Technology Partner is an IT services company that the GovTech Lab selected to develop a solution against bots on government websites. COO Brice Bortolet tells us more about the development of this project and the company.
What kind of company is Technology Partner and what services do you offer?
Technology Partner was launched in 2018 to offer a broad range of IT services to our clients. At the end of 2019, we pivoted to develop projects for our clients, meaning we built a one-stop shop for our clients’ software needs. So, if a client needs a specific solution they can call us and we will be able to answer any requests and see it through from start to end.
We work for all types of clients – industrial clients, banks, insurance agencies, startups, etc. We have no focus when it comes to the industry they work in but we do have a Microsoft Silver Partnership which leads to all our projects running on Microsoft tech. We just focus on the technical parts of their needs and make sure to include the client on the business end.
Two years ago the Luxembourg government launched an open call for solutions in which you participated. What can you tell me about your project?
The challenge launched by the Luxembourg government was about devising a solution which would be able to detect the presence of robots on their websites. In response to this challenge, we got together with Vireo Luxembourg to develop a proof of concept.
What are the technical aspects of your solution?
We’re specialised in software development, and one of our areas is robotic process automation (RPA). This expertise helps us to understand how a robot behaves when used on websites for example. Then we’ve designed a solution that could detect robot behaviours, and in the end, ask them a complex challenge to block it on its next steps.
Which steps have been taken in the development of this project?
Firstly, we have proved to the Government IT Centre (CTIE) that our idea works. Secondly, we developed an innovative system which shows the administration the value of our solution during the POC phase. Since we won the challenge, the idea of implementing this solution on governmental websites continued.
Apart from the technical challenges, what other hurdles did you overcome during this project?
Working with a government administration brings us new challenges. Mainly in the context of a “call for solutions” from the newly created “GovTech Lab”! We had to adapt our usual practices, to follow the specificity of such kind of innovation partnership contract, and the particularities of the recent GovCloud technical infrastructure. Due to the context of the project, we also had to work collaboratively, to define and adapt the features of the final solution, to meet the special needs discovered during the project development.
