The Center for International Mobility, CIMO, has started a large web service overhaul with which it hopes to reach its interest groups in a more focused and all-encompassing way through the web. In the future, the maailmalle.net (thewideworld.net) portal will answer the questions of young people who want abroad, while www.cimo.fi will deal with personnel exchange professionals as an interactive service channel. The web services, to be launched towards the end of the year, are implemented by Teamware.

With the renewal, CIMO aims at improving the usability of its web site and reducing the workload of its information and counseling services. In 2001, approximately 14,000 customer service events took place at the information and counseling services. Now the trend is to push more of the customer service onto the web by developing a variety of virtual workspaces and service entities.

'The completely new portal will include answers to questions frequently asked by those interested in studying or working abroad, tools for making the right choices, and links to additional resources,' says communications officer Heli Salonen at CIMO. In the future, even electronic forms and discussion groups can be incorporated into the portal. The discussion groups are an excellent way for young people to exchange experiences about working abroad.

CIMO's actual web site, www.cimo.fi, will be converted into an interactive partnership network of personnel exchange professionals. The expert service, divided into categories by user groups, will include information on the CIMO-administered EU, scholarship, and international trainee programs. The procedures and additional information related to application processes are presented to the users as clearly and fast as possible so that precious working time is not wasted on seeking information in vain.

The idea is to make the new web service a meeting place for customers, interest groups, and CIMO experts. It will include an open-access public site and a restricted-access extranet space for different user groups. For example, there will be a virtual meeting place for those who study Finnish language and culture.

'One of CIMO's tasks is to promote Finnish language and culture abroad. With the web service, we want to contribute to the networking of students and teachers and make it easier for them to share experiences, regardless of the time or location,' explains Heli Salonen. Today, Finnish language and culture can be studied in 90 universities and colleges in 26 countries.

Teamware will construct CIMO's new web services with the Teamware Pl@za® technology. The solution, implemented in a Linux environment, will be administered on Teamware's server.

As Heli Salonen states, 'The Teamware solution allows for flexible and distributed administration without advanced technological expertise, which will make our internal communication easier. As the solution is component-based, it is also easy to expand as our requirements grow.'