Monthly Archive for May, 2005

IDS Scheer CR: 5 years of experience with EU projects

The first experience with the EU projects dates back to 2000-2001, when Software Development Department and Translation Department pooled their knowledge and accepted an offer from one of the IDS partners to participate in the first project proposal (Dromeas) in order to spread activities to Europe and gain international experience.

A great experience was at work in the multicultural environment of international consortium where various cultural influences reflected various methods of work and communication between partners. A very positive finding was that verbal agreements could be trusted. However, to comply with EU requirements, Czech participants had to specify clearly in the consortium agreement the areas of decision-making, responsibilities, project costs, as well as patents and dissemination rights.

Besides projects’ technical outputs, the company’s benefits definitely included international contacts opportunities, information regarding European markets and the possibility to compare the level of professional knowledge with CR. Although the framework programme projects do not always lead to the development of a commercial product ready to be launched on the market (the outcome is usually a prototype), the company has gained and developed knowledge on the latest technologies, which can be exerted in other projects or commercial orders.

After having gained experience in two projects (DROMEAS, HEALTHY MARKET), the team decided to meet a challenge of being coordinator in the DICTATE project, which was submitted in the area of Systems for health professionals (creating a Health knowledge info-structure) and started in summer 2002. The four-year project reaches a budget of 3.5 million Euros. The objective is to develop a system intermediating a voice input of medical data via a pocket computer, transform it into a standard format and give an unambiguous interpretation to the health record of a patient.

Last year, another project proposal was approved with the participation of IDS Scheer in the 6th Framework Programme with the objective to design a system for planning surgical interventions based on a 3D model of the heart and the entire cardiovascular system of a patient. As a technical partner, IDS Scheer CR is responsible for the system functional specifications of the CARTIDIS project.

Besides the IST projects from the Framework Programmes, IDS Scheer CR has an extensive experience with project proposals for eTEN, eContent, CRAFT, FET Open, Interreg and Innovation programmes. The company would like to exploit its knowledge and experience and would like to reflect it in future cooperation with other international as well as local partners.

ICZ: infotizing health care as an opportunity for European projects

The ICZ company belongs to the top system integrators in the Czech Republic. Thanks to its division focused on e-health it ranks among the leading companies in the field of hospital information systems (IS) on the local market. In 2006 the company turnover reached CZK 1 billion. I discussed the division history and its R&D activities with its product manager, Michal Schmidt.

He originally worked as a programmer in the state company Geofyzika. The opportunity to run his own business after 1989 led him and two other colleagues to join the SET joint stock company that won the tender for an information system in a newly built hospital in Breclav. At that time hospitals were introducing their first complex computer systems and so SET could build its system from scratch according to its ideas and without being limited by a reverse compatibility.

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DC Concept: A network player in the information systems market

Since it was established in 2000, the DC Concept Corporation located in Brno has been focusing on the development of unique object oriented information system including an integrated development CASE tool for creating and customizing applications. Currently, the company has twenty employees developing the system and providing technical and business support, and cooperates with approximately other 200 external consultants that deploy the system within the network of 40 partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I discussed the development plans with one of the company founders and the executive manager at the same time, Jiri Rychetsky.

Ever since the beginning, the development has been concentrated on creating an information system that would encompass tools for analysts and implementators to be able to easily model business processes for applications supporting production and business. So, the QI information system was developed, and the first installation dates back to 2001. “Due to unique system features that enable the system to be completely customized to fit specific customer’s needs from the data, function as well as price points of view, we named it the First elastic information system. Except for advanced functional and data adaptability, customers are interested in price elasticity, which means that they can choose from tens of options how to finance the system lease”, says Jiri Rychetsky.

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