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Certification Human Resource in Sport (Software Platform PRODesporto)
Sport Institute of Portugal (Instituto do Desporto de Portugal, IP)
Portugal

The Problem

The legal sports regimen in Portugal limits the exercise of the fitness instructor, sports coach, scuba divers and scuba divers instructors to citizens who have a certification license issued by the Instituto do Desporto de Portugal, I.P. (IDP, I.P.).
To obtain the referred Certification licenses the applicants most meet specific conditions determine by law (i.e.: professional qualifications; education degrees, etc.) and most pay a tax.

Counting on about 80.000 potentials citizens evolved (20.000 fitness instructor; 50.000 sports coach; 10.000 scuba divers; 1.000 scuba divers instructors), the emission of licenses represents a huge effort to the State administration, in terms of licensing and controlling of the regularity of the emitted licenses and revenues.

The ancient process was based in the centralized impression of forms and documents and inserting data into a database. This procedure was totally outdated in relation to the new existing technologies, and was very demanding regarding not only human and material resources. It was a very inefficient process.

The main motivations for change where the following:
- The reduction of human and financing resources involved, with particular attention to the reduction of annual consumption in paper and fuel generated by the system (and related CO2 emissions);
- The difficulty of the State Administration (IDP, I.P., and other state entities involved in the system) in assuring an efficient fiscalization on the who has a valid licenses to operate;
- Facilitate access to information by the fiscalization bodies (sports federations and ASAE);
- The need to facilitate procedures and decrees the processing time of the licensing requests.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Strong increase in the easiness of access to the service by the target; a faster service, Improvement in the exchange of information and in the sharing of completely digitized information; Emission of licenses in a fully computerized system with less human resources and material; Reduction of the costs of emission of licenses and Reduction in the time of collection of the incomes of the State administration.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The decision to take forward this project was of the IDP,I.P. – Software Platform Solution named PRODesporto
The IDP,I.P. was in charge of operationalizing the project. The SIBS (Interbank Services Company) was contracted to develop the licensing service through a network of boxes "ATM". This was done through a bank, the Instituto de Gestão da Tesouraria e do Crédito Público (IGTCP), as well as through a consultant company QUIDGEST – Consultores de Gestão S.A., for the development of the backoffice and frontoffice (web platform)

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
There was the need to facilitate and improve the procedures regarding the sports licensing certification scheme, concerning, certification licenses requests, processing certification licenses requests, payment procedures, access to data (IDP,I.P. and Fiscalization bodies)

The requesites defined included:
- a mechanism that operated in web environment;
- a mechanism that facilitated the Certificate license tax payment
-a fast mechanism, with a user-friendly interface (backoffice and frontoffice)
- a mechanism that facilitated the communication between IDP,I.P. and the other fiscalization bodies

Issues concerning the software solution:
In order to identify a service provider to build the solution that would meet our needs concerning functionality, safety and reliability, IDP.I.P. searched for a provider that had the knowledge, the experience and technology in developing computing platforms similar to the one we had in mind in a short period of time. After evaluating the market the best proposal was presented by QUIDGEST, a Company that’s has in in its curriculum a series of awards for good practices in the production of software solutions.

Issues concerning payment procedures:
After evaluating existing resources, it became clear that the electronic mechanism that best suited the requirements previously established was the "ATM" network system ATM-network universal banking services in Portugal, developed by SIBS.
That system was found extremely appropriate to the objectives to be achieved, with respect to the creation of a service easy and intuitive to be use by citizens, simplifying the whole process and ensuring a sound relationship between citizens and public administration more comfortable, without however, neglecting the legality and security required by the permit in question and the reduction of manpower involved in the process and material resources.
Apart from a mechanism that would meet those requirements, was also critical to ensure the development of a backoffice system that allows the exchange of information between the IDP,I.P. and SIBS.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Key steps in developing the project and its chronology:
- Diagnosis and needs analysis: between December 2008 and February 2009;
- Developing the idea and the concept: between March 2009 and April 2009;
- Market survey and acquisition of service: between April 2009 and May 2009;
- Project Development- PRODesporto Software platform
- software interface for the backoffice, between June 2009 and October 2009;
- software interface for the frontoffice, between September 2009 and November 2009
- Period of Tests (backoffice and frontoffice): Dezember 2009;
- Implementation of the PRODesporto Platform: January 2010

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The obstacles encountered in implementing the project was:
1- The lack of experience in the IDP,I.P. staff in the developing this kind of projects;
2- The need to developed the project when they were not yet regulated all the procedures for issuing certification licenses
To overcome the problems:
1- was assigned a person (IDP employee) to work side by side with the QUIDGEST along the project development
2. was made a more open and configurable Software platform that adapts to future changes in the procedures

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Financial resources used:

- Monthly service SIBS - €1.000,00 / month (plus per transaction, a fixed value of € 0,22 and a variable 0.9% of the transaction);
- Cost of Software Platform PRODesporto development (backoffice and frontoffice) - € 50,000.00
Human Resources of the IDP,I.P. used in the development and implementation of the project:
- a Senior Officer, deployed to 75% in the period from December 2008 to January 2010

Resource Materials used in project implementation:
- a Web server and a SQLdataserver – € 5.000.00

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative is sustainable and the project has enormous potential to replicate other types of permits issued by the Government.
In addition to the transferable capacity, the project also allows the sharing of information with law enforcement authorities that have fiscalization responsibilities in this matters.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Processing time / demand (on average) 10 days 5 days(without implementation and with implementation)
Allocation of HR'S - System Operators 10 Operators 5 Operators (without implementation and with implementation)
Cost of consumables (paper, printing and postage) / year +/- 20.000 € +/- 200 € (without implementation and with implementation)
No. of postal communications / year 25000 communications 0 communications (without implementation and with implementation)
Number of license applications processed / day / by 1 operator 15- 30 (without implementation and with implementation)

The main lessons learned from this project are:
- Administrative simplification and the development of technological solutions in the relationship between public administration allows to reduce costs and ensures the collection of taxes by the Administration;
- Comfort, convenience and security that these technological solutions bring to the work done by the administration increases citizens confidence in public services;
- Technological innovation contributes significantly to the effectiveness of the system

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Sport Institute of Portugal (Instituto do Desporto de Portugal, IP)
Institution Type:   Public Agency  
Contact Person:   JOSÉ VIEIRA
Title:   VICE-PRESIDENT  
Telephone/ Fax:   00 351 213124801
Institution's / Project's Website:   00 351 213124988
E-mail:   jevieira@idesporto.pt  
Address:   AV. INFANTE SANTO, 76
Postal Code:   1399-062
City:   Lisbon
State/Province:  
Country:   Portugal

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