With the signing of the Memorandum of Intent with the Ministry of Public Administration, Fiat now offers its employees the opportunity to use services offered by the Piemonte Region and the City of Turin through the company’s own network, with the solution “Reti Amiche on the Job” (“Worker-Friendly Networks on the Job”), developed in collaboration with Cluster Reply. With “Reti Amiche on the Job”, the services offered to the public by the Piemonte Region and the City of Turin can be accessed directly by Fiat employees via their own workstations on the company network, or via dedicated interactive terminals. The solution is an excellent example of how to integrate public and private services and allows the delivery of such services to be optimized, making them directly available to all the employees of a large company such as Fiat.
Getting closer to the citizen by increasing the points of contact - this is the goal of the Public Administration through the “Reti Amiche on the Job” project. With the signing of the Memorandum of Intent with the Ministry of Public Administration, Fiat is able to give its employees the opportunity to use services offered by the Piemonte Region and the City of Turin, in a convenient and time-efficient manner, via their own staff workstations or the dedicated interactive terminals (or “Totems”) provided for workers.In particular, Fiat has chosen to provide its employees with the following services: • Printing of personal data certificates and marital status certificates • Booking of appointments at City Council public counters • Online payment of health prescription charges Additionally, to complete the line of services offered through the “Reti Amiche on the Job” system, other services have been integrated, such as: healthcare (FASIFIAT) and pension funds (Cometa) as well as funds for family support, (Cedas) leisure proposals and sport (Sisport). There are also national and international initiatives such as study scholarships, Verdeblu holiday offers and Natale Bimbi children’s schemes. The application interface is simple and intuitive, just like navigating a website, and can be accessed either by way of a large touchscreen or a mouse. Services are accessed by using the company ID badge or the user’s personal tax code. The workstation is equipped with printers for issuing certificates. At present there are 7 terminals in the Mirafiori plant at Turin, with others in gradual development in Fiat plants around the country. Cluster Reply has supported FIAT in the development and integration of “Reti Amiche on the Job”, making it available to all users via the FIAT corporate network. Cluster Reply has worked towards optimising and integrating the user interface and the navigability of the application, developing both the user recognition and authentication systems and the driver that enables reading of the company ID badge.
From a technological point of view, the solution is based on the integration and development of three main components: 1. Navigation system 2. Authentication system 3. Interactive terminal ID badge reader management
NAVIGATION SYSTEM. The first step in the project was the creation of the FIAT internal intranet portal and the implementation of SSO (Single Sign On), integration components, which allow the user to access the many services offered by the City of Turin using a single initial login, and without the need for re-authentication. The aim of this portal is to give an overview of all the services provided to employees through a user interface in line with the image of the corporate website www.fiatspa.com. Graphic and functional adjustments have been made to provide a simpler and more intuitive user experience. Access to the portal is anonymous, with the advantage that it is navigable without the need for user identification. Authentication is required only when the user attempts to access the services offered. Specific software components have been developed, including RSS services (Really Simple Syndication – the XML-based format for distribution of web content) from the Internet, with customisable graphics displays. Some examples are the display of company share prices, RSS updates from the City of Turin and Piemonte Region authorities and the daily newspaper La Stampa. Navigation is facilitated by three tabs that activate and deactivate the display of three panels for access to the various sections of the site and the services of the Torinofacile portal. A layout has been developed for the internal pages of the site, consisting of a “header” with a static image, structured content, a navigation menu on the left and the actual content in the main column. AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM. To gain access to the “services to the citizen” section of the City of Turin website (https://servizi.torinofacile.it/), some application components have been developed for the management of the Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication system. SSO ARCHITECTURE. The web part dynamically generates an xml file with the data to be sent, encoding the data using an encryption algorithm. The custom authentication provider has as its database a Microsoft SharePoint list capable of providing better readability and a quicker response in the event of malfunctions. The logging system, designed for use with different applications, offers the possibility to identify the records by application name and the level of message importance. The system is also enhanced by a web service that permits easier use. COMPANY ID BADGE READER MANAGEMENT BY THE INTERACTIVE TERMINALS. The solution, consisting of software developed both on client and server sides, enables the integration of the interactive terminal with the web application. The developments carried out are as follows: • Driver for the company ID badge reader • Client application for monitoring the activity of the interactive terminal related to the reader • Web service for receiving communications from the interactive terminal • Dynamic login page The interaction between the ID badge reader in the interactive terminal and the web application required the development of a web service to allow the terminal to communicate variations of status to the server, such as the identification of the terminal and its own status variations. After completion of the high-level driver for the ID badge reader, an application was developed for use in each interactive terminal. Enabling it to interact with the web application through several functionalities, such as; terminal identification on start-up, continuous monitoring of the reader status and the sending of data when in use, automatic management of potential errors, monitoring of the idle status of the terminal operating system and resetting the initial working condition.
The presence of Cluster Reply alongside Fiat in these years of innovation is solid evidence of the level of collaboration established with the Client. The decision of Fiat to rely on Cluster Reply was motivated by the company’s functional and technical skills in Microsoft technology, and by its knowledge of the specific processes relative to this market sector. The experience acquired by Cluster Reply has made the company an expert in the rapid production of custom solutions, for the development and integration of heterogeneous systems and technologies.