forces.gc.ca email address?

[aesop081]

a paperless office is the way to go.  it.

The paperless office is one of the great myths of the world.  When email came to the CF everyone argued that it would save on paper and mney and that things would become paperless.  Well years later, what we have seen is just as much, if not more paper.  People print their emails, print this, print that......It hasnt happenned.

 

[George Wallace]

The paperless office is one of the great myths of the world.  When email came to the CF everyone argued that it would save on paper and mney and that things would become paperless.  Well years later, what we have seen is just as much, if not more paper.  People print their emails, print this, print that......It hasnt happenned.

Yup!

It is that "Hard Copy" that is used and that "Hard Copy" that is filed by many as a method of CYA. 

Heck, it is even the means that many use as a "Posting Message" and carry around to various agencies as proof.

Wait for the day when we are all issued Blackberries.

 

[284_226]

The paperless office is one of the great myths of the world.  When email came to the CF everyone argued that it would save on paper and mney and that things would become paperless.  Well years later, what we have seen is just as much, if not more paper.  People print their emails, print this, print that......It hasnt happenned.

I forgot my disclaimer* to that previous post...

*A paperless office is mostly unachievable because people are largely uninterested in learning the skills required to manage information in that manner.

 

[armyvern]

No CDN Aviator, you're right; it (ie paperless) never happened.

Ask any Sup Tech who went to that "paperworkless" new CFSS in 2001. Yeah, our filing cabinet requirements have quadrupled to hold the same number of docs. Funny too that the doc envelope jackets went from being 4" X 6" to being 8.5" X 14." That's a lot of extra space required when you are holding 8800 sets of docs...thanks to the 'electronic age.'

Funny how I now have to print copies of everything I send out (getting read receipts of course) to my troops to retain a hardcopy as back up that they have been delivered/read....just in case that hard drive loses it or the computers go down. And no, memory sticks etc are not the answer...I already have 10 or 12 of them filled up with 6 months of crap...as backup.

And can some one tell me why, in this supposed new age of no paperwork, the amounts of monies that Units have to allocate towards purchase of paper is drastically increasing each year...(and here's a hint...it's not inflation).

And damn, if that lazy SOB would just get off his butt once in awhile and use the damn phone instead of harping back with a "I'm waiting for an email response" we'd all get shit done much more efficiently.

Edited for typo.

 

[284_226]

Wait for the day when we are all issued Blackberries.

Lord, shoot me now.

We've got 50 of the infernal CrackBerrys to administer in our shop, and I hate the %&#*&^! things with a passion most wouldn't even understand.

 

[navymich]

Lord, shoot me now.

We've got 50 of the infernal CrackBerrys to administer in our shop, and I hate the %&#*&^! things with a passion most wouldn't even understand.

Ugh, try being at sea and the CO loses coverage on it.  You'd think the world had ended!  Goes right along with people that freak when the satellite phone is down, or email isn't available at sea.  Amazing what we used to be able to survive without. :

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Yup!

It is that "Hard Copy" that is used and that "Hard Copy" that is filed by many as a method of CYA. 

Heck, it is even the means that many use as a "Posting Message" and carry around to various agencies as proof.

Wait for the day when we are all issued Blackberries.

Too late that day is here, in my unit most of the higher ups have them.

 

[Disenchantedsailor]

George what I meant by money savings is that yes creating a network account for everyone in the CF is miniscule, now take and add an increase in personel by 1 in every reg force unit to act as pub correction NCO, then a Class B job at every reserve unit for the pub correction NCO, IOT to maintain, enter corrections and track all of the pubs a unit holds. Or simply create an account for a person where they can then access the pub that is updated by a central controlling auth (ADM IM in the case of the CF Address Help file) I'm not calling for a paperless office, just a wise use of available resources. Just take a look at things like claims-X, it is almost unheard of for a paper claim any longer, The CF Address Help file, clothing online (and yes there are kiosks but your boss has to let you go to them, not hard in the reg force when you're minutes away, but at a reserve unit you either have to do it on your own time, or with your own resources or waste half a class A day to go to clothing and order your kit).

As for the CFAO legal status I suspect it will shortly go the way of QR&O's  
"The only official version of the QR&O made under the authority of the National Defence Act is in electronic PDF format found on this web site. A printed copy of the official PDF is only accurate as of the time it was printed."

 

[Pte_Martin]

Yes, I think you got the viewpoints crossed somewhere along the way.  ArtyNewbie is more or less of the opinion that a paperless office is the way to go.  I pretty much feel the same way - the cost related to creating a DWAN account and a small amount of network storage (Q: drive) is insignificant in relation to what it costs to maintain paper copies of everything under the sun.

I'm personally in favour of making sure everyone (reserve Ptes included) has free, unimpeded access to Regulations, Orders and Directives via a DWAN account.  To restrict that in any way just might be enough to allow someone to justifiably claim that ignorance of the law is indeed a valid excuse.  If that means some Reserve COs need to increase their IT budgets, so be it.

Why increase the IT budget? Why not increase the training budget put more money towards ammo, i know lots of people including me who would like to shoot more! Espically as an ex res i know we didn't get near enough ammo we should have(at least my old unit)

 

[Disenchantedsailor]

Why increase the IT budget? Why not increase the training budget put more money towards ammo, i know lots of people including me who would like to shoot more! Espically as an ex res i know we didn't get near enough ammo we should have(at least my old unit)

It equipment entitlements are set at the Area Level, of course CO's can go out and buy more kit above thier entitlement, but there are more important things than more computers, that said an account is an account, theres no reason 3 or 4 or 5 people can't share a machine, and accounts don't increase budgets.

 

[Meridian]

The paperless office is one of the great myths of the world.  When email came to the CF everyone argued that it would save on paper and mney and that things would become paperless.  Well years later, what we have seen is just as much, if not more paper.  People print their emails, print this, print that......It hasnt happenned.

This does not solely apply to the CF. I work as an IT Project Manager for an extremely large Pharma/Biotech giant. Believe me, we have the cash for an IT system, and our email servers are remarkably reliable.  People still print everything, mostly because people prefer to read something tangible than something that can change before their eyes. Or at least thats what it seems like.

Maybe the CF should strike up a deal with RIM and equip everyone with a Blackberry.  No missed timings! No missed communiques. No excuses.  Duty (and non-duty!) staff can be reached at all hours because - hell, they have a blackberry.  I mean, as I was just reading in another thread, you are paid 24/7, and so the Forces can and will call upon you to be available.. just like Directors do at my work.

Course, O Groups might get a little bit confusing, what with everyone checking their BBs all the time, but I mean, you don't even need to -hold- the O Group... The OC could just send his message out to all the troops directly! No missed details.

Ahh the power of IT   In all seriousness, I would suspect that it isn't a terrible thing to be allowing reservists to have a forces.gc.ca address, presuming the Forces Anti-Spam software and server space can handle it.  Allowing Pte. Joe Blow to have a few inches more pride  by using a forces.gc.ca address to communicate with whomever can't be a bad thing, presuming he can't communicate clearance info.

On that note, I would hope the Forces is making use of recent advances in OS and Office-style software to restrict forwarding of materials...  I won't ask because Im sure its opsec if it does exist.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

The CF JUST upgraded to Win XP if memory serves.

 

[PO2FinClk]

The CF JUST upgraded to Win XP if memory serves.

To be more precise for the time, the CF is currently upgrading to XP as it has not been completed everywhere. Some units will not be until December 07 from what my IS folks have stated.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Always seems like an OS behind.

 

[Meridian]

Always seems like an OS behind.

Sort of.  Most major corporations go along with this 'one OS behind' philosophy, for multiple reasons.

1 - You give the vendor time to release as many updates, patches and fixes as possible -before- you risk your business operations on it. And lets face it, we're talking Microsoft here.
2 - Most big organizations can't release something like that rapidly without affecting the business tremendously, even if there are no glitches (and there always are).  With the increase of mobile computing, this often also means pulling in field or mobile users into the office for at least a day or so.  X all users, thats a lot of lost time.
3 - Legacy software, legacy software & legacy software.

 

[Disenchantedsailor]

one OS behind is generally a sound business practice, of course there are limits, like finally installing a 6 year old OS (generally 2 max 3 years is the common practice)

 

[Meridian]

one OS behind is generally a sound business practice, of course there are limits, like finally installing a 6 year old OS (generally 2 max 3 years is the common practice)

Oh I dunno. We are just completing rolling out Win XP to our field force personnel.  And for the service techs, they need dual boot so they can run Win2000 for important legacy stuff.

For every productivity gain, there is a loss on training and re-familiarization, not to mention bugs.