Only 5% of completed digitization projects, with application in the Romanian public sector, are actually used and continue to be developed and benefit from maintenance services – are the conclusions of an analysis of OVES Enterprise, a Romanian software development company, established, in 2015, in Cluj-Napoca.
The cumbersome procedure, red tape, lack of specialists for project analysis, long duration of the tender procedure and the resolution of possible appeals, long duration of project implementation make, on average, a digitization project last more than 5 years, from the beginning of the documentation , until implementation is complete.
“During this period, the project is either no longer of interest, or the technology on which it is based has become obsolete, or the Government has changed, and the priorities are different than 5 years ago. That is, if a project ends up being completed. In most cases, however, the lack of interest is the main factor hindering the start-up of digitization projects in the public sector,” said Mihai Filip, CEO of OVES Enterprise.”
“For example, we sent 50 emails to 50 of the most important local administrations in Romania, in which we offer to provide the town halls, free of charge, consulting services for digitization projects. So far, we have not received any response, no replay to emails“, adds Mihai Filip.
By comparison, the public sector in Western Europe is much more digital, with many institutions being fully digitized: town halls, police stations, with a focus on the area of issuing documents. And the procedures are simplified so that the projects are implemented as quickly as possible.
“In Germany, for instance, they have a tender, which means that the winning projects will be implemented in a maximum of one year, after which they will be further developed. We have been involved here in developing an infectious disease surveillance, management and analysis application that allows countries to monitor outbreaks, follow-up cases and contacts and maintain an overview of general figures and statistics with the participation of several institutions. public health, such as hospitals, laboratories, surveillance officers, etc.“, says Mihai Filip.
Locally, OVES Enterprise is involved in digitization projects in the public sector, as a subcontracted company, with a small share in the company’s turnover – less than 5%.
One of them belongs to the Agency for the Administration of the National Informatics Network for Education and Research (AARNIEC), which deals with the development of solutions for the implementation of an information system based on modern technological platforms, with advanced technical and technological elements such as machine learning. and artificial intelligence. The project will incorporate the elements produced in the existing educational systems, will allow their reuse and incorporation in the newly created educational products and their application in class lessons, individual study and assisted study, through artificial intelligence mechanisms.
Another project in which the OVES Enterprise team is working, also as a subcontracted company, is started by the Competition Council and aims to create a profile of each legal entity in Romania and to analyze the interactions between legal entities from the perspective of tenders. For example, if in one area all bids are always won by one company, the application will generate an alert, and the competition council inspectors will be able to investigate. These alerts are created based on over 300 metrics (KPIs), and the company profile is created by aggregating and analyzing data from public sources (public documents, newspapers, websites) and government institutions (ANAF, ONRC, etc.), using Big Data and Machine Learning technologies.