Case StudiesSoftware DevelopmentData Processing with Google CloudData and Business IntelligenceDigital Transformatione-Governance Platform

Introduction

The Bucharest Bar Association faced significant difficulties with their manual system of distributing tasks to public defenders. The manual system was slow, unreliable, and prone to bias.

To address these issues, in 2022-2023, the Bucharest Bar Association contracted OPTI to develop an automated system capable of distributing tens of thousands of legal representation tasks to more than a thousand lawyers continuosly. The goal was to create a system that was fair, fast, and reliable, offering equal opportunities to all participating defenders.

OPTI developed the software, including the backend, SMS sending, and mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The result is a continuous (day and night) task distribution system that ensures fairness and efficiency.

Provocări tehnice

Challenges

Manual distribution system - The existing manual system was inefficient and poorly managed, requiring significant improvements.

Legacy issues - Historical problems with task distribution needed to be investigated and clarified before automation could be implemented, such as human bias.

Fairness and acceptance - The new system had to be designed to ensure fairness and gain the widespread acceptance of over 1,000 lawyers.

Speed and reliability - Some tasks required acceptance within ten minutes, necessitating a fast and reliable tech system to handle these demands, such as mobile app (iOS and Android).

"The team of OPTI are notable for their respect for deadlines and for avoiding financial overruns, for the adaptability of their solutions to our needs and for the general quality of their software implementation. We will continue our collaboration to fulfil the needs of the Bar Association in other projects."
- The Dean of the Bucharest Bar Association

Solution

OPTI developed an automated task distribution system for the public defenders of Bucharest in eight carefully planned steps.

  1. Consultations
    • Held several open consultations with beneficiaries (lawyers) to design a fair attribution system.
  2. Modeling and simulation
    • Analyzed past data to model and simulate distribution rules to ensure equitable financial outcomes for all participants.
  3. Custom backend
    • Developed custom backend software to handle task introduction, distribution, and response management.
  4. SMS and mobile app integration
    • Integrated an SMS-provider for sending & replying to messages and developed also two mobile apps for Android and iOS (used by public defenders).
  5. Website integration
    • Integrated the system with the official Bar Association website to allow lawyers to view their distributed tasks.
  6. Training and presentations
    • Conducted training sessions for employees and public presentations of the new system.
  7. Pilot project
    • Created a pilot project to test the system on a limited number of tasks and beneficiaries beforehand.
  8. Wide launch
    • Launched the system widely with a quick-response period for software maintenance and debugging.
The mobile component was essential. We developed native mobile applications for both iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) that communicated in real-time with the backend. Integrating a bulk SMS provider ensured a redundant and reliable notification method, which was critical for time-sensitive legal assignments