How a government ministry is digitising technical inspections

What was the initial situation?

Every official inspection was documented by hand on a printed checklist and later transferred to a Word file at the office. That method was time-consuming, prone to errors and behind the times.

What has changed thanks to iCL?

iCL enables us to record all data immediately during on-site inspections. We used to need to add photos at a later point, which was a complicated process. Now we can import and organise images right away. This eliminates inaccuracies and errors that can occur when we write down information by hand and enter it later at the office. With iCL, we save two working hours per inspection – time we can use for other inspections.

The technical inspections the ALVA conducts on behalf of the ministry are complex. What were the most important points you had to consider?

We currently use iCL to assess animal welfare in livestock farming. There are around 50 inspection points that are required by European or national law. Each defect is assigned a code that refers to the relevant legislative text. In total, there are 300 codes, which are stored in a separate database we can access with iCL. Given the government’s tight security regulations, it was also important to ensure that all the data we record is stored on a Luxembourg government server.

In future, your services will also include risk analyses and assessments. How will collecting your data electronically help with that?

Once we have collected enough data with iCL, we will be able to compile meaningful statistics and risk assessments and adapt our inspections to those new findings. We currently conduct around 125 animal welfare inspections per year. The time we save by using iCL will enable us to carry out more inspections in future. In total, the ALVA conducts around 3,000 to 4,000 inspections. Our goal is to gradually transition all of them to iCL, so we have around 30 inspectors working with that software.

What are the benefits of working with the Opti-Q team?

Their fast response time. As soon as a problem comes up, we can send them an email and receive an immediate response with a viable solution. For us, the Opti-Q team is much more than a service provider – they’re partners we can rely on.

Digitalisation has been a priority for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Viticulture in Luxembourg since 2018. What do you think was the most decisive factor behind the successful implementation of digitalisation in your department in 2024?

As ALVA’s Quality Manager, I suggested using the iCL software solution in 2023 due to my excellent experience with Opti-Q and iCL at my previous employer. The ALVA’s digitalisation projects for official inspections had not made much progress before that time for various reasons. A lack of suitable software fuelled scepticism among users waiting for mobile solutions. When I suggested iCL, another new software solution, they were very sceptical.

It was important to me to understand what our users needed. Integrating different perspectives – from the IT department, Opti-Q’s support services, the inspectors and quality managers – was certainly a major success factor during implementation. Although this process took a lot of time, it was essential as we are constantly saving time now. The inspectors’ initial scepticism quickly gave way to tremendous enthusiasm. Following a test phase, we started implementation and have been using iCL since June 2024. The decisive factor for me was the software’s great flexibility. iCL is like a creative modular system. Flexible and customisable. It can be used to design almost anything, and integrating existing solutions is really easy.

Our customer

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Viticulture, Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration (ALVA)

The Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration was created in 2022 by bringing together most of the country’s food chain regulatory bodies in a single administration. For more information, go to https://ma.gouvernement.lu/en/administrations/alva.html

Optimising quality with IT solutions

Opti-Q

We bring together IT expertise and many years of experience in quality management. This combination enables innovative product development and enhances our consulting. iCL is a standardised software tool for creating complex checklists to assist you with integrating IT solutions in quality management.

Do you want to save time and money with iCL? We look forward to hearing from you.