functions as contained in the fund’s
organogram and in the fund’s job description document, thereby assigning each staff and officer
the appropriate rights and privileges.

The global functions of the ERP system include:

• All users must sign in before accessing any resource.

• Assigning user access rights and privileges to user depending on user access level
• All users have a similar set of features such as messages, notifications, etc
• Depending on your department, upon sign in, the relevant module and environment loads
for you to run your daily tasks and activities as it is observed that every department within
NSITF requires automation.
• Departments can make delegations to other departments and exchange tasks, duties and
obligations

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user unique Messaging

controls controls

inter- real-time
departmental
activities notifications

unique user
environment

Fig 6.1 The hybrid software infrastructure

The notification system is designed to ring any user of an event that requires immediate
action such as when memos come into the department, it rings loudly for it to be received

We considered thoroughly the job descriptions of the different departments at NSITF and
also collected user feedbacks from our needs Assessment questionnaires dispatched to
departmental staff, and collectively designed a basic system functional requirements for the ERP
system needed at NSITF. The modules below are global modules, apply to all departments and
sub-departments.

Organizational structure implementation Work Attendance

Memo SMS

Reports, charts and data analysis Email

Data exports Payments

Archiving System External API framework Access

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In-app notifications system Meeting module

Search module Dashboard charts

Periodic Trainings

Along with these are two other modules but not modules in practice but events, they are:

• Exhaustive data gathering

• Detailed structural infrastructure design, modelling and schematics

Exhaustive Data gathering will help in achieving more information and thorough needs
assessment while structural infrastructure design here will take care of the technical planning
phase of infrastructure, usage of programming algorithms in modelling data etc

6.12211 Minimal functional requirement

Global modules

Module Features
Organizational structure implementation This module is used to create the necessary
organizational structure with the
departments, sub-departments creation and
other processing, the designations structure
Memo This module is used to dispatch memos to
any department, and same memo is received
electronically by a member of that
department or the person the memo was
sent to directly if not initially sent to the
department.

This will make memo tracking very easy and

location of the memo electronically within
the office complex
Reports, charts and data analysis Every module or department in the ERP has
attached to it the Reports, charts and data
analysis module to aid modelling and
representation of data within that
department

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Data exports A module that exports any data to any of

different file formats PDF, XLSX
Archiving A module ensuring generated or non-
generated documents used within the ERP
system are stored in a local file system
Work Attendance A module that keeps data of any staff that
comes to work and signs into the network
In-app notifications system This system manages, dispatches and retires
in-app notifications which alert staff of a new
event and also helps to remind staff of
unfinished events
Search A robust search system with keywords
search, keywords plus date-Time single, date-
Time range, categories
Trainings This is a module that affects the Human
Resources department more but is designed
globally for every department to be able to
create and manage trainings.
Dashboard, menus and charts For unique dashboard and side menu settings
for different category of users
SMS An SMS framework for sending notifications
EMAIL An Email framework for sending notifications
External API Access framework API system, modalities and documentation
for authorized external access to other sister
agencies who may need certificate
verification
e-Payments Payments framework integration to further
simplify payments by clients into the federal
government purse

Departmentalized modules

Risk Work Support sub-module Managing businesses and providing

business information for the purposes of
(Module) enforcement

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Risk assessment sub-module Creating, managing and appraising risks

fund-wide

Claims and Claims management sub- Efficiently log and manage claim requests
compensations module made locally and from the internet by
effectively utilizing unique client id or
(Module) client identification number
Compensations sub-module Track and manage compensations which
automatically interfaces and reports back
to claimants both online and automated
emails and SMSes
Staff healthcare sub-module Managing and documenting staff
disability, severity, time etc and
providing documented support

ACTUARIAL, Event management sub- For creating and managing workshops,

PLANNING, module seminars and courses, monitoring
RESEARCH AND schedules and electronically notifying
DEVELOPMENT and reminding participants and keeping
record of highlights of each event
(MODULE) Report sub-module For modelling different types of data and
compiling narrative reports
HEALTH, SAFETY Inspections sub-module Creating, managing and scheduling
AND inspections with industries and related
ENVIRONMENT organizations
Audit sub-module Documenting and modelling inspection
(MODULE) compliance audit information for the
affected industries
Ranking sub-module Ranking of all institutions in Nigeria in
terms of risk value and sorting them into
classes or sub-classes depending on their
risk status
INVESTMENT Facility Manager sub-module Managing of facilities, it’s assets,
AND TREASURY automatically, making notifications of
MANAGEMENT due rents
etc
(MODULE) Funds manager sub- Create and manage both treasury and
module investment funds

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SERVICOM Service management sub- Documenting and monitoring funds

module service delivery initiatives
(MODULE)

ENFORCEMENT Employee/client sub-module Managing employee information like

registration data, requests, complaints,
(MODULE) feedbacks from the cloud portal
interfacing with the local ERP

Certificates sub-module With certificate template and

background Artificial Intelligence
operations making checks, generating
and dispatching certificates in intervals
Defaulters sub-module This is an electronic register for payment
defaulters also indicating at a glance how
much the fund has lost as a result of
failure to remit the contributions
Goals and objectives sub- Enhanced data analytics dashboard with
module charts, reports analyzing periodically
over time the performance of the
department in terms of daily, weekly
monthly, quarterly and annual
dimensions
SOCIAL SECURITY Programmes sub-module A module for creating, editing, updating
and monitoring implementation of social
(MODULE) assistance programs, scoring them,
finalizing them and retiring them.
CORPORATE Only global modules apply
AFFAIRS

(MODULE)
LEGAL Agreements sub-module This is used to keep, manage and
maintain a glossary of legal agreements
(MODULE) drafted, view and update status of each,
indicate documents inventory position.
This also interfaces with the
cloud/internet web application to inform
the public on the position of drafted
agreements.

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Litigations sub-module A module that keep track of ongoing and

retired litigations, routine progress
information, status, schedules and
reminders etc
Research sub-module An artificial intelligence based legal
research sub-module which helps in
locating data and information on any title
of legal research (To be scheduled late)
PROCUREMENT Procurement sub-module Processing of procurement information,
projects, bids, prequalification, awards
(MODULE) and automatic generation of award
letters, interfacing with contractors on
the web portal, completion, etc
Contract management sub- Managing contracts awarded, progress
module data, finished contracts, generation of
completion certificates
HUMAN Staff records sub-module For recording of staff information from
RESOURCES their file
Staff interactivity sub- For staff to interface with the
(MODULE) module management, make requests and
demands
Payroll sub-module For managing data of staff salaries,
deductions, allowances, etc
Leave sub-module For processing and managing staff leave
requests
MAINTENANCE Facility Manager sub-module Managing of facilities, its assets,
automatically, making notifications of
(MODULE) due rents
etc
Billing sub-module For managing and vetting bills

Bids Evaluation sub-module A sub-module of the procurement sub-

module
FINANCE AND Finance system sub-module Creating, planning and managing
ACCOUNT budgetary items, records simulating
periods, recording of payments and
(MODULE) payment approvals, inventory of financial
transactions with tax appropriately
calculated and deducted
Pension sub-module Creating and computing pension
contributions

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AUDIT/ Query sub-module Creating, managing and issuing query

INSPECTORATE tickets, payment vouchers and claims

(MODULE)
Contract sub-module A linked sub-module from procurement
where Audit can make investigations and
issue queries.

6.1222 Cloud-based End User Application

This platform interfaces with the public, it is a portal that is connected to the local ERP through
the synchronizer as depicted in figure 6.1. Almost every department has a module lying on the
cloud portal because most departments deal with members of the public.

The Cloud

Background AI services
The public

Cloud application Cloud storage

Fig 6.2 Cloud-based/internet/web user platform

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In the figure above the members of the public interact with NSITF data services through the user
web application residing on the internet cloud. The cloud platform has background AI (Artificial
Intelligence) services brokered by an AI middleware acting as a bridge between the users and the
cloud platform making decisions, confirmations and sending feedbacks, mails, SMSes,
certificates etc.

The public users are the ones that send in most of the public data NSITF work with. So we look
at these modules that are supposed to be on the cloud web environment.

The cloud modules for now are:

Claims and Web user sub-module Public users submit claim requests, get
compensations updates, feedbacks etc

(Module)

ENFORCEMENT Web user sub-module Users make registrations, requests,

complaints, get certificates online, get
(MODULE) feedbacks from the cloud portal
interfacing with the local ERP

LEGAL Web user sub-module Users can make inquiries on the status of
their legal agreements online for
(MODULE) awarded contracts.
PROCUREMENT Web user sub-module Contractors can view information on
their bids, evaluations, prequalifications,
(MODULE) awards and also give feedback on the
status of their work progress etc

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6.13 Automation Gains

Elimination of Paper Haze

We have to do away with the multitude of papers within our environment which has filled up
every physical space within our offices.

We will have to do away with this unsustainable culture of flooding our work spaces with papers
and save a lot of money spent in printing, starting from automating memos.

With this;

• there wouldn’t be need to search for any of memos again

• or know it’s location since there we will have an audit trail showing where it is, where it
has been to and information concerning the memo like who received it on behalf of the
department electronically, who acted on it etc.

Reduced Human Effort

Automation will greatly help the staff of NSITF. They work too much. This attitude is synonymous
with systems where human intervention and effort is greater compared to automation, the result
or progress will be below par and slow respectively.

With automation staff will have more room to breathe, also augurs well for staff insurance policy
where automation helps reduce likelihood of staff breakdowns and improves the quality of life.

Employers’ certificates

Worthy of note is the issue of employers’ certificates that is still manually printed and issued. In
this 21st century this is quite unacceptable, artificial intelligence is supposed to take care of this
end of the process whereby we use it to evaluate clients who have met required criteria for the
issuance of certificates and system automatically generates such certificates and emails them
with it and no human effort is expended in this process.

The certificates can still be printed by them when they log into their user environment on the
new proposed employers’/clients portal, any further proof or clarification of such certificate can
be done independently by any organization by querying the issuance number on NSITF portal
just like Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website where companies and company records
can be found and an API can also be provided for organizations to integrate and verify on the fly.

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EVENTS TIMELINE

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7.0 Timeline for scheduled events

Implementation of New Infrastructure

• The Information Security Management System (ISMS) will have to be launched

immediately to commence the process of providing much needed security, access
controls etc.
• Immediate purchase of brand new laptops and desktops computers quoted in section 6
in other to replace the old legacy devices for effective service delivery.
• Immediate replacement of the failed 40KVA system and ramping up of more backup
power systems.

Software Infrastructure

From the section 6, we can deduce that the required software infrastructure for a sustainability
plan for business development is quite extensive and will require tact in terms of
implementation. For the software infrastructure implementation, we currently have:

• 15 global modules
• 35 departmental sub-modules (15 departmental modules)
• 4 modules on the web cloud
• 1 module here is for more intense data gathering
• 1 module again is for detailed infrastructure planning, modelling and schematics

This involves 23 departments and many sub-units. Our activity timeframe is 60 months which is
5 years. And we have to implement 56 modules within this period. We have 5 years to
implement the technology plan, deploy and train staff.

The most effective plan is building technology in little chunks, run trainings, provide mid-term
support and move on to the next set of tasks so that affected departments can get on
immediately, start working with minimal support while other departments get on board.

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Year 1
1st Month Extensive data gathering on all the
2nd Month departments, all the processes, workflows
3rd Month and others
4th Month Detailed structural infrastructure design,
modelling and schematics
5th Month Reports, charts and data analysis
6th Month Data exports
SMS
Email
Payments
In-app notifications system
Search module
7th Month Organizational structure implementation
8th Month Memo
9th Month Archiving
10th Month Trainings
Dashboard charts
Work Attendance
11th Month Application Testing, 1st term deployments,
12th Month Training engagements on new infrastructure,

Year 2
1st Month Mid-term support and maintenance.
2nd Month
3rd Month Claims Web user sub-module
4th Month Enforcement Web user sub-module
5th Month Claims management sub-module
6th Month Compensations sub-module
7th Month Staff healthcare sub-module
8th Month Enforcement
9th Month Employee/client sub-module

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10th Month Certificates sub-module

Defaulters sub-module
Goals and objectives sub-module
11th Month Application Testing, 2nd term deployments,
12th Month Training engagements on new infrastructure,

Year 3
1st Month Mid-term support and maintenance.
2nd Month
3rd Month Legal Web user sub-module
Procurement Web user sub-module
4th Month Agreements sub-module
Litigations sub-module
(Research sub-module comes much later)
5th Month Procurement sub-module
Contract management sub-module
6th Month Application Testing, 3rd term deployments,
7th Month Training engagements on new infrastructure,
8th Month Mid-term support and maintenance.
9th Month
10th Month Human Resources
11th Month Staff records sub-module
12th Month Staff interactivity sub-module
Payroll sub-module
Leave sub-module

Year 4
1st Month APRD
Event management sub-module

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Report sub-module
nd
2 Month HSE
Inspections sub-module
Audit sub-module
Ranking sub-module
3rd Month Application Testing, 4th term deployments,
4th Month Training engagements on new infrastructure,
5th Month Mid-term support and maintenance
6th Month
7th Month Investment
Facility Manager sub-module
Funds manager sub-module
8th Month Servicom
Service management sub-module
9th Month Social Security
Programmes sub-module
10th Month Application Testing, 5th term deployments,
Training engagements on new infrastructure,
11th Month Mid-term support and maintenance
12th Month

Year 5
1st Month Maintenance
Facility Manager sub-module
Billing sub-module
Bids Evaluation sub-module
2nd Month Finance system sub-module
Pension sub-module
3rd Month Audit
Query sub-module
Contract sub-module
4th Month Application Testing, 6th term deployments,
5th Month Training engagements on new infrastructure,
6th Month Full-term support and maintenance for the
7th Month entire deployed software infrastructure
8th Month

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9th Month
10th Month
11th Month
12th Month

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SUPPORT FRAMEWORK

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Support Framework 8

There is need for extensive support and maintenance framework from in-house ICT staff and
respective service providers. A lot is going on with the current infrastructure and little is said or
done about it. If attention is not paid to the fact that adequate support of the current existing
infrastructure has to happen, we may be witnessing gradual decline of performance and
efficiency of existing ICT infrastructure at the NSITF.

With a good support and maintenance framework, the computers, laptops, printers, scanners,
copiers, network devices, power systems, cooling systems, server hardware and even
proprietary, custom or third-party vendor application residing on the computers will rarely
work.

So we have created a support framework for all the current existing infrastructure and will also
be useful for additional infrastructure that will come later.

Laptops/Desktops

Printers/Scanners/Copiers

Cooling Systems
SUPPORT
MAINTENANCE Power Systems

Servers/Network
Network Infrastructure Equipment
Components

Fig 7.0 Support and maintenance cycle

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Service providers SLAs (Service Level Agreements)

Currently most service level agreements are either inoperative or expired. Service providers
responsible for most of the physical infrastructure must be re-engaged and re-contracted. Their
absence is wreaking havoc on the current infrastructure as the necessary support and
maintenance is unavailable.

Backup power

As previously stated, a section of the backup powers system is down and needs to be re-
instated. Two 20 KVA supplies are down and not working. Only one 20KVA system is working
for the data center. The Two 20 KVA serves as the power base of the fund, at a time it’s
absence will be greatly felt.

Network Infrastructure components

Things such as network connection ports in various departments are going blind causing a
myriad of issues such as lost packets, increased latency, parity errors, impaired bandwidth and
cyclic redundancies

Year 1 – Year 5
1st Month Auditing desktops for compliance with IT
policies. For example, approved and
unapproved software, internet usage,
approved websites and disk space.

Resource usage checks, check available disk

space, remove unused and irrelevant
applications, run disk integrity checks

Review disk fragmentation and run

defragmentation on all drives

Hardware and software installation and

monitoring

backup of critical data

nd
2 Month backup of critical data

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3rd Month Ensure that server performance is optimal by

examining disk I/O, RAM, CPU and
fragmentation

backup of critical data

th
4 Month backup of critical data
5th Month Review server access and monitor the
6th Month Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to
7th Month ensure that all critical patches are applied

Automated download of other relevant

updates and category-wise downloads

Ensure that server performance is optimal by

examining disk I/O, RAM, CPU and
fragmentation

backup of critical data

th
8 Month backup of critical data
9th Month Test security system by simulating internal &
10th Month external intrusions and noting observations
11th Month
Audit firewall logs to identify any suspicious
activity

Implementing forced change of passwords at

by all users

backup of critical data

th
12 Month Prepare quarterly maintenance plans and
reports.

Escalation matrix should be used to

streamline maintenance process to make it
easier

backup of critical data

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Year 2 & Year 4

1st Month Network Infrastructure components
maintenance (switches, routers, cabling etc)

Power and cooling systems review and

maintenance and upgrades

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9.0 Recommendations

It is strongly recommended that MainOne replace the current Cloud services provider as
MainOne is far better in any dimension the comparison is done. MainOne Cloud is also a
government-licensed government-data cloud services provider, so they benefit from the same
government policy the current cloud provider enjoys.

• MainOne Support is better than any of the existent providers in their category
• Services across all MDAs they provide service for is better
• Recently acquired by an American company as a result of their success.
• MainOne Cloud is used by NITDA and so many other federal government agencies
• MainOne has fiber infrastructure across West Africa

The in-house development team should be given all the needed support to complete the
projects they’ve embarked on most especially the HRMS. They have produced some level of
automation in some of these projects they are currently working on, with the right tools like
more laptops, computers and support they will be able to do more.

For the remaining part of the software infrastructure, it is recommended that a validly sourced
third party technology platforms provider or vendor be drafted to provide the service. They will
be providing the entire software infrastructure, support and maintenance. Reasons for this
being that:

• Liabilities incurred from such endeavors is better transferred to a provider who is bound
by well-written Memorandum of Understanding, Service Level Agreements, Non-
disclosure agreements, that will always guarantee that the expected service is delivered

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and within the agreed time and that infrastructure will not be abandoned, reproduced
or confidentiality divulged to any other party, failure for which there will be
consequences they wouldn’t want applied as stipulated in their terms of service.

NSITF headquarters needs expansion as workspace is so stuffy, little breathing space and digital
equipment, cables and others are so close to each other.

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Add-Ons 10

There are add-ons that came with this project. This is to help pilot the fund to it’s much desired
status and position.

4 copies of the recommended laptops and desktops as quoted in section 6.1 have been
attached with this project. This is to aid the work of the ICT and support the general workforce.

RAM Microprocessor Disk space Staff Nos

8GB 11th Generation Intel Core i5 Minimum 256 GB Minimum (SSD) Regular 2
16GB 11th Generation Intel Core i7 512 GB (SSD) ICT 2

Also attached herein is a 2 Terabyte cloud storage for backup of NSITF applications

Provider Disk space Duration No. of users

Google 2 TB 1 year 1

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Conclusions 11

At the end, this project ended well. The project team was tacit in their duties while they
collected all necessary information, conducted and supervised different categories of tests and
finally processed collated data.

It is very important to note here that the staff of the Information and Communications
Technology department are made up of brilliant professionals who immensely provided the
much needed assistance and resources required to see this project concluded.

We owe much thanks to them and the Management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.

Furthermore, this project is a phase 1 of the much needed technology-driven revolution

needed at NSITF, when we are empowered to begin the phase 2 of this project, we will
implement all the infrastructure quoted in the New infrastructure section and also that on the
timeline.

Much of the software needed to automate all the branches of NSITF are already in our coffers
as we have had several years of experience in the providing large-scale enterprise
infrastructure.

Application Dashboards for different

analytical scenarios

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Case Manager for legal department to

log cases and track them

For memos dispatch, receipt, receipt

acknowledgements, audit trail, location view

Real-time notifications

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Staff Appraisals

Manage and allocate tasks to staff, get

feedback from system and grade staff

Make delegations to other departments and

get electronic feedbacks

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Electronic payments collections with over 4

billion collected for Kaduna tertiary institutions

Electronic payments collections daily

collections mobile view

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Procurement software for procurement department from our World bank procurement project
for Bauchi

Facility manager for investment and maintenance department from our facility manager software Agent53

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