REGIONAL INFORMATION:
Eszak-Alfold / Hungary

Description of the project

It was agreed on building a mobile stage because of the possibility of varibale location, depending on the character of the specific concert or theatre performance in the valley.

As you can see on the following picture, the park stand is already serving for cultural purpose:

Transnational added value

The transnational added value is to motivate local and regional inhabitants that they spend more time with their family and friends in nature – in the spirit of "Culture in the Nature". Hereby, the transnational added value is following:

• For the protection of the flora and fauna the least architectural interference at the auditorium of the park stand are planned
• The park stand will be available for men and women, for children, adults and the elderly
• The territory can be reached by car, by bicycle and foot
• The architectural features of the project will follow and reflect the organic (folk) architectural features of the territory of Harangod, which will enforce the complete structure of the spot
• The local natural and cultural heritage interpretation in the new development

Sustainability of the investment

The sustainability of the development is significant, as it realized on such field, which a more beloved recreation place of local and regional inhabitants and further living people. This place became spot of more and more our international events.

TÉKA Volkart Camp is organised here every year. The volkart camps and Kállai Kettős Volkdance Festival Harangod, organised every second year, are typical examples of Hungarian dance culture. The valley stage is an important spot to such events.

Foreseen impacts and leverage effect

The implementation of this piolot project positively impacts the environment in this area by causing less distruction and prevention of land erosion. Before, this area was also used for events. Refering to the "Hangarod" Project, new projects in this area are already being planned. This will be a chance to organise different events such as for families but also for companies and other institutions. We also have experienced that there are several practical ideas in the solution from meetings with our partners. The URBSPACE Joint Strategy became an important basic document towards the settlement of development plans, making use of open space areas and sustainable town developing projects.

Investment structure of this pilot project

Development of mobile park stand: € 35.187,53

Sound technique to the park stand: € 6.902,95

Trainings on the construction of the mobile park stand: € 7.875

Company Background

The software company Invictus-Games Ltd. has been dealing with software development since 1992, but it has been operating in its present structure only since 2000. The enterprise develops game software, including primarily car games. They apply a sophisticated level of technology, in order to reach both in appearance and in realism a life-like experience for their players. Thanks to its high level of service, the company can keep its existing partners and is able to acquire new ones. The customers are predominately foreign; they are English, American, Japanese, Dutch, German, Russian and Thai clients. The company gives the development of business administration activities more and more attention. This concerns mainly the activities of its employees, subcontractors and telecommunications workers. These programs are able to control and post online evaluations.

The enterprise is one of the leading game-developers of the Eastern-Central European Region, a fact which is partly due to the level of importance of the achieved developments. Moreover, the company employs highly qualified specialists and has a remarkable hardware and software infrastructure.

ITSM Status

In its operations, the company uses the Internet quite intensively; it maintains contacts with every partner by internet. Ahead of the innovation, the communication took place via e-mail or Skype. But now this is done by the help of the newly introduced system. The use of the Internet and the most modern technologies are necessary for the company’s operation, because there is a very strong competition on the international market. Sometimes, it could happen that the partners offer a new informational technology solution for the enterprise and vice versa. This means one part a mutual work easier, on the other hand, an improved and easier collaboration.

Project Background

The time management system has been developing since 2007 continuously, and has been also actively used since then. Before the innovation was introduced managing vacations, sick-pay or beginning and end of working hours was a problematic task. They recorded and monitored these facts either by using Excel tables, paper or with a time clock. As a software company, they decided to try to develop a program which can solve these problems. The task management system was purchased recently. Prior to its introduction, they managed the different functions with e-mail or on a huge checker board. In the latter case, they experienced plenty of problems; these structures caused misunderstandings and it was really difficult to monitor and remember scheduled events.

Problem

Previously, time management required a huge workload; it was complicated, indeed almost impossible, to monitor the related events. Formerly, it was neither clear, nor verifiable how much time the employees actually spent working when they had meetings or when they went on vacation. If employees have published a request for time off, but then changed their minds, the record had to be removed and another person had to endorse the change. If someone has worked overtime but the manager was no longer in the office, it became a matter of trust. This is why it became necessary to create a new system, which is able to monitor and record such events automatically.

Task management caused a great deal of misunderstanding. It was quite difficult to follow e-mails. Tasks were not clearly divided and it was unclear who received and sent what information or who completed which task. It was also possible that the wrong person received an e-mail, i.e. that someone incompetent to perform a specific task received the e-mail request to do it, or even received the exact same forwarded email that had actually sent it, rather than forwarding it the relevant employee. It was also a frequent problem that someone who had finished a given task received a related e-mail, but that person did not forward it. There can be up to 10, 000 tasks in a given project and it is almost impossible to handle and track that huge number using the previous structure. The problem was actually recognized in the course of working with a partner. In this case, by the time the partner had received an e-mail requesting changes and replied to it, many changes had already happened and the next email requesting even more new changes had already arrived. Thus, this off-line system using e-mail caused version conflicts. This was the time when the company decided to introduce an online system. More possible alternatives were identified, but the chosen system was the most suitable for software companies on the market.

Approach

1. Preparation and introduction of an innovative software:

The installation of these new systems needed only a few minimal arrangements. It can be seen as an advantage that the new programs are able to run on the existing assets, without any special investment. Obviously, it was important to train the employees, to customize the servers and to set the software parameters. These processes took only one or two days. The transition was relatively easy to arrange, occurring from one day to another. There was no test phase; the software was able to be used perfectly from the outset, as the innovation was user-friendly, simple and transparent. The introductions happened smoothly, without any obstacles. The employees could learn the usage of the systems and they soon recognized its benefits. Every colleague now uses the software. As it is a software company, they are used to difficulties and to solving emerging problems. The time management software has been being used for three years. During that time it was continually developed and improved. The task management software was introduced successfully within a week.

2. Characteristics of the time management system:

In the time management system the colleagues have a login name and a password which allows them to access the new system every day. The program only counts real working hours. It registers such as when someone sits in front of his computer and works. The system is able to indicate when there is no work scheduled, for example, it shows the duration of the regular lunch break. However, discussions or meetings have to be entered into the system; otherwise, this period would appear as passive time. Thanks to this innovation, there are flexible working hours within the company, so the employee is allowed to arrive a bit later, but in this case he or she has to leave also later. Of course, there is a regular work day, but everyone can manage their work time for themselves, because both the management and the employees trust in the system’s ability to measure well and accurately. Colleagues can simply take out vacations and sick-pay in advance. If they do not use the day off, it can simply be deleted, but if they leave the office for the day, then their absence will be approved. At the end of the month, the auditor gets notifications about these events in a report, including an absentee report and a vacation list.

3. Specifics of the task management system:

The task manager software also needs a login name and a password. This innovation can be reached with a browser via the Internet. After accessing it, the employees can see their tasks in order of priority. Therefore, they are informed about the task, what kind, who sent it to them or what the deadline is. Moreover, they are able to read a longer guide related to the given task. These functions are recorded, so someone can search back to retrieve them after several years. It is possible to put a task into another colleague’s structure, if it is no longer their responsibility. It can be seen when they start a job or when they finish it, as well as in which software version it can be tested. Requests from partners enter into this system and they can see the employees’ answer immediately through the innovation. In addition, two users can edit one task at the same time. It also has a subsystem, which can follow and monitor errors and the test results also run into it. This company purchased a manager program called JIRA. Many automobile factories and universities use it, and most software companies also apply this system, because it was designed especially for them.

Result & Innovation

First of all, the most important advantage of the innovations is that conflicts can be avoided. During the treatment of the tasks, the company defines exactly who, when and what kind of tasks has to do. If an employee did not work well, it can prove whether he or she has worked according to the guidelines. In this case, the manager has the opportunity to prove also that the employee actually made a mistake. In addition, the deadlines are also fixed and the managers are able to check the employees’ tasks, and see if they work too much or less than what is expected. The task manager software is able to create diagrams, charts and graphs about the colleagues’ rapidity and productivity and about whether the colleagues will be able to finish the tasks by the deadline or not. Thus, it will be in evidence whether the staff should work in advance or whether overtime will be needed. This service is vital, because it is really important for the partners to meet their deadlines. The system enables one to upload errors and, as everything is recorded, it is possible to retrieve data. It can be seen if there is any improvement compared to former data. This can be examined not only individually, but in a team as well, so it is visible what kind of results a new person can bring. As a further result, it should be considered that the company managed to persuade its Japanese partners to apply this system and managed to solve the problems related to this change, as well. They had to solve the problem that the events should appear in Japanese for the partners and in English for the company. The only negative feature is that the system seems to be too bureaucratic and the employees can sense that they are strongly monitored. However, the staff realized the necessity of the innovations; they see the advantages and that the system facilitates their work. With time manager, payment of overtime is assured and flexible working hours are made possible. The employees are encouraged to demonstrate greater efficiency and they have less administrative tasks. With the help of the innovation, there is less misunderstanding and idle capacity; the deadlines can be met precisely, which can result in higher prestige.

Best practice & Lessons learned

Using these programs is almost a condition, because of the international partners; the company’s clients also apply a similar or the same system. In our country, it is not really common to use these systems in software development companies. As a software company and the IT sector are always growing, development is essential for the enterprise, to avoid falling behind. In the future, much expansion is expected, for example, to improve time management systems, or to create software for telecommunications, or to synchronize the time and the task manager system. With this future innovation, it can be managed together how employees are spending their working hours and what kind of tasks they are working on. This program has been being tested with different partners and the company is planning to introduce it into the market.

For further information please contact the INNOTRAIN IT project manager:

Kinga Homolay
Project manager
University of Debrecen
H-4032 Debrecen Egyetem tér 1.
Tel +36 52 412 623
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.unideb.hu

or click on the project website

The steps of implementing the pilot action started with a background analysis in the topic. After the determination of the pilot area, a pilot area analysis was performed. The analysis covered the investigation of the main characteristics of the pilot area relevant in this topic and a background SWOT analysis was also elaborated. The next step was the selection of the expert responsible for the professional pilot action tasks. We placed a call for tenders by sending invitation to 4 organisations of which we received 3 valid tenders. Due to the tender with the lowest price we contracted the University of Debrecen Department of Sociology and Social Politics.

During the pilot project we have organised workshops related to the topic of the pilot action. There was a pilot action opening workshop in Jászkisér on 26.10.2012 where the local stakeholders and professionals were invited and informed about ADAPT2DC project and its local pilot action. A roundtable discussion was organised in Debrecen on 14.12.2012 for a wider group of guests concerned in the topic of the pilot action. Besides, as the external experts’ team from the University of Debrecen elaborated the feasibility study within the pilot action of the ADAPT2DC project, we also organised a workshop, called a pilot action closing workshop, in Jászárokszállás on 22.04.2013.


Pilot action closing workshop (Jászárokszállás, 22.04.2013)

All the experiences and opinions by invited local stakeholders were taken into account when forming the feasibility study and the political recommendations. Besides, the external expert team made a basic exploration, data collection by elaborating methodology documents, by on-site data collection (including personal and focus-group interviews) and performed a data analysis. The completed feasibility study includes 12 chapters on the evaluation of the situation, on the legal background (national rules on daycare nurseries), draws up daycare nursery models, contains a SWOT and risk analysis, a cost analysis and a marketing strategy also. The policy recommendations are based on the experiences earned from the feasibility study and cover either micro-level recommendations for local decision makers or macro-level recommendations for national politicians.

As supplementary actions we performed some further steps of the pilot action implementation. We involved an expert in the SET (Strategic Experts’ Team), who is working as a strategic planner at the Észak-Alföld Regional Development Agency. Our SET expert is elaborating regional and local strategic documents, development concepts and programmes in the Észak-Alföld region, with a special focus on economic development, on the development of the SME sector and on local and regional co-operations. Due to his tasks and responsibilities, knowledge and experiences, the results of the ADAPT2DC pilot action are appearing in the regional strategic plans for the period 2014-2020.

Besides, ÉARDA is cooperating with ONEP (Office for National Economic Planning) in the national strategic planning for the period 2014-2020. An important step towards involving pilot action results into national planning was a meeting held in Budapest on 10.12.2013 with the active participation of ÉARDA and ONEP staff concerned in the issue.

We were also informing local politicians and stakeholders of opportunities of using the results of the pilot study by holding several meetings. On 20.01.2014 a discussion with mayors took place in Jászapáti to inform local mayors about tendering opportunities in the period of 2014-2020. On 31.03.2014 the representatives of ÉARDA travelled to Jászberény to meet local stakeholders and discuss about the planned regulation on child daycare nurseries and the related financial supporting possibilities.