The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), with the organisational support of DPIXEL, launched the Call4Innovation initiative on May 15th last with the aim of identifying technological and innovative solutions in the HR, Administrative and Open Data Management areas, able to innovate and enhance NoiPA, the platform created by the DSII for the management of Public Administration staff. 

Call4Innovation, open to start-ups and SMEs, was carried out on the following verticals of interest: Performance Management, Training, Employee Satisfaction, Internal Communication, Welfare, HR Back Office, Payroll, Data Analysis, Big Data and Data Protection. 

Call4Innovation saw the participation of 70 innovative start-ups and SMEs. After an initial phase in which all the proposals submitted by the companies were analysed, 10 innovative SMEs and Startups were selected, which, with their Proof of Concept (PoC), faced a subsequent phase of in-depth analysis and evaluation of the solutions.  

The evaluation was based on 5 parameters: innovativeness of the proposed solution and technology used; quality of the PoC implemented; relevance of PoC to the needs and objectives of NoiPA; ease of integration into NoiPA and potential of PoC with respect to possible needs of the MEF. 

During PoC Day, the day dedicated to the conclusion of the initiative, the 10 innovative SMEs and Startups had the opportunity to present their proposals, which were then voted by a small group that basically confirmed the outcome of the previous evaluation by declaring ASK DATA as the winning innovative SME.  

The proposed PoC foresees a search engine based on artificial intelligence to support the assistance and management of customer care of NoiPA. The technology allows, similar to a Google search engine, to write queries in natural language, translate them into technical queries, and receive immediate and easy to understand answers from any source and database (structured and unstructured). 

The proposed solution is suitable for three types of use: 

• Customer service: in the context of assistance management, it allows the knowledge necessary to manage assistance to be easily reconstructed. 
• Business intelligence: it can be used as a widespread tool in the Data Analysis Administration of NoiPA to support information and reporting. 
• Open Data: application of the solution to Open Data, to make them immediately usable by the citizen.