SET UP THE INFORMATION SYSTEM OF DATA MANAGEMENT
The main technical backbone of the information flow in the project will be ensured by the Advisory Service Tracking System (ASTS). Its main components are the issue tracking system, the client registry, the handling of contracts, employees, advisors modules, which may be connected with further professional sub-modules (farmer logbook, land lease management, parcel information, etc). Such systems are in use to different extent already, by the level of RASPs (Rural Advisory Service Providers) in the target countries, as the need-assessment showed.
In the RAMONES project this system will have to be further developed in order to enable client feedback, measurement of user satisfaction, work-based learning, knowledge-base development and support of the precision e-learning programme.
Furthermore, depending on the differing situation of the target countries, various IT implementation strategies need to be planned and implemented. In Hungary, both partners operate ASTS, which are quite similar, and it will be easy to achieve interoperability between them and the RAMONES platform. In North Macedonia, there is no such ASTS in use, but the collection and management of relevant data is systematic, using offline software solution, therefore it will be possible to shift to the online platform, or/and combine used methods.
Similar is the situation in Slovakia, where the national RAS coordinating institute has a central database of advisory services, and the individual RASPs are tracking the activity at the service level.
Therefore the Leader of O3 will offer for the the target countries various options to choose from, how they can join the RAMONES ‘backbone’, including
- the localisation and expansion of the Hungarian ASTS;
- using an open source issue tracking solution (e.g. Mantis BT) to be also expanded; or
- keep on using their existing software/system (most probably by traditional methods), but by following the concept, logic and prescribed processes of the project.
Either way, the technical solution will ensure the possibility of integration and combination of monitoring data in a common view (dataset), in order to support the requirements of next project steps.
It is very important to highlight, that in the project work plan we only calculated with the number of working days that are needed solely for the creation of the NEW components, which are necessary to enable work-based learning, knowledge base development, the precision learning programme, user feedback related to the service, as well as the evaluation of the advisors' performance.
Primarily target group of this is RASPs (service providers), who implement such systems.
The use of an issue tracking / advisory service tracking system connected to precision learning is the main innovative element of this Output, and also relevant at the whole project. We attached in the Annex examples of ASTS solutions used in Hungary (https://crm.gazdakontroll.hu/ and https://gn.eurofarmer.hu).
Information about an open source issue tracking system example is available at: https://www.mantisbt.org/ Access to the test system: http://plg.hu/mantis/ | tpf.erasmus+ | Ramones2020
GAK used such open source platform extensively when functioning as the national helpdesk for the e-claim system.
We plan to use not only web browser interface but also mobile device friendly solutions, in an innovative way, by geo tracking the movement of advisors, and then referencing date, time, etc. to their farm visits, as well as using field data recording apps (such as for example Epicollect, where we have good experience https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.ac.imperial.epicollect.five&hl=en_GB).
Expected impact and transferability potential:
The description of technical implementation will be published in the Guidebook, especially highlighting the possibility of using open source and open ended solutions, which may help to achieve interoperability between RAMONES modeled functionalities with the system of other actors, especially RASPs, all around Europe.
Beyond the technical / IT transferability potential, the idea and the know-how of the project - of using service tracking and feedback information for better focused, targeted development of the capacity of advisory personnel - may serve as the model especially