Fabasoft has over 10 years' experience in the implementation of e-government and eCRM solutions in both public administration organizations, and private businesses throughout Europe.
Fabasoft software products are now in use in many European countries. Projects with more than 5,000 users have been successfully implemented at many organizations.
Over the past year, the Fabasoft Professional services group has seen the speed and efficiency at which it is able to deliver solutions increase considerably, due to three primary factors:.
Firstly, Fabasoft software solutions can be made available throughout the whole organisation using a web-based, central provider model as an application service via an intranet or the Internet. The application is then accessible to the user through a standard web browser at any time, from any location, and on diverse devices (within the limits of the defined service level agreement). Fabasoft has developed a reference architecture to ensure that the necessary availability, performance, stability and scalability can be maintained during production.
Secondly, the Fabasoft use case concept has been developed and continually expanded to ensure the rapid and efficient implementation of e-government and eCRM solutions. The emphasis is on the individualisation of a standard product by configuration to ensure its releasability and to reduce the risk of malfunctions in the core application during operation. The system and business applications are integrated using open, non-platform-specific web standards (web service technology) in the form of a “loose coupling”.
Thirdly, based on project methods and best practice experience from e-government and eCRM projects, Fabasoft has developed a standard project model in order to reach the project objectives (content-related, chronological, and budgetary objectives) quickly and efficiently during the implementation of a Fabasoft standard product solution in e-government and eCRM projects.
The project “ELAK im Bund” (Federal Administration Electronic Records Management) for the Austrian government is a classic example, that shows the speed at which it is now possible to deploy an eCRM solution.
- The Fabasoft eGov-Suite electronic records management service runs at a federal computer centre and is made available to all ministries in Austria as a global service using the federal intranet.
- A connection to the computer centre serves as the “application socket” from which the ELAK application is accessible to the LAN within a ministry.
- Production data for a ministry is saved in a dedicated client domain located in the production environment of the computer centre.
- Users within a ministry use a standard commercial web browser to communicate with the ELAK application.
All Austrian government ministries (more than 8,000 users) were equipped with the electronic records management system within one year.
Of course introducing an e-government or eCRM solution across a whole organization is by no means a piece of cake; neither from the supplier's point of view nor the client's. Critical factors pointing towards success are:
- Competence of the project’s personnel and organisations.
- Managing change amongst the users. The immediate effect of launching an e-government or eCRM solution on this scale is that users have to fundamentally change the way they work (from paper-based activities to screen-based activities).
- Consistently eliminating moving objectives which undermine the achievement of content, chronological (project timescale) and budgetary objectives on both the Fabasoft and client side
- The correct approach to conflicting project objectives. A classic example of conflicting objectives is: From the “top down” a client expects a quick and efficient implementation of an e-government or eCRM solution based on a standard product, throughout the whole organisation. However, from the “bottom up”, users of the affected organisational units are expecting a customised application to meet their current requirements.
- Further details of the Fabasoft project model can be found in the Fabasoft press book "The Fabasoft Project Model".
