The RIM department continued to focus on the further development of the Application Tracking System (ATS). The North Eastern Regional Office’s network facilities were updated in order to be on par with the other regional offices. At the end of the second quarter, staff members at this office had individual VPN user Ids.

RIM continued to support the VSSRS department in the utilization of updated systems and software for the production of Vital Statistics Reports. At the end of the second quarter of the 2004/2005 financial year, over two hundred and ninety-five thousand (295, 000) records relating to vital events registered in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 were keyed and awaited uploading into the respective databases.

The final upgrade of the financial accounting software was also facilitated by the RIM department.

During the year a failure in the firewall system affected access to the Internet and disabled the use of the Customer Online Query System for five days. BDMS version3 using MS SQL database,  was successfully implemented during the third quarter of 2004/2005 and is currently operating satisfactorily.

As part of the Agency’s efforts towards improved customer service, the Agency's website was reviewed and plans put in place for its upgrade. Tenders were invited for the website re-development. This project is expected to be completed by the end of 2005/2006.

To provide more efficient information systems support a helpdesk software  was installed and deployed internally to streamline the department’s handling of the staff’s network, and software challenges. All problems are reported to the helpdesk number and are logged before being dispatched to RIM personnel for their attention.

In the last quarter of the financial year a new server room was assigned to the RIM department. The Agency’s server room, data centre and production departments were further secured with the installation of Security Access Control doors.

The department undertook a massive clean up of the duplicate storage area while the Customer Service Improvement Project went into high gear. A new RIM Director was appointed, who assumed duties in March 2005. A series of virus infiltrations plagued the RGD computer system in March forcing the team to becoming more vigilant in maintaining anti-virus compatibility.