The Web-based and mobile-accessible KIWI platform enables the acquisition, integration, analysis and sharing of distributed information in multimedia formats, overcoming many of the problems caused by the complex communication and workflow processes that exist within and between government departments. The trials at the beginning of this year have led to the adoption of the system at the Italian and Finnish pilot sites, with public administrations in other European regions currently interested in the platform.

“Public administrations in general have shown themselves to be very keen on the KIWI solutions as they have seen the benefits of the adoption of the platform,” explains scientific coordinator Emilio Bugli Innocenti at NETXCALIBUR in Italy.

According to Alberto Savoldelli, the administrative coordinator at AIP, those benefits can be summed up as “efficiency, transparency and quality of service within administrations, and between administrations and citizens.”

Most significantly, the platform can effectively be used in any area of government, as clearly shown by the trials.

In Milan, KIWI created a collaborative environment between 45 regional immigration workers, police officials and employees of the Interior Ministry to better manage immigrants’ residency permit requests stemming from the introduction of a new law governing family reunification.

“All the necessary information was put into a single workflow process within the platform, making civil servants more efficient in handling their tasks,” Savoldelli notes. “Given that immigration management involves many different administrations from the Interior Ministry to police, and regional and local authorities, the system overcame the communications problems that existed previously. We noticed that civil servants reduced the time it took them to process requests, something that evidently results in cost savings for administrations and an increase in the quality of services they provide to the public.”

The residency requests of around 3,500 immigrants were managed by the system during the trial, although many more have been handled since.

In Finland, the KIWI platform showed similar benefits. In the four Finnish municipalities, the system was used to provide information access and exchange to 30 home care workers looking after 130 elderly people. “It consisted of giving home care employees access to the information they need when they need it, providing them with support when they are out in the field and allowing them, for example, to improve their diagnosis of ailments and better manage patient care,” the administrative coordinator says.

The KIWI platform is built around two central sets of components – knowledge warehousing tools and mobile groupware. “Combined, the two elements create a platform that assists public workers in their day-to-day activities by giving them access to information at anytime, anywhere,” Savoldelli notes.

“The KIWI solution leverages the relationships between public administrations’ organisational processes, people and technology to collect and share the right information with the right people at the right time in order to improve productivity and quality of service,” adds Bugli Innocenti.

The Italian and Finnish trials showed that the KIWI system amply covers those needs, leading other public administrations to consider adopting the system. “Public administrations in Europe and even Asia have asked to trial the KIWI services and agreements with them are under discussion,” Bugli Innocenti says.

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