Lower Silesian Chamber of Craft
and Small and medium Entrepreneurship in Wrocław
Plac Solny 13
50-061 Wrocław
woj. dolnośląskie
www.izba.wroc.pl
Beginnings of cooperation
In 2002 the Craft Chamber started to search for an IT system. System, originally, was meant to collect database of craftsmen associated with the Lower Silesian organization.
The choice process was short. Wealthy opportunities to define files and divide them according to different criteria selected the winner – Wrocław company - NetCRM. Software producer additionally offered an SaaS model application (server purchase, maintenance of application and administration are left to the supplier). The user obtained a system, to which he logs in having only an Internet access. Such a solution significantly lowered purchase and maintenance costs.
Cooperation development – educational activity
After supplying the system with data collected from different Guilds, users soon came to conclusion that the application may be used also in other areas of Chamber’s activity. First of these areas was an educational activity of the Chamber. Business processes were defined very quickly, consultants prepared the systems and necessary documents.
Since then, the reception workers have registered admitting apprentices to the exam. Based on these applications, Oświata employees agreed dates of exams (a document of announcing the exam’s date), carried out exams, introduced exam protocols to the electronic register.
New opportunities
Introducing the system in this area gave some new ideas. With such a configuration, system still wasn’t able to answer crucial questions bothering the organization for ages, e.g. employees still haven’t known who in given year should be passing exam and in which profession. Employees possessed only a list of submitted applications, and reaching the apprentices, who should submit an application (but didn’t do it) was troublesome or impossible. One shall fid the solution, how to feed the system with necessary data.
All Guilds in one MERLIN
During this period there arouse an idea to join all Lower Silesian Guilds in one MERLIN application. The idea soon gained a recognition both among the Chamber’s employees and Craft Guilds’ employees, who noticed additional advantages of this solution:
- modernizing the craft guild – a new computer set
- the guild gets a system to record and manage agreements between a craftsman and an apprentice in a range of practical profession learning – typewriters may be thrown away and printing seven copies of one agreement is a matter of few minutes
- information about the apprentice and his education appears already at the stage of signing the agreement, and knowledge of his education fills the file in system right from this moment – to date, data was recorded into system at the moment of admitting to an exam, i.e. three years later.
These premises inclined the Chamber do submit a proposal for EU’s cofinancing for purchasing the system and all the necessary infrastructure. The proposal was examined positively, and a project was accomplished in four months period.
Additional uses of MERLIN
Few months after launching the system in the Chamber and all Lower Silesian Guilds, it came out that the project brought some additional benefits. Here are few examples:
During the first phase of the cooperation with NetCRM, the Craft Chamber alone made attempts to supplement the system with the base of craftsmen. Joining the Guilds proved that independent and meanwhile solid conducting this base by the Chamber is impossible – employees in the Guild systematically obtain information about temporal suspension of the activity, change of the workshop’s name, privatisations, closing one with opening another craftsman’s workshop etc. Solid writing in of the data to system is a result of electronic generating of agreements of a practical study of the profession, which has to include complete and up-to-date craftsman’s data.
The Guild had a handicapped access to information, whether the apprentice submitted the application and whether he passed the journeyman exam. After implementing the system apart from this data one can see also dates of submitting the application, passing the exam, a note, an accounts document (druk ścisłego zarachowania) number of journeyman certificate, etc.
The Chamber has a full access to apprentices’ data. From now on, it doesn’t ask Guilds for a list of apprentices in given professions. It is a matter of displaying a right report.
The Chamber knows, how many apprentices should take the exam in given year – it is enough to display apprentices from he final year class of a given profession. Preparing an exam is a matter of sending invitations not only to those who submitted an application, but also making the “latecomers” interested in a case.
See references