IRIS Europe

Sharing IRIS-Europe project to Help Regions

Vincent Rey — 2009-02-26T14:55:35Z

The consortium decided to present the IRIS Europe Capitalisation project for the 2nd call of INTERREG IVc program.

It is a proposal for cooperation between European regions about transfer of ICT good practices to improve regional framework programming documents. Its focus is on the transfer of capitalized ICT processes between regions, and their integration into regional programmation. During former INTERREG IIIC IRIS Europe (2005-2007), a corpus of ICT practices has been identified. However, it concluded that a mechanism to incentive transfer and integration is also necessary.

The general goal is to systematize a fluid integration of transferable ICT good practices into regional programmation.

The specific goals are:
Create occasions for public momentum and decision-making about transfer of ICT policies between promoters, regional authorities and Managing Authorities of Operational Programmes;
Identify a path for technical integration of these practices into partners' programming documents, and prepare conditions favourable to their implementation into Action Plans.

Partnership has been built so as to represent the different kind of actors needed to make this transfer successful: regional governments, Managing Authorities, ICT experts, with a balanced presence of all EU areas.

Partners are

You could find the google map here : link to the map

N°	Pays	Nom Complet
1	Fr	ARTESI île de France (Île de France Regional ICT Agency)
2	Rm	Public Cooperation Department of Ilfov County
3	Pl	Świętokrzyskie Region
4	Es	FUNDECYT
5	It	Tuscany Region
6	Bg	Sofia Municipality
7	Fr (RUP)	City of La Possession (Reunion Island)
8	All	ENO mbH

Three partners have a specific coordination role within the project:
1. ARTESI île de France: lead partner, responsible for Component 1 Coordination.
2. Region Bucarest/Illfov: responsible for Component 2 Diffusion.
3. Voivod Świętokrzyskie: responsible for Component 3 Transfer.

It is supported by external organisations, as the Assembly of European Regions and the network ERRIN.

Activities are

Component “Transfer”: examine a selection of partners' programming documents (preferably Operational Programmes), and understand where the ICT good practices which have been identified during capitalized projects can serve to implement these programmes in better conditions.
Component “Diffusion”: 2. Component “Diffusion”: partners will organize a European event, aiming at public momentum around partners' commitments, with a session dedicated to Managing Authorities. After 3 editions during the project, this event will be proposed to stakeholder networks for further editions.

Outputs planned:

3 promotion events, the dissemination campaign (1 presentation and 1 report documents, the website, 5 press releases, 1 ICT Campaign),
3 documents mapping partners' planned transfer (transfer matching, transfer selection, preparation of the Action plans),
3 meetings supporting this transfer (1 at each step of the transfer process), the project management.

Planned results

for each partner, 1 Action Plan mapping the modifications to bring to Operational Programmes, with at least 1 ICT practice transferred, the target public informed of the project's goals, the yearly event made durable.

Final event IRIS-Europe - Feedback

Vincent Rey — 2008-04-08T12:20:35Z

Final event IRIS-Europe
13 Novembre 2007

Brussels (Belgium)

IRIS-Europe Final Event took place in Brussels at the Committee of the Regions on 13th Novembre 2007. Attended by 75 participants from 15 different countries representing the most diverse regions of Europe, this event, aiming at presenting IRIS-Europe outputs and results, has been warmly welcomed. It has enabled our consortium to present the project and to communicate on it towards political entities and project managers and to further exchange on issues such as project transfer.

The agenda of our final workshop:

Inter-regional cooperation and INTERREG projects

Welcome speech by Mr. Yannick Landais, Director of ARTESI Ile-de-France.

Speech from a representative person from the Committee of the Regions (CoR)
Speaker: Ms. Marjorie Jouen, president's cabinet administrator at the CoR.

Speech from the Joint Technical Secretariat of INTERREG IIIC West
Speaker: Ms Elena Ferrario - IRIS-Europe project officer, Joint Technical Secretariat of INTERREG IIIC West.

Presentation IRIS-Europe project outputs and the new version to come

— Ms Elena Ferrario - IRIS-Europe project officer, Joint Technical Secretariat of INTERREG IIIC West.
— M. Vincent Rey, European Projects Manager, ARTESI Ile-de-France, France.
— M. Emmanuel Vandamme, -Europe Project Coordinator, OTeN, France.

- Open discussion about the project transfer issue

Debate about the issue of project transfer regarding INTERREG IVC key concepts "Exchange of Experiences, Transfer and Capitalisation".

Speakers:

— Mr. Alain Keravel, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, CCI de Paris - HEC, France.
— Miss. Iro Nikiforou, ATLANTIS Group, University of Crete, Greece.
— Mr. Raul Caires, chairman of Madeira Tecnopolo, Portugal.
— Mr. Arkadiusz Z?otnicki, vice-president of "Cities on Internet" association - COI, Poland.
— Mr. Jérémie Massin, Systèmes d'Information pour les TERritoires - SITER, France.

Mr Miguel Montesdeoca (MMCICOM - Canary Islands) will lead the session.

Conclusions and closing speech by Mr. Yannick Landais, director of ARTESI Ile-de-France

Program of visits in France

Vincent Rey — 2008-04-08T12:11:05Z

Program of visits in France
18-19 Octobre 2006

Paris

The IRIS-EUROPE Forum

The consortium of the project was invited to organize a meeting dedicated to IRIS-Europe within the World E-Gov Forum, taking place in Issy-les-Moulineaux from 18th to 20th Octobre 2006.

The IRIS-Europe Forum, an international event, enabled European managers of ICT projects to share their experience, ideas and good practices identified in their own countries. A selection of projects analysed under the IRIS-Europe program has been presented during round tables and a debate on the transformation of public services has been organized.

Program of the event:
Présentation of the IRIS-Europe project and the partners involved
E-administration at the service of citizens
— Project @Netville (France) : leading and help of local authorities in their development of online services
— Cities on Internet (Poland) : presentation of COI's activities regarding local and regional e-development
— Wireless Network in Hersonisos (Greece) : Infrastructure and user services, with Wireless Municipal Networks
A global approach of e-tourism
— E-tourism platform in the Canary Islands (Spain) : booking and advertising applications aimed at rural tourism companies and associations
— Project CYVEL (France) : Touristic information system on the regional touristic offer
Debate: How to accelerate the transformation of public services?

Visits in situ

"URBAM" project

To encourage the use of its networks and offer a diverse range of services, meeting the needs of its increasingly mobile customers, the RATP provides free access, via URBAM terminals to practical and user-friendly services related whether to transport, local services, local news or citizen's services and so on… The partners of the project were able to go and use those terminals since they were presented during the World E-Gov Forum by the leaders of the " URBAM " project.

Belleville social centre

Since 1997, Belleville social centre acts to reduce the digital divide by promoting the use of Internet and, generally speaking, the use of ICT in an educational context. The partners were welcomed by Dominique Dardel, the head of the project, who presented them the actions of the centre.

Program of visits in Poland

Vincent Rey — 2008-04-08T12:04:04Z

Program of visits in Poland
27-29 June 2007

Zakopane

Participation to 'XI Cities on Internet' conference

"Cities on Internet" Conference is an undertaking organized annually by the Association (since 1997). It is the meeting place for the leaders of eGovernment implementation - representatives of the public administration and ICT sector companies from Poland, and since 2001, also from other European countries. First editions of the conference (1997-1999) were held in Tarnów, and in the subsequent years (2000-2006) the event was hosted by Zakopane.

The conference plays a significant role in shaping the contemporary understanding of the concept of the Information Society, and in building the knowledge-based community in Poland. It is an esteemed forum, where participants can share information and experience in the field of the development of administrative services using electronic means and on issues of administering the territories utilising Information and Communication technology (ICT).

The partners of the IRIS-Europe project have attended the conference in its whole. Besides, the 'XI Cities on Internet' event has been partly dedicated to the IRIS-Europe project since one of the workshops was fully dedicated to IRIS-Europe. It has given the consortium the opportunity to present the project in itself in front of an international audience and to highlight some relevant Polish case studies thanks to the speeches of different project leaders.

Visits in situ

During this trip, the consortium has been invited to go and see one of the project developed in the Polish case studies which was "Building a regional positioning system in Malopolska Region".

The project deals with building a network of GPS reference stations in Malopolska Region along with the network management centre equipped with a software generating a RTK/DGPS corrections. It also foresees a pilot launching of a monitoring system for Tatra Volunteer Mountain Rescue Service. The system will enable gaining a geographical information very useful for a wide range of users: geodesy, cartography, merging and modernizing agrarian areas, agriculture, forestry, irrigation, geology, transportation and industry engineering, irrigation, mining, radiocommunication, photogrammetry, environment protection (…).

The partners have visited the Tatra Volunteer Mountain Rescue Service to understand how the system works and to question its end-users.

Program of visits in Greece

Vincent Rey — 2008-04-08T12:00:09Z

Program of visits in Greece
(Region of Crete)

29-30 March, 2007

Hersonissos, Heraklion

The ATLANTIS Group organized a project meeting with the participants of the IRIS-Europe project in Heraklion, Crete, on 29-30 March 2007. The meeting was hosted by the Municipality of Hersonissos in the premises of the Municipal Port Fund of the town.

The interest of such a place was twofold. On the one hand, it enabled our consortium to set a MSC Meeting. On the other hand, as the Municipality of Hersonissos had implemented a project of broadband services, it gave the opportunity to the partners to make an in situ visit.

Project presented: Broadband services in the Municipality of Hersonissos.

The project goal is to spread the use of broadband wireless Internet services to the inhabitants of Hersonissos municipality and, in addition, to the Crete region. The following activities was developed the all project long

Seminars for the demonstration of broadband services in special places.
Promotion activities (e.g. meetings, events)
Promotion material (e.g. leaflets, posters)

The IRIS-Europe partners visited places with broadband access where computers and infokiosks inform people about the broadband services. They also attended a seminar organized in the Hersonissos primary school in order to demonstrate applications over broadband Internet.

Program of visits in Portugal

Vincent Rey — 2008-04-08T11:46:33Z

Program of visits in Portugal

(Region of Madeira)

21-22 Septembre, 2006

Funchal

During this program of visit, Madeira Tecnopolo (MT) has organized several workshops to present to all the partners of IRIS-Europe some of the ICT projects developed in the Portuguese case studies.

Patricia Dantas Caires, from CEIM, has presented the following Portuguese project:
B@n - Business Atlantic Network

Jorge Fernandes, from Expedita, has presented the following Portuguese project:
Gestools – "Gestools - ASP based SME Management Platform"

Miguel Montesdeoca, from MMCICOM, has presented 5 projects implemented in the Canary Islands:
e-Tourism platform
Gomera Digital
PYME.ES: solutions for incorporating SMEs into the Information Society
BA-PR. Broad Band General Access Networks and Technologies: Remote point access network.
MEDUSA PRIMARIA

Visits in situ

Two visits have been organized by Madeira Tecnopolo for the partners to better understand the projects studied within the framework of IRIS-Europe:

eForma, at the ACIF (Chamber of Commerce of Funchal) The eForma project aims at allowing entrepreneurs and their staff access to high level training, with innovative methods, taking advantage of the possibilities provided by Information and Communication Technologies..

Porto Santo Line Digital, at the Porto Santo Line Company. The aim of this project was to implement an integrated booking system to the ferry company, Porto Santo Line. At the same time all the institutional website of the company was restructured to become more dynamic and appealing.

Regional and sectorial analyses

Rautureau Charlotte — 2008-03-05T13:16:48Z

The regional and sectorial analyses make a full-fledged component which objectives are:
a better understanding of the opportunities that ICTs offer to a regional sustainable development,
the identification of the main drivers and perspectives in 6 crucial fields of competence of regional development,
a regional benchmarking of the ICT policies implemented by regional governments.

The analyses of regional development in the different partner regions is both “vertical” (in each region) and “transversal” (in considering the ICT projects developed in a given sector such as education).

The regional analyses bring a strategic vision of the ICT regional policies at the different levels of territories. With the interregional benchmarking, it enables to draw action plans for regional policies integrating ICTS.

The sectorial analyses aim at identifying the main drivers and perspectives of 6 major fields of competence of regional governments which are:
e-administration
economic development
education and learning
tourism and culture
health and social care
infrastructures.

Those analyses were based on common methodologies and tools built by the partners, with the support of external expertise for certain specific topics.

Velti S.A.: Mobile Advertising

Petros Kavassalis — 2008-01-28T10:37:52Z

Description : This case describes the mobile marketing of Velti that provides value-added services

Type of initiative : Provision of mobile marketing and advertising

Targets : Advertising agencies, operators, media, publishing, big magazines

Territory : Greece

Initiator : Velti

Date of launching : 2000

Status : Ongoing

1- Context and objectives of the project

1.1 Context and origin of the project

Marketing via the traditional media (TV, radio, and print) seem to be declining over the last few years, as they cannot reach specific demographic groups, while the public often employs the tactic of skipping the advertisements. This, along with the increasing use of mobile phones had as a result the emergence of a new marketing channel: mobile marketing. Velti S.A. has scoped these trends and offers mobile marketing and advertising services, combining knowledge over the markets with technological expertise.

Velti S.A. is an international firm with headquarters in Athens, London, New York, San Francisco, and Sofia. It operates in media content delivery, messaging service management, mobile marketing, mobile advertising, and customer lifecycle management. In Greece, its personnel numbers 217 persons of which more than 150 are technicians supporting the technological orientation of the firm.

This case describes the provision of mobile marketing services by Velti. More specifically, the case provides insight in the way an advertising firm uses technology, in order to develop a new marketing channel.

Mobile marketing is the marketing on or with a mobile device, such as mobile phone, that has become increasingly popular since the early 2000s and the rise of SMS (Short Messaging Service). A subset of mobile market is mobile advertising, which is “a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones” [1].

1.2 Objectives

The objective of the project was to use an alternative marketing channel for advertising products and brands in a quickly developing market.

2- Description and organisation of the project

2.1 Market overview

In Greece, a small number of firms (3 firms approximately) are in the market of the mobile marketing focusing on specific services. Velti provides a wide range of mobile marketing and advertising services.

2.2 The provided services

The provided services can be distinguished in advertising (Above-The-Line: ATL) and marketing (Below-The-Line: BTL) activities:

1. ATL advertising includes energies banner, advertisements on videos (pre-rolls and post-rolls), etc.

2. BTL includes contests, development of WAP sites, etc.

2.3 Target groups

Velti's target groups are:

1. Advertising agencies/ brands: They can increase their marketing mix and optimize brand exposure by delivering a message to a highly-targeted audience 2. Operators: Since their profitability keeps in declination, they are looking for additional ways to increase their revenues through the use of services, such as mobile WAP sites, screensavers, and ring tones. In that way, they can advertise their own products and create an environment of loyal customers 3. Media: For example, TV shows or movies releases in the cinema 4. Publishing: Providing quotes or book content in the mobile 5. Big Magazines

3- Implementation of the project

3.1 Methodology

The process of their work begins with the presentation of a project to the services by a marketing team. If the buyer shows an interest to the project, a more technically educated team makes a more thorough presentation, implements the project, and adjust to the buyers' needs and requirements. Moreover, quality control is involved so as to control the way the project is being delivered.

3.2 Human resources

The firm has 217 employees, of whom more than 150 are technologists. The number of the employees working in a project differs depending on the project needs and may range from 10-50.

3.3 Communication on the project

Velti is a global firm operating in countries and it partners with large companies and brands, such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. Thus, it has already established a strong basis of buyers.

Furthermore, Velti has created Ansible through its joint venture with IPG Interpublic. This has facilitated the marketing activities of the firm, as it uses the customer base of IPG.

4- Results and perspectives

Velti has good prospects as it is one of the leading firms in the field and it operates in a marketing area that is still in its infancy. Additionally, the decline of traditional marketing media, the increasing use of mobile phones, and the provision of additional ways in increasing the firms' revenues create opportunities for the sustainability and higher impact of the project. However, issues such as the unfamiliarity of the target groups with the new marketing channel and the arising privacy issues constitute drawbacks for such an activity, as the SWOT analysis illustrates.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Mobile marketing is still in its infancy The company is one of the leading and pioneering ones in the field

Weaknesses:

It is difficult to convince the target groups that mobile marketing is an efficient one, due to its newness Privacy issues impose limitations in its usage

Opportunities:

Traditional media are declining The ownership of mobile phones keeps on increasing It provides additional ways to increase the revenues

Threats:

Operators are hesitant in mobile marketing, since they do not want to alienate their customers

5- Criteria of evaluation

5.1 Objectives

The objective of Velti mobile marketing was to use an alternative marketing channel. This objective is sound given the international trends, the increasing technology orientation of marketing firms, and the decline of the traditional advertising media.

5.2 Management of change

Change usually entails employees' resistance, since it changes their everyday life practices and customs. However, changes are more inherent in the marketing industry, since the firms should be constantly adapting to the arising needs and developing innovations.

5.3 Innovation

The innovation of the project lies in the use of new technological means in advertising and marketing in general.

5.4 Impact

The impact of the project was significant, as: The firm has doubled their profits Many firms, buyers of Velti's services, have a leading role in their sectors.

5.5 Replicability

Mobile marketing can be replicated by other marketing firms

5.6 Sustainability

The sustainability of the project depends on the metrics it shall yield. However, it seems to be sustainable in the as the use of digital means in marketing are only in their beginning.

Footnotes :

[1] www.wikipedia.org

SRN - Effective use of European Structural Funds

Mário Oliveira — 2008-01-25T11:19:22Z

Description : "SRNeurope.net is a Europe-wide network dedicated to the effective use and delivery of Structural Funds and regeneration programmes in sub-regional areas. The SRNeurope network was established by thirteen European partners from eight countries to share good practice in the delivery of Structural Funds and other regeneration programmes at a sub-regional level. The network has formed a body of knowledge on best practice which will inform and influence how agencies manage the delivery of Structural Funds and regeneration programmes. The SRNeurope network has identified transferable lessons in sub-regional delivery which will successfully work in a wide variety of circumstances. It makes positive recommendations as to appropriate management and decision making structures. These recommendations will benefit not only sub-regional and City administrations, but also regional and national government and EU policy makers. The SRNeurope network notes advantages to a devolved Management of Structural Funds programmes from National and Regional governments to local City and other sub-regional levels. "

Targets : Public Administrations making use of Structural Funds and regeneration programmes in sub-regional areas.

Territory : Canary Islands

Initiator : Sociedad de Desarrollo de Tenerife

Date of launching : September 2004

Status : Closed

Coordinator:Sociedad de Desarrollo de Tenerife

Reference site: SRN Europe

INTERREGIIIC ERDF and FEDER

Coastal Practice Network

Mário Oliveira — 2008-01-25T11:18:29Z

Description : "(1) To develop a network of coastal stakeholders to exchange information and examples of best practice which will support local and regional efforts for an integrated planning of coastal areas. This network must bridge the gap between planners, managers and the research community throughout Europe. (2) To support interregional exchange of best practice information on (a) sustainable tourism and (b) coastal erosion and beach management through an integrated approach. "

Targets : Entities related to Quality enhancement and sustainability, which are key objectives for tourism development. These should be part of an integrated, multi-sectoral planning approach which also ensures that conservation of coastal marine and natural resources (including landscape) is a fundamental asset for recreation within a programme of regional development.

Territory : Canary Islands

Initiator : Institute of Marine Sciences, Canary Is.

Date of launching : January 2004

Status : Closed

Coordinator: Institute of Marine Sciences, Canary Is.

Reference site: COPRANET

INTERREGIIIC