THE CUSTOMER
Società Dolce, a social cooperative established in Bologna in 1988, operates in the field of educational and social welfare services in cooperation with administrations, local institutions and private companies.
THE CHALLENGE
The objective identified by the IT department was to digitise the cooperative's database and enable the streamlining and efficiency of heterogeneous and complex management processes, for the activation of services and contractualisation.
Identified weaknesses:
- Data management: there was no option to digitally analyse and manage the overall position of an individual user, making it difficult to have clear evidence of their situation, services which they had access to or in which they might potentially have been interested;
- Several service access points: The services used by the client differentiated the enrolment and registration phase from the daily operational phase and did not handle the bureaucratic-administrative part. The management system in use held all the information concerning the enrolled children, but registration remained linked to the individual facility (nursery) and any requests for ancillary services had to be requested via other web systems with master data entry for each request. The management of the nursery itself was also fragmented, with one portal dedicated to registrations and news and another dedicated to the day-to-day operations of the kindergarten.
We have been working continuously with the Synextya team since 2020 and they have proved to be very competent and professional right from the start. We were supported and guided through the entire digital transformation process, first in the project sharing phase, then in an in-depth analysis to define objectives and strategy. To date, we have created a concrete technological development project that has brought about significant improvements in the company. It all started from the need to digitally innovate the childhood area of Società Dolce, and the project has evolved over time thanks to their technical and consultancy support capable of involving and optimising more and more elements.
THE SOLUTION
We started with a path of analysis, Digital Transformation Assessment, which made it possible to outline a strategy and roadmap for the next 3 years to achieve the following objectives:
- Improving technology and the way information is used.
- Centralisation of the customer database and master data of Società Dolce.
- Development of a new management system for crèches and related services.
PROJECT ELEMENTS
Digital transformation assessment
Analysis of the cooperative's needs and objectives, with the structuring of a multi-year digitisation plan.
Cloud and database infrastructure
Study and implementation of the cloud infrastructure (AWS) and database. Digitisation of the completion and contract generation process.
Customer area portal
Design and development of a web portal for customers and a connected administration panel.
Childhood area portal
Design and development of a native iOS and Android web portal and app for parents of minors and an Android web portal and app for internal management of operators.
PROJECT PHASES
PHASE 1
Digital Transformation Assessment
With the involvement of one of our project managers and a technical leader, a complete and detailed identity provider project of Società Dolce and the new kindergarten management.
At this stage, it was deemed necessary to involve the figures that the customer considers to be key elements, corresponding to the various decision-making areas such as IT, Administration, Marketing and Legal.
The objective of this project phase is to define in detail time, costs and how to implement the subsequent stages.
Key actions:
- Analysis of the current state of proceedings;
- Focus on specific areas to be involved in the process;
- Analysis processing.
Focus:
- Technical and management improvements on the currently existing computer systems for the management of kindergartens and the childcare area;
- Centralisation of all master data of customers, and users of services of Società Dolce, in a single database.
PHASE 2
Identity provider development
During the analysis, the need emerged to structure a main portal (currently dedicated to the world of Childhood, but designed with a view to the future to potentially accommodate the entire panorama of Soft Society Services) for centralised management of registrations, contracts and customer master data.
A unique authentication system with OAuth 2.0 protocol, defined as the identity provider of Società Dolce in order to provide users with a unique digital identity, linked to the Società Dolce world, with which they can request access to all the services provided.
A user who registers on the Portal can use it as a restricted area where they can view information on their active services, contracts, invoices, news and documents.
Key actions:
- Creation of a single portal for centralised data management;
- Microsoft Identity Platform implementation of the authentication protocol OAuth 2.0.
Focus:
- Enabling end users to access a unique master data management platform;
- Enabling Società Dolce to have a clear picture of the situation of each subscriber to its services;
PHASE 3
Management development of kindergartens
After an in-depth analysis of the roles and all the functionalities that gravitate around the World Childhood Managementwe identified the need to design 3 different macro-instruments, interconnected and adapted according to needsuseful for the satisfaction of all management functions in the Childhood area:
- Dolce Society side web platform - For the role of Admins, Responsible Coordinators and Coordinators
- App educators side Sweet Society - For the role of operational educators on a kindergarten for daily activities
- App and family-side web portal - For the role of end users, such as families and children
Key actions:
- Functionality analysis and roles;
- Graphic design of the management system;
- Scalable backend on Amazon Web Services, API, Internal Management Web Platform, Family Web Portal, iOS and Android App.
Focus:
- Technological advancement, digital customer service with improvements in user experience;
- Digitisation of the registration process with elimination of redundant data entries for different services;
- Improvement of the management process by SD staff.
