Information Systems and Social Observatories

The resource “information”, considered as “reduction of uncertainty, of lack of knowledge or wrong knowledge”, is a key instrument for an effective management of social policies.

An efficient welfare system that has to optimize its resources, that are becoming more and more scarce, needs to have a logically integrated system of methods, instruments, procedures and techniques for the selection, collection, data storage, elaboration, analysis and distribution of specific information related to the social environment: it is the basis for achieving the necessary knowledge for implementing organizational processes.

This system, that can be a “Social Information System” or a Social Observatory, is characterized by nonrandom, cognitive objectives, its own function and structure and it is able to influence the organizational behavior in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of citizen-users.

In order that the Social Information System becomes instrument and planning resource for the integrated system of interventions and social services, it should be timely (information have to be constantly updated), systematic and organic (which entails internal coherency among information, and external coherency with respect to the cognitive objectives of the users; stability and methodological rigor), exhaustive, reliable.

In this area, the mission of Synergia is to implement systems able to generate “information fields” from which the client can obtain knowledge products (like periodical Social Reports on the status of performances of services, social-statistic indicators, qualitative and evaluation analyses on specific needs, computerized databases etc.) useful for the management of services and for the decision-making process both at central and at local level.

For years Synergia has been a leader firm in Italy for the planning and the implementation of Social Information Systems. Synergia took part in the most significant regional and local experiences of Social Information Systems supporting the planning of social policies.