Press Office

On Friday, 20 January, OTAGO IT Services Ltd., a subsidiary of the Asseco Group, concluded a contract with the Municipal Office of Gdańsk for construction of the Gdańsk Education Platform.For the first time in Poland, information technology employed for education purposes covers such a wide range of functionality and is implemented on such a large scale. The Gdańsk Education Platform will facilitate communication among offices, schools, teachers, pupils and their parents, as well as it will support the management and operations of educational establishments in all teaching, administrative, and financial areas. The project worth nearly PLN 16 million will be carried out by a consortium of three companies which have been selected in a tendering procedure. Completion of the project has been scheduled for the end of January 2013.Acting as a member of the consortium, OTAGO will be responsible, among others, for the delivery and implementation of an integrated IT system to support budgeting and financial management at educational institutions. The company is going to deploy its proprietary OTAGO solution based on a central database. The system will be used by both the administrating body and employees of all 191 educational establishments. The OTAGO's planning and budgetary analysis system will provide a set of innovative electronic tools to facilitate organizational and financial planning, as well as to enable gathering and analysis of the organizational and financial data. Furthermore, the system will be used to maintain the accounts and draw up budgets for all the educational institutions managed by the city.The Municipal Office of Gdańsk has been a client of OTAGO for many years. The OTAGO system has been developed and operated at the Municipal Office since the 1990s and nowadays it supports almost all spheres of its activities. By implementing the system into further areas of city management, the Municipal Office aims towards the construction of a central municipal system, which will cover subsequent processes in the future and lay a necessary foundation for development of the envisaged common services centre.OTAGO is a company responsible for coordination of the Asseco Group sales within the local government market. The company operates with a purpose to provide possibly the broadest and most comprehensive offer to that segment of the market. Last year OTAGO decided to expand its portfolio with education management software, which would be complementary to its integrated municipal management system. Hence, the company concluded an agreement to purchase an organized part of the enterprise of Cracow-based Silvermedia, embodying a number of state-of-the-art solutions designed to support management processes in education. In addition, OTAGO took over a team of highly qualified employees, including software designers, developers and implementation engineers, who were the power base for the acquired solutions.As noted by Jarosław Jastrzębski, OTAGO's CEO, it is just owing to the takeover of a portion Silvermedia's business and incorporation of their education management tools into the company's flagship system that OTAGO was able to successfully participate in the tender for the Gdańsk Education Platform, and now can think positively about a return on this investment.

Payments for parking, traveling by public transportation, entrance to museums and fees at offices – all of these and much more will be available for settlement with the Silesian Public Services Card (SPSC). Poland's largest project to launch a city payment card has been initiated. The project implementation has been assigned to the consortium of BRE Bank and Asseco Poland.The Municipal Transport Union of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region, responsible for public transportation services in Silesia, has signed a contract with the consortium of BRE Bank and Asseco Poland, the winners of a tender worth nearly PLN 190 million. The introduction of the Silesian Public Services Card shall take 16 months, during which the first 400 thousand cards will be issued out of the total 700 thousand cards in target.BRE Bank, acting within the consortium, will be responsible for the production and personalization of cards, preparation of the SPSC settlement system, clearing of settlements among the parties involved in the system, and handling of payments made in public places where the cards will be used.This is a very important project for us and the first one carried out on such a large scale in Poland. It will be implemented over a wide area and in a very short time. It also requires the cooperation of many entities -says Przemysław Gdański, Member of the Management Board of BRE Bank responsible for corporate banking. The introduction of SPSC will make life easier for the inhabitants of Silesia. We believe they are going to appreciate the project benefits quickly - he adds.Asseco Poland will implement a modern fee collection system in all vehicles managed by the Municipal Transport Union, and is going to install 109 multifunctional ticket vending machines, 232 parking fee machines, and create a network of 1200 points designed to accept and recharge the cards. The entire SPSC settlement system will be managed by state-of-the-art software installed on huge computing power servers located in two data processing centers. Asseco Poland will also create a web portal available for the system users.Asseco decided to participate in the Silesian Public Services Card project and this was a good decision. We have an opportunity to implement a solution that is very innovative and unique in Europe. We strongly believe that our success in Silesia will allow us to implement similar projects also for other cities in Poland. Together with BRE Bank, we have adequate working capacity and knowledge to bring a higher level of technology into the municipal services provided in Poland. Silesia has been preparing for this project for several years, and our consortium will do everything required to introduce a new quality of life for the region's inhabitants as soon as possible - says Wojciech Woźniak, Vice President of Asseco Poland.

The SPSC system is the largest project of this kind in Poland. It will enable the urban agglomeration residents to make payments with the card when using public transportation or parking lots, as well as when visiting museums or municipal offices. The card payments will be accepted in the total of 120 public utility centers situated in 21 municipalities across the province. In addition to the electronic purse (e-money instrument), the card will be also utilized as the holder's ID and electronic signature carrier.Introduction of the card is a great convenience for the residents of Silesia. It will allow an easy way to benefit from municipal services, and carry an electronic ticket. By analysing various information, including the amount of payments collected in individual vehicles, we will be able to effectively adapt our transportation services to the actual needs of passengers - says Roman Urbańczyk, Chairman of the Management Board of the Municipal Transport Union.The total cost of the Card project implementation and maintenance till 2018 is estimated at PLN 190 million. Whereas, a substantial part of the project financing will be provided by the European Regional Development Fund.The Silesian Public Services Card is yet another innovative solution implemented by the corporate banking division of BRE Bank. Recently, the Cracow City Card project has been launched also in collaboration with BRE Bank. Previously, the bank has successfully marketed the Sports Fan Cards in Kielce and Szczecin, and Open’er Festival Cards, just to mention a few. In October 2011, BRE Bank issued its pre-paid card number 100 thousand. This service has been already used by more than 400 companies.

Asseco Poland S.A. continues to cooperate with the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR) by providing the maintenance and development of the Agency's Information System (AIS). The Company and HP Poland have concluded a subcontractor agreement worth PLN 33.9 million net.
The contract covers the Agency's Information System that includes the Integrated Administration and Control System, known as IACS, for handling of EU subsidies to farmers. It is one of the most complex systems within the Polish administration, being operated by nearly 6.5 thousand users who generate 12 million documents a year. The system has been developed by Asseco Poland S.A. during over a dozen years of collaboration with ARiMR. An important part of the IACS system is the application for identification and registration of livestock (IRZ) which is critical for the process of veterinary checks on animals.
Under this contract Asseco Poland S.A. will be also maintaining multiple other applications built for the Agency. These shall include, among others, the system for management of subsidies granted under the Rural Development Programme, as well as the platform that enables sharing of data collected by ARiMR with other institutions and allows farmers to submit their subsidy applications over the Internet.
"The systems developed by Asseco Poland S.A. make it possible for ARiMR to fulfil its obligations of a payment agency, which are strictly controlled while any negligence could even result in the withdrawal of EU aid. Therefore, ensuring a properly operating information system is of fundamental importance to this institution. By assigning this task to a company with an appropriate team of professionals, ARMA is able to focus on its business priorities," says Witold Malina, Managing Director of the Agriculture Division at Asseco Poland S.A.
The contract shall be carried out by a team of 120 specialists of Asseco Poland S.A. till the end of 2012.

Asseco Poland S.A. signed an agreement with the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMWM) to develop and implement the IT System for Quality Control of Hydrological and Meteorological Measurements and Hydrological Forecasts, expand the Customer Service System, as well as to create and implement the Central Historical Database. The contract value exceeds the amount of PLN 25 million (gross).Implementation of the system will enable centralization of all the key data generated by individual function systems used at IMWM, also providing for the unification of access and better storage security of such data. The system also aims to improve the quality of hydrological forecasts prepared and to streamline the distribution of products developed for IMWM's customers. The system will be built on a centralized architecture, matching the latest standards of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and using the enterprise service bus (ESB).Under this project Asseco Poland will furthermore supply the necessary hardware infrastructure, install third-party software, conduct a pre-deployment analysis, implement five modules of the system, and provide appropriate user training."We feel honoured that IMWM, acting in accordance with the World Bank procedures, has chosen our company to implement such a mission-critical system. Floods, which occur more and more frequently in our country, have emphasized the need for using an efficient and reliable system capable of processing the data on actual water levels and rainfall forecasts. Implementation of the new system will significantly enhance the quality of hydrological forecasting, and improve the distribution of information to adequate state services, local authorities, other public organizations as well as to the public. This is our first large size project for IMWM and we hope it will bring a lot of satisfaction to our client, thereby triggering further long-term cooperation within the supply and maintenance of customer-tailored systems," says Witold Malina, Managing Director of the Agriculture Division at Asseco Poland S.A.The planned project duration is one and a half years (the contract also provides for a three-year warranty period).

OTAGO, a subsidiary of the Asseco Group, concluded a contract with the Municipal Office of Piła for supply and implementation of the Integrated Municipal Management Information System.
The implementation will cover the main areas of operations of the Municipal Office in Piła, including accounting and finance, budgeting, financial forecasting, human resources and payroll, taxes and non-tax charges, population records, and the records of land and buildings.The system will not only support the work of employees at the Municipal Office, but it will also enable communication with its subordinate units. Within the implementation process, OTAGO's specialists will migrate data from the Office's legacy software systems and train their staff to use the newly installed software. The implementation project is expected to be completed by 30 June 2012.Zakład Usług Informatycznych OTAGO Sp. z o.o. employs nearly 90 people in the cities of Gdańsk, Łódź, Cracow, and Katowice, and provides IT services throughout the country. For twenty years, OTAGO has been engaged solely in the development and implementation of software solutions to support the work of local administration. The company is the creator and owner of the OTAGO Integrated Municipal Management Information System. Among the company's clients are most of larger Polish cities such as Warsaw, Gdańsk, Cracow, Łódź, Wrocław, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz, as well as medium-sized cities such as Zabrze, Toruń, Ruda Śląska, Rzeszów, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, Starogard Gdański, Piaseczno, Skierniewice, and Łowicz. OTAGO has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asseco Poland S.A. since 2009.

The Regional Medical Information System (RMIS) is the first IT system in Poland that is going to link all the healthcare facilities subordinate to a provincial self-government. It will allow easier access to medical services for patients as well as more effective management for hospitals.The project cost exceeds PLN 40 million, of which 75 percent will be financed by the European Union. The implementation of RMIS has been divided into two stages. The first involves the construction of an appropriate network infrastructure, installation of hardware and software in 24 healthcare facilities located across Łódź Province. In the second stage, a medical portal will be created, enabling patients to get quick information about the availability of medical professionals they are looking for. Another important functionality of the portal will be to keep records indicating the place where each patient’s treatment dossier is stored.The contract, whereby Asseco Poland is going to provide the network infrastructure, has been officially signed today at the Marshal's Office in Łódź. The company’s specialists will construct the passive infrastructure, including fiber optic connections between buildings and structured cabling, modernize the server rooms, as well as they will install all active devices needed for the local ICT networks at particular healthcare centers. They will be also responsible for the purchase and installation of a VoIP system, which is much cheaper to operate than traditional telephony.The project will require laying a total of 6706 lines of structured cabling. Asseco Poland will provide 13 VoIP centers and 1500 VoIP-enabled phones. Furthermore, the company will equip 23 server rooms with the systems of emergency power supply, monitoring and security, and air conditioning."Being entrusted with laying the network foundation for the nationwide pioneering RMIS project is a great recognition for our company. We have extensive experience both in the construction of network infrastructure as well as in upgrading server rooms. Furthermore, we performed the largest and most technologically advanced IP telephony system implementation for the local government administration in Poland, namely for the Warsaw City Hall," Wojciech Woźniak, Vice President of Asseco Poland, said in a statement after signing the contract.The contract received by Asseco Poland is worth more than PLN 10 million net, and the company has eight months to complete the assigned work.nate to a provincial self-government.