We discussed successful electronization at the 21st annual GeoSpatial Visions conference

October, 2022 – We kicked off the third decade of YMS annual user conferences on the 22nd of September in the hotel Sitno in Vyhne, in the company of our long-term clients and new partners.

We discussed electronization of public administration, innovations from research projects, as well as financing plans from various EU funds. “We have been hosting our conferences since the year 1999, as the first Slovak IT company. We only broke the tradition during the pandemic. We create conditions, in which our clients can talk among themselves and exchange their experiences. It is a transparent and open type of communication, which is why these conferences are always a success,” says the chairman of the YMS supervisory board, Ing. Mikuláš Szapu.

Over 50 specialists from all areas of the economy, foresters, farmers, gas workers, road and railway managers, researchers, and representatives of several ministries and public services, attended the conference.

The program started with a keynote presentation by the CEO of the organization EEA and the founder of the civil association Slovensko.Digital, Gabriel Lachman. He provided the participants with a realistic overview of the state of electronization of public services in Slovakia and pointed out the problems that system providers and public institutions are dealing with. “There is a lack of a realistic plan for building electronic services, prioritization of goals, along with a well-thought-out high-level architecture for its maintenance and control. We have financial resources at our disposal, but we can’t get them where they are needed, we are trying to solve very broad tasks but ultimately aren’t able to drag them to the finish line. The state doesn’t conduct a dialogue about development and innovation with the external environment, and simultaneously the public procurement rules are counterproductive for the sustainable development of IT” began Mr. Lachman in his keynote presentation.

Participants became more optimistic later during the discussion on the requirements of effective electronic services and with presentations of different areas of practice that brought real added value. “We introduced five organizations from key areas in the economy and life that already successfully work electronically or that are in the process of electronization,” says Mikuláš Szapu.

The block of successful examples was opened by the professional road technician, Peter Prieložný, who showed participants how the Administration and maintenance of the roads of the Trnava self-governing region uses the operational data accumulated over the years. He also demonstrated how the digital work of dispatching and technicians in the field brought optimization, automatization, and innovation.

The new generation of systems for monitoring the risk on high-pressure pipelines of the company Nafta, a.s. was presented by technical development engineer, Jakub Hlinka. He explained why Nafta decided on a new system and demonstrated the method of working with technical data in the centralized visual dispatching screen, which not only clearly displays the amount of data, but also recalculates it – models the data when the control parameters are changed by the operator – for dispatchers.

After gas, we moved on to earth and to the Central control and testing institute for agriculture in Bratislava, Jozef Izakovič, specialist responsible for implementing new complex solutions, presented the implementation plan of demand projects, for which YMS, a.s. was a successful applicant only a few months ago.

Milan Laš, the computer scientist of Forests of SR, showed the genesis of electronic management of forest estates. Foresters are maintaining them using a modern web application since 2020, which connected the data from FSR to the online cadaster, thereby helping them obtain data of the highest possible relevance that are currently available.

The block was closed by Juraj Šipula from the Banská Bystrica self-governing region, who explained to the participants how the BBSR is undergoing an unprecedented process of digitizing building data, mapping, and evaluating their energy efficiency.

During the afternoon panel discussions, we mainly discussed the upcoming season of EU funds and recovery plan. The discussion was led by Milan Ištván, president of the non-profit organization Partnerships for Prosperity with a cross-sectional view of the entire issue. From the ensuing debate, it became clear that it is a highly relevant theme. “Along with until now used European structural investment funds we also began implementing Recovery plan projects. With the help of Operational program Slovakia, we could be talking about 2 billion euros in the field of informatization. It is a huge opportunity for Slovakia, along with a huge challenge for the entire IT community“.

After ending the specialized program, participants of the conference enjoyed the traditional IT Olympics, sports disciplines in teams. “Most of our clients are with us for decades, and after decades they return to us for new generations of key systems, because they know what they will get. We deliver functional systems, fix problems, innovate, develop, communicate, and find solutions. After working daily we set aside one afternoon in the year to enjoy an informal atmosphere without deadlines, negotiations and formalities. Nevertheless, often solutions for complex problems are found while playing sports,” concludes the topic of the GeoSpatial Visions 2022 conference  Mikuláš Szapu.