PUBLIC SECTOR AND HEALTHCARE
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
The goal of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is to create necessary conditions for the increase of Estonia’s economic competitiveness and for a balanced and sustainable development by developing and executing national economic policy and evaluating results. Several public institutions, agencies, societies and foundations are managed by the ministry. With their strategies, all of these organisations help to fulfil the broad goal of the ministry (http://www.mkm.ee/).
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (hereinafter referred to as “MEAC”) uses document management solution GoPro, managed by Net Group. GoPro is a professional and multi-functional product whose capacity and flexibility helps to easily meet the needs of big public institutions and ministries for electronic document management. MEAC uses a version of GoPro which has been designed specially by GoPro and Net Group to answer the ministry’s needs and be in line with Estonian legislation. Besides the ministry, many of its divisions also use GoPro document management solution. What is more, the advantages of GoPro web-based solution have paid off very well as the introduction process is simple. Besides easy introduction, ease of use and good development options are also the advantages of this solution. From the development point of view, electronic invoice processing and management module has been added to GoPro document management solution. Net Group has helped MEAC both with managing the solution and developing upgrades. Net Group has knowledge of document management and knows the technologies; so far, co-operation between MEAC and Net Group has been mutually beneficial.
Register of Economic Activities
On 15 April 2004, the new Register of Economic Activities (hereinafter referred to as “REA”) Act entered into force. According to it, REA has been set up for public registering and monitoring of enterprises active in fields subject to special requirements, institutions stated in law, foundations and non-profit organisations (hereinafter referred to as “enterprise”). To achieve goals stated in the act, MEAC started creating a new information system which would simplify the registration process for an enterprise who can submit applications in the register environment. Also, the system would provide data to interested parties via X-road and publically, and simplify monitoring procedures (http://mtr.mkm.ee/).
Net Group offered Microsoft .-net platform based register solution – integrated with X-road – to MEAC. As a result, MEAC was able to process the increased amount of applications without hiring extra personnel, because enterprises submitted applications online, and MEAC specialists only had to check the content, not enter data from paper documents into the register. In addition, the register automatically checked necessary data via X-road from accessible databases. To satisfy the interest of general public, vast search options were added to the register. For monitoring authorities, Net Group created an interface for processing precepts or forwarding data related to monitoring activities via X-road.
Estonian Bar Association
Estonian Bar Association is a self-governing professional association acting on local government administration principles established on 14 June 1919 for the organisation of the provision of legal service in private and public interest and defending of the professional rights of the attorneys. Estonian Bar Association assists the members of the Bar Association – attorneys – in their professional activity and performs surveillance, also looks out for the carrying on of the traditions of Estonian attorneys.
Estonian Bar Association also organises professional in-service training of the attorneys, relations with the lawyers, public institutions and several local and foreign organisations, and actively participates in legislative process. The Bar Association also organises the performing of the public law function – performing of defence and representation in civil and administrative matters for a fee payable by the state (http://www.advokatuur.ee/).
Net Group analysed, projected and realised the State Legal Aid information system in less than 4 months. The solution is meant to help the appointment of attorneys to state legal aid applications, and to enable the Estonian Bar Association get a statistical overview of the rendering of state legal aid. After the solution was adopted, the process of finding attorneys for those who need help has sped up, and the earlier manual work of appointing attorneys has decreased. Thanks to the interfacing option with other systems, the process is smooth and fast and mostly fully automatic.
Reconstructive Surgery Clinic
Reconstructive Surgery Clinic (hereinafter referred to as “RSC”) is specialised in reconstructive surgery, more precisely cardiovascular surgery, and reconstructive plastic surgery (http://www.kirurgiakliinik.ee/).
For more effective everyday work, monitoring and invoice preparation, RSC needed a flexible solution. Net Group offered RSC medical information system, created on Microsoft .net platform, whose logic is based on connections between different parts of medical information and which is able to prepare invoices that conform to the requirements of Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Information system checks the validity of entered data and enables its users to focus on core business, without having to pay too much attention to invoice preparation for Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Information system is interfaced with the services of Estonian Health Insurance Fund and enables to forward prescriptions digitally via X-road. In order to increase efficiency, Microsoft Reporting Services reporting solution is used. Thanks to it, it is possible to operatively get information on important measurements.
RSC chose Net Group because Net Group offered a needs-based development process to its customer, valuing constant and smooth mutual co-operation.
Environmental Investment Centre
Environmental Investment Centre (hereinafter referred to as “EIC”) focuses mainly on financing different environmental projects from proceeds from Estonia’s environmental fees, European Union Cohesion Fund (CF), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF), and implementing Green Investment Scheme (selling CO2 quotas, and supervising the subsidies). Also, if you want to carry out a project, you can apply for environmental loans for specific purposes from EIC. The main target group of EIC is Estonia’s public sector: public institutions, local governments, educational institutions, non-profit associations, foundations, etc. To a lesser extent, also enterprises and companies. The mission of EIC is to maintain healthy living environment, value clean nature and sustainable development, and EIC also wants to be the leading agency for implementing environmental subsidies and investments, and an experienced and skilled customer-centred organisation (http://www.kik.ee/).
Net Group offered EIC to develop and programme data system called KIKAS (data system of Environmental Investment Centre). Additionally, another project developed from KIKAS – that of electronic document management. Another option was about to become available – one could automatically get information from the database on financing decisions and show in on EIC website. Net Group also created data storage for EIC which considerably simplifies the summarising and reporting processes.
Net Group programmed a database for EIC which helps to move from bulky paper-based management to electronic one when financing environmental programme projects. Database enables the electronic application for projects, conclusion of financing agreements, payments of subsidies granted, and reporting. Soon, the summoning of e-council will be possible, i.e. the financing decisions will also be made electronically. Every year, EIC environmental programme receives about 1,500 to 2,000 project financing applications, about 1,000 to 1,500 of which are accepted. The application materials and documents presented for subsidies to be paid out are very bulky and these above-mentioned figures should nicely illustrate the amount of paper documents which the EIC will now not be receiving. Also, the database helps to automatise the work of specialists. This speeds the work up and reduces considerably the amount of technical work which lets the specialists to focus more on the content of their work.
Thanks to Net Group, EIC now has the electronic project management system; therefore, EIC wins both in terms of speed and quality of work. First steps towards it have been very positive. Co-operation in terms of additional developments has been smooth and all problems have been solved.
Police and Border Guard Board
Police and Border Guard Board was founded on 1 January 2010 (merging Police Board, Central Criminal Police, Personal Protection Police, Border Guard Board, and Citizenship and Migration Board). The founded Board quickly needed a completely new online environment which would be suitable both for forwarding information to the general public and for supporting in-house work processes.
The project was time-critical – the new environment had to be launched when the Board started its work, and Police and Border Guard Board chose Net Group as its partner. Together with the customer, Net Group mapped the needs of the new system and chose a suitable technical platform. The work resulted in new public website for Police and Border Guard Board www.politsei.ee, and intranet for in-house purposes. Police and Border Guard Board got a perfect solution and modern content management platform for its work.