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AVIS, the Italian Association of Blood Volunteers in Milan, is burdened with the obligation to comply with all the rules and regulations required by Health Accreditation (national and European standards), Good Practices in the Pharmaceutical Sector, Occupational Safety, ISO 9000:2015 (Quality), Privacy, Data Protection and IT Security (GDPR).

It has recognized the digital platform as an ideal tool to manage the legal requirements in a single system, actively involving and supporting all staff in conformity with the rules and regulations during their daily work. The same people, equipment and processes are involved in the different contents for monitoring, so it was essential to avoid redundancies, data processing, and certainty of updating.

The clear and logical structure of the platform, which offers structural content such as generic processes and risk assessment catalogues, allowed AVIS to be immediately operational. After 5 days of training and only 3 weeks (8 hours/day) of customization, the platform is in use and grows day by day following the process of continual improvement.
The knowledge inside AVIS-Milan regarding “how”, “why” and “what are the rules is now available to managers and employees at an individual level, through a workstation (dashboard) customized for each role and workplace, which allows the employees to receive a legally compliant answer to their question with a simple click. Tutto ciò secondo i compiti attribuiti e sulla base del “bisogno di sapere” di ognuno, in modo che tutti i requisiti necessari diventino trasparenti e siano convogliati attraverso l’organizzazione in una fonte di risorse facilmente accessibile.

For AVIS, the social impact is clear: the digital platform supports staff in optimising their time and the quality of their daily work, ensuring safety and high quality services to blood donors thus reducing risks and costs in a measurable and sustainable manner.

Vanghelis Spiridon, technical coordinator, head of medical procurement and member of the quality team at AVIS writes: “…to perform these functions I have always looked for a tool that would help me in my work in a flexible way, adapted to my needs, to those of our organization and the growing need to comply with ISO standards, the new GDPR standards and Health and Safety at Work. With PROMIS® I have reached a point of optimum management of everything that is my responsibility, I have seen that the nurses and doctors are satisfied with the simplicity of the management system, and above all I am pleased that PROMIS® follows and meets all my needs in the service of AVIS.

Ramona Oros, Andreas Pester and Caterina Berbenni-Rehm

Abstract: In our rapidly changing world where technology is continuingly being updated and altered, the learning process should (must) be continual as well. To ensure the highest quality of work performance, there are three requirements: 1) clearly structured learning processes; 2) well-organized and structured learning; and 3) knowledge and skill pools. These are especially necessary for novel and rapidly changing technologies such as online engineering.
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Scientix Observatory, March 2016.
http://www.scientix.eu/web/guest/observatory/#Nistor2016

Nistor, A., Jiménez-Iglesias, M., Gras-Velázquez, À., Berbenni-Rehm, C., Cantó, J., Cunha, C., Daumur, I., Debono, F., Diaz Marcos, J., Gil Docampo, M., Idin, S., Ioan, T., Janes, M., Jochemczyk, W., Kerkhoven, A., Lambrechts, P., Lammer, L., Laporta Grau, M., Lefkos, I., Lepuschitz, W., Muñoz, A., Oledzka, K., Olivotto, C., Ortiz, J., Owen, L., Palavitsinis, N., Perez-Rubio, V. J., Pinzi, V., Rogers, M. W., Roszkowska-Lech, B., Souza, G., Vuk, B. & Wasaznik, A. (2016)

Abstract: Fast-advancing societal changes require flexible educational systems, ready to equip students with the skills and competencies needed to respond to them. Projects in science education tend to be quick in picking up these trends and are already producing materials and activities aimed at introducing new scientific thought in the classrooms. But curriculum change in many countries is often a lengthy process, involving complex decision-making mechanisms. This paper draws from the discussions between managers and representatives of over 20 projects in science education, which took place during the 10thScientix Projects Networking Event and attempts to shed an overview on potential ways of introducing new STEM topics in educational curricula across Europe and beyond.
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Managing the maintenance process within Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often entails high direct and indirect costs. Now they can benefit from a new software solution helping them to develop their maintenance processes.

Especially during periods of economical and financial crisis, SMEs do not invest in improving and re-engineering their Maintenance Engineering Processes (MEP), thus leading to additional productive and economical losses. In order to make the MEP sustainable for SMEs, it is necessary to implement new organizational models by adopting innovative solutions. (…)
Published in the magazine: MaintWorld, maintenance & asset management:
40-41 MaintWorld_2-2014 PROMIS

The complexity of business operations requires an organisation to stay on top of a dynamic business environment — a slight mishap can have effects on an organisation’s reputation, integrity, operations, and relationships. Miscalculating political and commercial trends in Europe can limit markets or hinder the organisation from seizing new opportunities at the right time.

Community Building in PROMIS® deals with “Communities of Knowledge” which means to structure experience, guidance, tools, work processes and activities in a ‘pyramid’ of knowledge,and share it among peers (institutions, associations and experts). In addition it can be provided asa subscription service to SME customers with the goal to support them achieving evidence-based compliance to norms, standards and other legal requirements.

Communities of Knowledge in PROMISLingua are multilingual (9 languages) and are targeted to associations and chambers of commerce aiming at becoming providers of innovative services to the SME members they want to serve.

By Caterina BERBENNI-REHM, Andrei DRUTA, Richard GOWLAND, Reinhard BUSCH

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For the more than one million learning service providers (LSP) worldwide, ensuring consistently high quality will remain an issue.
A year ago, ISO technical committee ISO/TC 232, Learning services for non-formal education and training, started to address this with the publication of ISO 29990, an International Standard that is gaining much awareness and interest, particularly among LSPs.
By Thomas Rau


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This article has been presented at the e2000 Conference in Madrid (18th to 20th October 2000) and was published in: Brian Stanford-Smith and Paul T. Kidd (Eds), E-business – Key Issues Applicatons Technologies, IOS Press, Amsterdam Berlin Oxford Tokyo Washington, DC, Printed in the Netherlands, 2000, pp. 960-965.

Abstract: Small and Medium Enterprises urgently need tailored business services
to support them in overcoming the challenging requirements to operate effectively
and safely their ongoing business. The driving force is the need to conform fully to
the complex legal and social requirements in the fields of Environment, Health,
Safety and Quality (EHS-Q) and to reduce the work overload of the key personnel.
SMEs are continuously facing these increasing requirements, without having the
personnel and financial resources to cope efficiently with such tasks. However, not
to comply with these requirements means an uncalculable risk for the SME and for
its key personnel. The goal of PROMIS was to develop a portal, which allows
European SMEs access to information essential for their key personnel to minimise
the above mentioned problem and for the SMEs to comply with customer
requirements in the international market regarding environmental protection, health,
safety and quality.

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Certification to ISO 9001 and other quality standards can seem a daunting prospect to many SMEs, Stephen Singer and Petere Rayson report on two sources of support in the UK and Europe.
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This CEN Workshop Agreement (CEN CWA 16275) has been drafted and approved by a Workshop of representatives of interested parties, the constitution of
which is indicated in the foreword of this Workshop Agreement.
The formal process followed by the Workshop in the development of this Workshop Agreement has been endorsed by the National
Members of CEN but neither the National Members of CEN nor the CEN Management Centre can be held accountable for the technical
content of this CEN Workshop Agreement or possible conflicts with standards or legislation.
This CEN Workshop Agreement can in no way be held as being an official standard developed by CEN and its Members.
This CEN Workshop Agreement is publicly available as a reference document from the CEN Members National Standard Bodies.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
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Industrialised countries are undergoing a process of transition from an ‘industrial’ to an ‘information’ society. One essential feature of the latter is, that everyone has access to information for political, economic, cultural and social development, so that there is a high level of information use among the general public. In the light of this, I would like to present a systematic approach to women’s role in the information society and in modern professional life, highlighting the particularity of the feminine and maternal world from which we may discover new ways of managing civil, cultural and industrial-commercial life with a special emphasis on running new and small companies.

By Caterina BERBENNI-REHM

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