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The system was supposed to be prepared by a competing company, but it failed the tender. Therefore, Cermat must prepare the complete system by its own efforts, by the end of the year.
"The term is very close," Jan Kožusznik, an IT expert from the University of Mining and Technology in Ostrava, told Práv on Monday.
Eduard Bartl, the head of the Department of Informatics at the Faculty of Science of the Palacký University in Olomouc, also cautiously agreed: "I have a good knowledge of the construction of information systems, but I would not dare to say whether it is really feasible. I'd guess it's a gallows term.'
According to Kožusznik, there is a risk that the system sewn with a hot needle will show shortcomings. "The system should include a lot of those functions. What I have experience with development, I give it about 40 percent that it works perfectly as it should. But it will depend on the people they hire," he explained.
Eight developer stars?
The head of Cermat, Miroslav Krejčí, who is also an IT specialist, assembled a team of programmers last week.
"Contracts should be signed this week and work will begin. It's eight people for five to six full-time jobs," he told Právu. He admitted that he did not attract IT experts to state salaries. "These are people who want to do it. Six of them are from Slovakia," added Krejčí.
"I didn't know any of them at the beginning of September, but important figures in Czech IT vouched for them. I wouldn't take anyone to the team without a guarantee when it's such an important thing," he emphasized. He himself estimated the possibility of failure at undetermined tenths of a percent.
Kožusznik does not refute him. "If it's eight development stars and their motivation is that they feel it's important, and it's not the financial factor, then I can imagine that," he said.
Maintenance later
According to Krejčí, the security screening will be provided by Masaryk University in Brno, which he agreed with the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek (STAN), who previously led the university. According to Kožusznik, she should be able to deal with the given task.
Masaryk University vice-rector for education and quality Michal Bulant is not afraid of the challenge. "We are perceived as leaders in the field of security at universities," he told Právu.
According to him, the term is "unusual" in the state administration. "From the point of view of large IT companies, it may seem like a knee-jerk solution, but it can be done. Our university has been running an electronic application for over 20 years, but at the beginning it looked similar," he said.
According to Kožusznik, when developing a platform, it is not so important how many users it is intended for.
“The thing to think about is that it has to run on more powerful hardware that can pull it off without stuttering. But according to the number of users, the complexity of the programming itself does not directly scale," he explained.
He pointed out that Cermat will also have to ensure the operation of the system, but according to him, this is not in a hurry and a company can take it on later.
Krejčí estimated that the total construction of the system will cost 1.6 million crowns. The estimated price of the original contract for the supplier, who will ensure production and management for the next three years, was 12 million crowns.
The tender issued in the summer burned down because one of the rejected companies filed a complaint with the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition. A total of six companies applied and four were eliminated. However, an investigation by the antimonopoly office would delay the whole process so much that the winning company would no longer be able to fulfill the order within the set deadlines. Krejčí denies any wrongdoing in the selection process, but canceled the tender and undertook the preparation of electronic applications on his own.
The new platform is to ensure that tens of thousands of applicants and their parents will be able to apply to up to three secondary schools at once. They choose their order and the system automatically places them in the school closest to the first position according to the exam result.
It will be possible to use an electronic identity in the application, but it is also possible that the parent fills out the application and sends the confirmation by mail. Schools will still have the application in the database right away.
It will also be possible to enter electronic documents into the system, such as certificates. At the same time, the system should offer a list of schools with free places after evaluating the admissions.
Whether Zermatt manages to manage everything on time, or whether the event ends in failure, will be revealed in December. In the meantime, parliament will quickly vote on an amendment to the law that will allow the changes. He also has the support of the opposition. It should become effective at the beginning of 2024. However, if the electronic system is not ready, the effectiveness will be postponed, and next year applications for caregiving will take place with registration cards.