Case Study
Government: The Panama Canal Commission
Business Challenge:
Inventory and classify the operational and historical documents of the Panama Canal Commission to facilitate transfer of the Panama Canal Zone to the Republic of Panama.
Business Team:
The Panama Canal Commission presided over the opening of the waterway to world commerce on August 15, 1914, thus realizing a heroic dream of over 400 years. The waterway, stretching some 50 miles across the isthmus, posed some of the hardest miles ever won by human ingenuity. With the opening of the Panama Canal a ship traveling from New York to San Francisco could eliminate 7,872 miles from the usual route around South America. The Panama Canal Commission was formed as an administrative unit of the U.S. Government to oversee the budgetary, engineering and maintenance requirements of the Panama Canal and the adjacent territory known as the Panama Canal Zone.
Electronic Scriptorium, Ltd. solves complex information management and data conversion problems for leading media companies, e-commerce initiatives, museums, libraries and government agencies. In a business association unique to Scriptorium, cloistered monks underpin a highly educated workforce that meets exacting standards of quality and accuracy. Scriptorium provides expertise in content creation for online product catalogs, digital photography, digital photo cataloging, USMARC record cataloging and XML document conversion.
Technical Approach:
By 1997, the Panama Canal Commission had amassed thousands of linear feet of documents used to support the operational and administrative functions of the Canal. However, in just a few short years the U.S.-built Panama Canal - for decades considered a strategic cornerstone of U.S. military and foreign policy - would become Panama's canal. In preparation for the historic transfer of power, the Federal Government issued a competitive request for proposals to assist the Panama Canal Commission with the inventory and training necessary for the orderly transfer of historic and current documents to the new Panamanian authority. Electronic Scriptorium was selected as the bidding company most qualified to undertake this challenging project.
The project involved three distinct milestones: first, formulate a strategy for the general inventory of documents; second, develop a software package for the physical inventory that would record specific information about the document collections held by the Panama Canal Commission; and finally, train future Panama Canal employees in the use of the software.
Implementation Methodology:
Electronic Scriptorium's partner and subcontractor for the project was History Associates, Inc., a Maryland firm with over 20 years of experience in archive science. Electronic Scriptorium and History Associates have successfully teamed together many times to deliver solutions that required technical expertise combined with specific archives management experience.
History Associates provided onsite technical leadership to assist the Panama Canal Commission in developing a scientific approach for assessing the volumes of paper that would be transferred along with the operational control of the physical canal. A certified records manager worked onsite with the Panama Canal Commission staff to provide direction and professional oversight as the inventory plan was designed. Based on the recommendations provided by History Associates, Electronic Scriptorium began designing a software package that would support the physical document inventory. The custom software was developed using Microsoft's FoxPro programming language. The software was designed to be used on a laptop computer that could be transported to the location of the documents, where an exhaustive inventory would be performed. The resulting local database was then uploaded into a central database. Each laptop was synchronized to reflect the list of document types growing in the central database. The system provided a wide range of reports and data integrity controls.
The final phase of the project required onsite training to assist the document conversion staff in the use of the software during the physical inventory. Electronic Scriptorium developed formal training manuals and curriculum to insure that the staff received a comprehensive classroom experience that addressed all of the possible scenarios that could be encountered during the inventory of documents. Approximately 60 Panama Canal Commission staff members were trained in a classroom environment over a five-day period.
Armed with software training and laptop computers, History Associates supervised the actual document inventory. Over a period of six weeks, the inventory team identified and inventoried tens of thousands of linear feet of documents. The document in the final inventory ranged from engineering drawings associated with the creation of Gatun Lake, the largest artificial body of water in the world at the time, to the research papers of a young doctor named Walter Reed, who was desperately trying to solve the health problems affecting the U.S. workforce in Panama, to the blueprints for the Canal Zone's freshwater drinking water system.
Summary:
The Panama Canal was successfully transferred from U.S. to Panamanian ownership in December of 2000. Since the transfer, the Canal has continued to facilitate shipping traffic through its series of freshwater locks. The transfer of control was made a bit less problematic through the foresight and cooperation of the United States and Panama in insuring that neither the flow of water nor the flow of information prevented ships from passing through the Canal. The Panamanian employees of the Canal served with professionalism and distinction as they installed a new organization to manage the enterprise.
Electronic Scriptorium faced a number of challenges with the project including language barriers, doing business in a developing economy and the logistical issues associated with placing staff members in a foreign country for extended periods. Each challenge was solved in a timely and professional manner that allowed the project to achieve its fiscal and administrative goals for the Panama Canal Commission.
Electronic Scriptorium is proud to have played a small role in the 85 year history of the Panama Canal and its historic transfer to the Republic of Panama.
Inventory and classify the operational and historical documents of the Panama Canal Commission to facilitate transfer of the Panama Canal Zone to the Republic of Panama.
Business Team:
The Panama Canal Commission presided over the opening of the waterway to world commerce on August 15, 1914, thus realizing a heroic dream of over 400 years. The waterway, stretching some 50 miles across the isthmus, posed some of the hardest miles ever won by human ingenuity. With the opening of the Panama Canal a ship traveling from New York to San Francisco could eliminate 7,872 miles from the usual route around South America. The Panama Canal Commission was formed as an administrative unit of the U.S. Government to oversee the budgetary, engineering and maintenance requirements of the Panama Canal and the adjacent territory known as the Panama Canal Zone.
Electronic Scriptorium, Ltd. solves complex information management and data conversion problems for leading media companies, e-commerce initiatives, museums, libraries and government agencies. In a business association unique to Scriptorium, cloistered monks underpin a highly educated workforce that meets exacting standards of quality and accuracy. Scriptorium provides expertise in content creation for online product catalogs, digital photography, digital photo cataloging, USMARC record cataloging and XML document conversion.
Technical Approach:
By 1997, the Panama Canal Commission had amassed thousands of linear feet of documents used to support the operational and administrative functions of the Canal. However, in just a few short years the U.S.-built Panama Canal - for decades considered a strategic cornerstone of U.S. military and foreign policy - would become Panama's canal. In preparation for the historic transfer of power, the Federal Government issued a competitive request for proposals to assist the Panama Canal Commission with the inventory and training necessary for the orderly transfer of historic and current documents to the new Panamanian authority. Electronic Scriptorium was selected as the bidding company most qualified to undertake this challenging project.
The project involved three distinct milestones: first, formulate a strategy for the general inventory of documents; second, develop a software package for the physical inventory that would record specific information about the document collections held by the Panama Canal Commission; and finally, train future Panama Canal employees in the use of the software.
Implementation Methodology:
Electronic Scriptorium's partner and subcontractor for the project was History Associates, Inc., a Maryland firm with over 20 years of experience in archive science. Electronic Scriptorium and History Associates have successfully teamed together many times to deliver solutions that required technical expertise combined with specific archives management experience.
History Associates provided onsite technical leadership to assist the Panama Canal Commission in developing a scientific approach for assessing the volumes of paper that would be transferred along with the operational control of the physical canal. A certified records manager worked onsite with the Panama Canal Commission staff to provide direction and professional oversight as the inventory plan was designed. Based on the recommendations provided by History Associates, Electronic Scriptorium began designing a software package that would support the physical document inventory. The custom software was developed using Microsoft's FoxPro programming language. The software was designed to be used on a laptop computer that could be transported to the location of the documents, where an exhaustive inventory would be performed. The resulting local database was then uploaded into a central database. Each laptop was synchronized to reflect the list of document types growing in the central database. The system provided a wide range of reports and data integrity controls.
The final phase of the project required onsite training to assist the document conversion staff in the use of the software during the physical inventory. Electronic Scriptorium developed formal training manuals and curriculum to insure that the staff received a comprehensive classroom experience that addressed all of the possible scenarios that could be encountered during the inventory of documents. Approximately 60 Panama Canal Commission staff members were trained in a classroom environment over a five-day period.
Armed with software training and laptop computers, History Associates supervised the actual document inventory. Over a period of six weeks, the inventory team identified and inventoried tens of thousands of linear feet of documents. The document in the final inventory ranged from engineering drawings associated with the creation of Gatun Lake, the largest artificial body of water in the world at the time, to the research papers of a young doctor named Walter Reed, who was desperately trying to solve the health problems affecting the U.S. workforce in Panama, to the blueprints for the Canal Zone's freshwater drinking water system.
Summary:
The Panama Canal was successfully transferred from U.S. to Panamanian ownership in December of 2000. Since the transfer, the Canal has continued to facilitate shipping traffic through its series of freshwater locks. The transfer of control was made a bit less problematic through the foresight and cooperation of the United States and Panama in insuring that neither the flow of water nor the flow of information prevented ships from passing through the Canal. The Panamanian employees of the Canal served with professionalism and distinction as they installed a new organization to manage the enterprise.
Electronic Scriptorium faced a number of challenges with the project including language barriers, doing business in a developing economy and the logistical issues associated with placing staff members in a foreign country for extended periods. Each challenge was solved in a timely and professional manner that allowed the project to achieve its fiscal and administrative goals for the Panama Canal Commission.
Electronic Scriptorium is proud to have played a small role in the 85 year history of the Panama Canal and its historic transfer to the Republic of Panama.
Copyright © 1999-2008 Electronic Scriptorium, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Website by Ashley Cyber Services, LLC