Research and development

The call On the creative path to practical knowledge represents a partnership between the profession, faculties and students.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Always on the hunt for innovative and advanced solutions.

Current research projects

 
 
 




RRI project title: Intelligent Sunscreen Application System

Project abbreviation: ISAS

Project duration: 01.03.2020 – 28.02.2022

Co-financing: The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund

Continuous development and striving for progress, innovation, and better solutions are part of our progress and company development. With this, we grow, develop and follow the flow of time, and remain competitive.

With this purpose, we once again applied for a research and development project and were successful in the third opening. Among all 334 companies that applied for funding and 78 approved applications, our project entitled "Intelligent Sunscreen Application System" shortly "BuyITC ISAS" was selected, of which the purpose is the development of an integrated sunscreen system with an intelligent sunscreen application system (ISAS).

The project's goal is the comprehensive implementation of a new product that will be tested in the planned pilot environment and ready for transfer to a real / production / operational environment. The development of the new product involves the transition from a packaging form of application of a spray protective cream to a single dosage with the direct, highly effective, and intelligent automatic and personalized application. The complete solution includes the following components:

  • Cream application device
  • Effective and safe (anti-allergenic, environmentally friendly, ..) spray cream with protection factor and adequate spray ability
  • Sensors for digitization of contextual variables of optimal application (heat, humidity, UV, body type, ..)
  • Controller for automatic intelligent operation, calibration, and maintenance
  • Optimized touch user interface
  • Identification and payment mechanisms
  • Integration module system for connection to the device control node (BuyITC IoT / IoS Hub)
  • Commercial - advertising and information system (LCD LED panels)
  • Information portal for data processing and analysis, management, maintenance, integrated marketing, awareness, education, and user information

The project's total value is € 435,287.00, where the co-financed value based on the public tender will amount to 45% of eligible costs.


 

Project progress
In the first project period (from 9.7.2020 - to 3.2.2021), we successfully realized and completed all items that ensure the smooth realization of further project implementation.
  • We have carefully and comprehensively researched and analyzed the technological dimensions regarding applying spray protection cream to achieve optimal dispersion.
  • Comprehensively test the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning under different environmental influences and user activities.
  • Designed a prototype of user, technological, organizational, and commercial constraints based on previous research.

 
 

Past research projects


 
RDI project title: BuyITC IoT/IoS Smart Hub

Project abbreviation: BIOTSSH

Project duration: 7.2.2018 - 6.2.2020

Co-financing: The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund

Research and development and the knowledge based on the new findings and solutions are an important competitive advantage of the company, which at the same time represent the foundation for sustainable and stable national economic development and consequently a higher standard of living. Therefore, the importance of research and innovation in companies is also promoted in Slovenia through the public tender "Incentives for research and development projects 2", co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund. (http://www.eu-skladi.si/).

The purpose of the public tender is to promote research and development and innovation activities in companies within innovative research and development projects for the development of new or improved products or services in priority areas of the Slovenian Smart Specialization Strategy to promote innovation shorten private sector investment in research and innovation. The tender aims to increase the share of innovation-active companies by co-financing at least 150 innovative research and development projects.

We are pleased that our "BuyITC IoT/IoS Smart Hub" and the acronym "BIOTSSH", which aims to conduct research and develop the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Services (IoS) platform, have also been selected from these 150 research projects.

The project aims to develop the BuyITC IoT/IoS Smart Hub product with the following features:
  • production of smart solar collectors that connect products, devices and perform measurements in the environment (part of IoT)
  • open IoS cloud services system that allows connection to various IoT devices and services and business rules (algorithms; WfMS) to achieve aggregation of value-added services
  • internet connection of things and services to achieve automation

In addition to developing prototypes of the mentioned products, the project activities also envisage the implementation of pilot projects and the development of business and marketing models on the global market.

The project's total value is € 393,018.00, where the co-financed value based on the public tender will amount to 45% of eligible costs.

   
Project progress
 
In the second project period from September 8, 2018, to April 30, 2019, we realized all items that ensure the smooth realization of the set project goals according to the implementation plan:
  • developed and comprehensively tested/analyzed prototype Smart Sensor Element (SSE) for use in planned pilot projects,
  • developed and fully tested/analyzed prototype Smart GUI Element (SGE) for use in planned pilot projects,
  • certified tests of adequacy and compliance of hardware and software with technological and business requirements
  • business model
  • implementation of the actual system - hardware and software (functional system with reference collector and service cloud
In the third project period from 1.5.2019 to 6.2.2020, we realized all the remaining items that ensure the successful completion of the project and the realization of the set project goals:
  • implementation of the actual system: hardware and software (SSE, SGE, and SHS),
  • testing hardware and software in a real environment. Analysis of results, optimization, definition, and implementation,
  • user experience analysis (UX), testing and improvement of user interfaces,
  • implementation of two pilot projects,
  • empirical research influences the business processes of the company after the introduction and identification of areas for optimization,
  • analysis and improvements of technological and commercial aspects of operation and gap analysis based on pilot projects.
 

Business Intelligent Systems Research Group

The Group is engaged in the research, development, and implementation of business intelligent systems. Based on research, the group plans and develops technologies, models, and concepts to support business operations in companies to increase business performance.

The goal of the program projects is to identify the key characteristics and needs of the systems and develop the necessary technologies for the commercialization of business intelligence systems. Due to new technologies, services, and approaches, the company and the research team must simultaneously promote technological development and the use of tools.

The group, called the Business Intelligent Systems Research Group (PIS), includes members from a variety of fields, covering a wide range of aspects relevant to our research:
 
Metka Zemljič group leader
Aleš Zebec professional/technical assistant
Nadja Kogal freelance developer
Tomaž Štajner professional/technical assistant
Polona Fister freelance developer
Petra Maučič Ribič freelance developer
   

The group is entered in the Research and Development Providers Register at the ARRS under number 3258-001.

 
Strategic research and development goals
  • Research on the impact of business intelligent systems on business performance.
  • Research on the introduction of business process management in small and medium enterprises.
  • Research of effective project management in companies.
  • Research on the introduction of business with electronic documents in the company and the impact on business processes.
  • Research on measuring the efficiency of business process implementation.
  • Exploring the possibility of using data mining to identify and identify bottlenecks in the implementation of business work processes and the development of algorithms.
  • Research on the use of business / artificial intelligence in decision automation in the implementation of business processes. Development of technological and conceptual model.
  • Research on the use of various visualization or simulation techniques of business processes for effective management. Development of prototype interfaces based on a usability study.
  • Research on the use of smart wizards using artificial intelligence to effectively solve technical and content problems in implementing work processes (knowledge management).
  • Exploring the use of information systems to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among company employees.
  • Development of a model and prototype of a homogeneous system for analysis and optimization of business processes, automation of coordination of the project timeline and necessary resources, management of a large number of timelines, and several projects simultaneously.
  • Study technologies and development of algorithms for reading, recognizing, and identifying business content on digitized business documents.
  • Research of types of codification of knowledge in companies, methods of classification, and development of algorithms for an intelligent search of a knowledge base.
  • Development of content approaches and algorithms to support customer decision-making in e-commerce using data mining.

The research results are related to the development of the company's strategic products. The Group participates in projects for the development of the following software products:

  • BuyITC Workflow, Project & Process Management software solution for work, business process, and project management enable greater business transparency, flexibility in developing new innovative products, and measuring business performance.
  • BuyITC Workforce Management software solution for human resources management (HRM).
  • BuyITC EDMS electronic document management software solution.
  • BuyITC e-Commerce software solution to support e-commerce.
  • BuyITC KM software portal solution to support knowledge management.
Results
In addition to other research work that we perform and serve continuous improvement in our services and solutions as well as in projects for clients, the products of the group have also resulted in the following products:
 

A complete email marketing solution is based on user needs analysis and covers everything from tools for dynamic template composition, content preparation, advanced settings, and detailed statistics. The focus of the research was mainly on discovering simple but effective ways to prepare email templates. This solution also includes the visualization of indicators, which was presented in more detail at the international multiconference Information Society - IS 2012 and partly at the Days of Slovenian Informatics 2012.


 

The advantage of e-commerce and online trading solutions with good infrastructure in the background is easier forecasting of trends, the anticipation of user behavior, and, consequently, better business decision-making. The basis for this is analysis and forecasts based on usage statistics and user behavior.
In developing a new version of the online store, we focused on visualizing key performance indicators. We also presented our findings at the Days of Slovenian Informatics 2012.


 

New ways of development, such as agile methods, require changes at all levels of development. When developing our own project management solution, we combined the agile development process for the first time with user testing in several iterations. Testing led to many interesting results, which we also presented at World Usability Day 2011.


 

The HR information system for companies, which provides easy and efficient management of time and other personnel records, saves time for both management and employees.


 

BuyITC EDMS is a complete business content lifecycle management software solution. It combines automatic file storage, management, protection, and content sharing to ensure traceability in the document repository.


 

BuyITC Knowledge Management (KM) is a user-friendly, secure and reliable system for managing knowledge and ideas in human resources development. The product monitors and supports the development of human resources competencies as well as the business system. With targeted knowledge management in the company, we accelerate knowledge transfer between employees or project teams. Application tools enable efficient and transparent capture, cataloging, and search for "knowledge" in all phases of the implementation of various business processes. The tool thus facilitates the re-sharing and use of knowledge, which simplifies the coordination, communication, and implementation of projects.


 

BuyITC eQuestionnaires & eForms support a wide variety of applications. They allow dynamic assembly of questionnaire or form elements and additional, important settings that enable the exact questionnaire that the user needs at a given time moment.

Posts

We regularly publish the results of our research at Slovenian and international conferences and in scientific journals.

Some conferences in Slovenia we attend:


More detailed information on publications and bibliographies of our researchers is available on the following websites: