One of the key changes that was made to the administrative structure of SI was to create an electronic office that could act as a hub to address all of the administrative needs for SI. Termed SI eOffice, the SI Office is now an electronic office powered by a group of diverse individuals who form a team to cover a wide range of services to SI members their special interest groups. Through the founding of the SI eOffice, SI has been able to improve services and reduced cost, showing progress in addressing the actual needs of its members.
The administrative, financial, and marketing needs of SI are covered by a small team working remotely and which includes a virtual administrator who has been implemented to take care of all automated tasks. The SI eOffice Team is as follows:
- Smita Ramloll, Office & Event Management with Administrative Duties
- Gilbert Duvanel, Web Services & Finance with Administrative Duties
- Francis Baud, President
- Simon Moser, Treasurer
SI eOffice Services
The SI eOffice offers service and support in the following areas which are made possible through the use of online tools and tactics:
- General Administration
- Telephone Services
- SI and SIG Finance Services
- eMail & ePost Services
- Room Reservations
Telephone Services: The SI eOffice phone service runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am to 2pm and deals with all incoming calls directly and in person. Any calls that are made to the SI Office outside of the above sited hours are registered electronically and if a message is left on the answering machine it is forwarded to the office as an audio file. In this manner, the SI eOffice is able to offer office presence as well as provide an acceptable messaging service.
Special Interest Groups: Communication to Special Interest Groups has been simplified in order to allow more and direct communication to and from members of those groups. A set of administrative email addresses was created to enable this; simply by sending an email with the nomenclature “nameofgroup@swissinformatics.org” the head admin or president of a Special Interest Group will receive it directly.
Si Online Database: The database was recently updated and the office is now working on making it possible for members to have access to their profiles so that they can update their information and keep up with activities in the special interest groups to which they are members. Further, the office is working toward making the database partially available to special interest groups again so that they are able to reach all members or to see all active members in a Special Interest Group, presidents and head administrators.
Event Calendar: A dedicated event calendar has been set up as a separate web page. All events of interest to SI taking place both nationally and internationally appear in this calendar. Linked to the SI Homepage: and the SI Digital Magazine, the Event Calendar is made easily accessible at all SI Online Services. Members can submit their own events easily by going to the SI Main page, clicking the menu item “EVENTS” and then clicking on the menu item “SUBMIT AN EVENT”, or one can just go to the agenda by clicking the following link: https://events.swissinformatics.org/submit-event
To aid in making the event calendar work smoothly, the SI eOffice can also assist in creating events in the calendar, or place the events themselves. To submit an event to the office, please write SI at office@swissinformatics.org. Should you have questions concerning the dates of any of the SI Events or SI Meetings (including SI Board Meetings, General Assembly, etc.), they can be found on the dedicated calendar on the event agenda page.
With the extensive changes introduced by the eOffice into the managerial and administrative system at SI, the eOffice has been able to nurture SI’s ability to manage its members, extends it offerings and benefits, and greatly increase its online presence. All of these will support SI in its efforts to accelerate toward new accomplishments, Should you have any questions or if you have suggestions, please feel to write us anytime or to speak to us in person call during office hours.
Last but not least: the above tables show how services are provided and dealt with a type of job sharing approach. The Front Office is basically responsible for member communication; the back office for web services and finance reports, and the middle office is where tasks are shared between team members. In addition to these services, the eOffice can also offer members -particularly special interest groups- more involved services such as web and graphic design as well as marketing services which includes the use of ads and postings on social media platforms.
Through the reorganisation of the administration through the eOffice, SI has been able to reduce costs for administration but also to use more means to support what if most beneficial to its members: The SI Digital Magazine and the Swiss Digital Summit. Outside of these major SI platforms, there has been a strong effort to provide more services and to give more attention to SI Special Interest Groups.