The talk
On 19 May 2010, at the Forum PA 2010 at the Nuova Fiera di Roma, Stefano Noferi speaks as a panellist in the seminar “Open Source tool integration for public administration: document management with Alfresco, mail and collaboration with Zimbra”. The talk, focused on document management with Alfresco, is paired with Stefano Pampaloni’s (CEO, Seacom) presentation on Zimbra.
The context
In 2010 Italian public administration faces converging requirements on the document management front: electronic protocol, digital preservation (conservazione sostitutiva), operational workflow digitalisation, multi-channel access (Internet, Intranet, mobile), dematerialisation of processes and document flows, integration with digital signatures and certified email (PEC), mass acquisition with intelligent content recognition.
The talk starts from the observation of recurring problems: lack of document process analysis, reliance on ready-made solutions that are incomplete or unsuitable, organisations reluctant to change, IT departments under pressure.
The approach
The approach presented by noze is based on five points:
- Flexible, modular software: configurable and customisable to the specific organisation, not a rigid package
- Process analysis: study of the organisational structure and document flows before implementation
- Configuration and customisation: adapting the application to the actual processes of the institution
- Planned migration: transition from existing systems with continuous support
- Targeted training: guiding users through adoption
Alfresco in public administration
The presentation illustrates the Alfresco features relevant to public administration: document management and classification, full-text search, customisable workflows, versioning, ACL (Access Control List), notifications, state tracking and multi-channel access.
For the Italian public administration context, Alfresco is extended with specific features:
- OCR acquisition with content template recognition
- Digital signature verification support
- PKI and CNS (Carta Nazionale dei Servizi) authentication
- Certified email (PEC) sending and receiving support
- Interoperability with multi-function hardware
- Accessible version compliant with the legge Stanca (Italian accessibility law)
- SPCoop application cooperation standard (CART Regione Toscana)
- Digital preservation (conservazione sostitutiva)
The public administration module covers protocol, registers, signatures, dossiers, organisation charts, check-in/check-out and historicisation.
Cases presented
The talk includes references to document management projects delivered by noze with Alfresco for organisations across different sectors:
- Pharmaceutical company: knowledge management, order management process digitalisation, Intranet integration
- Professional pension fund: document architecture, protocol, virtual desktops, dematerialisation
- Trade confederation: Sales and Production process digitalisation, document applications
- National scientific society: dematerialisation of the congress poster proposal, editing, evaluation and consultation process