The strength of an adroit software solution lies in its ability to perform complex tasks with a simple click of the mouse. From the developer’s point of view though, coming out with such a solution needs the best understanding of the domain the solution would serve, choosing a flexible platform to build it, and, above all, more than one team to work on the different facets of the solution.

CAMeLEAN seem to have gone through this process. Claimed by its creators, Ranal Software, as one of the most comprehensive software tool for ‘programme management’ which refers to complex and long-term engineering programmes like to build a low combat aircraft or a ship, CAMeLEAN’s strength is said to be its ability to aid real-time collaboration.

Since engineering products, especially aircrafts and ships, need to be built with high quality materials and must guarantee best performance, the team working on its design to delivery is assembled across the world and the long-term nature of the programme meant the team must collaborate real-time while working on design and modeling.

“So the collaboration we talk about here is much different from what is normally meant by the term,” Mr Vijay Babu, Vice President of Bangalore-based Ranal Software, explains. “Collaboration, say, in building a light combat aircraft would involve building the body and the weaponry. The team working on the weaponry, for instance, relies on the building of the body in order to start work and they instantly like to see the body. This kind of collaboration also extends to on-line consultation on the design, exchange of information on issues that have come up on a particular aspect of the programme, and the progress made in solving them.”

Collation of information, which is key to making decision on the programme, is also said to be made easy by the software tool. This makes the practice of manually collating reports from reams of papers or from e-mails, which allow errors to creep in, totally redundant. The facility to index and archive the complex sets of data for future references and the ease with which standard templates (such as steps for building an engine etc) can be copied into the tool, also makes the software a useful tool for programme coordinators.

Built on a client -server model, the software also captures the time spent on the whole lifecycle of the programme, which may be an important input for similar programmes in future.

Built on Linux, the tool is made available in most of the major OS’s and Mr Vijay Babu says it can work across different OS’s. Released in India earlier this year, CAMeLEAN can be adapted to other domains such as attendance systems in IT services companies, where the organisation would like to know if members of a particular project spend 90 percent of their time on billable activities. “This has become crucial for them as their billing rates have come down in recent times,” Mr Vijay Babu reveals.