ITEM/Maastricht University stands for the societal translation of scientific knowledge and research. Especially in the complex situation of cross-border areas. ITEM is committed to do so via practical documents, research and casuistry. Therefore, there was a need for a cross-border platform that could combine file monitoring and that contained a knowledge base. This platform could enable them to contribute scientifically and socially. They also found that current solutions were unfit for their business need and adjusting them would come at the expense of their goal. Therefore, they choose to work with the custom solution based on Mendix, which was developed by Ciphix.
Business Need: ITEM/Maastricht University stands for the societal translation of scientific knowledge and research. Especially in the complex situation of cross-border areas. ITEM is committed to do so via practical documents, research and casuistry. Therefore, there was a need for a cross-border platform that could combine file monitoring and that contained a knowledge base. This platform could enable them to contribute scientifically and socially. They also found that current solutions were unfit for their business need and adjusting them would come at the expense of their goal. Therefore, they choose to work with the custom solution based on Mendix, which was developed by Ciphix.
Solution: The ITEM cross-border portal houses a knowledge base on cross-border issues and the ITEM casuistry. It enables society to view news about cross-border mobility issues, recent information about the work of ITEM and publications, as well as analysed and anonymised cases. The ITEM cross-border portal is an important database and communication channel for cross-border knowledge.A CMS functionality allows the ITEM staff to easily create and maintain content in the form of news items, highlights, topics, publications etc. which results in a front-end entirely build in Mendix. Interested parties can submit real life cases, that require a scientific point of view, related to cross-border mobility. Flexible case management makes sure that ITEM employees, researchers and the case applicant stay in control and up to date about the progress of research case. When viewing topics about different fields like Pensions, Taxes, Social Security, etc. a knowledge index makes navigating easy and comprehensive.
Results: The ITEM Cross-border Portal was launched in September 2018. Since then, instead of a lot of e-mails back and forth, casuistry on cross-border employment and cooperation could be centralised at one place. Submission of practical cases, internal and external communication and answering the question could all be done through the Portal. Furthermore, the Portal is used as communication tool for the scientific knowledge and research by the knowledge and case database. It is one of the major tools for communication, spreading results and information to the stakeholders and keeping track of relevant topics on cross-border mobility and cooperation, such as obstacles or policy changes.