Custom Software Dev for National Statistics Organization

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Department of information and technical support for statistical product of Statistical office of Montenegro

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Statistical Office of Montenegro—MONSTAT—is a competent body for the production of official statistics. The national and international public recognizes MONSTAT's role as a provider of official statistics in Montenegro’s statistical system. As the statistical leader, MONSTAT is obliged to collect data, process, and disseminate statistics in an independent, professional, transparent, and highly expert manner.

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Codepixel to accomplish? Production of software for control of entered data of the Census population, households and dwellings

How did you find Codepixel?

PUBLIC procurement

Why did you select Codepixel over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Codepixel were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Production of code of software for control of entered data of the population census 2023. Production of software that shall enable a person that is enumerated to check his/her identity data collected during the process of population census. Enabling to check the entered census data Article 26b Persons referred to in Article 3 paragraph 1 item 1 of this Law may perform only control of their own data which refer to the questions on: national, i.e. ethnical affiliation; religion; mother tongue; language usually spoken by the person, after the finished entering of data from the census." The above requested data shall be in the enumeration form, under ordinal numbers 10, 11, 12, and 12a. Copy of Questionnaire for Person (P-1) shall remain at the person covered by the census. Every citizen shall have a unique identification number on the enumeration form, and thus, a unique record for every citizen shall exist in the database. Tables comprising data on citizens' unique identification shall be present in the database.

The software solution must be developed as a web-oriented solution, and data that are included in this system must be kept in the centralized database based on the relational model. Additionally, the user authorization system must be based on the unique identifications of citizens. The software solution with the database should be a software architecture that defines a set of rules for creating web service. Web services should enable the interoperability between computer systems on the internet. Software solutions and databases should be installed as systems on the server infrastructure, which shall be provided by the Statistical Office being installed and configured in an isolated infrastructure environment, together with disc encryption of the server. As an additional component of security, the SSL protocol must be used, together with the use of a wildcard certificate.

The software solution shall fulfill the following security conditions:

• STAT_ID – unique and provided on the label of “QUESTIONAIRE FOR PERSON“,
• OPSTINA_S – code of municipality,
• POPKRUG – code of enumeration area,
• RBRSTAN – code of dwelling,
• LICE – code of person. Statistical ID (STAT_ID) shall be stick on “QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PERSON“.
• Database The requested data should be stored in the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that enables access to several dozens of citizens simultaneously. The database should enable high availability, autonomy, and isolation compared to other systems.
• Software solution and user interface Software solution should be published, and in technological terms accessible only via WAF system which should enable blocking of all ports, except for HTTPS, and perform filtering for potential attacks which are generated through it at the applicative level. The software solution should offer a possibility to one user to check data up to three times per day. In this manner, the possibility of misuse of information is additionally reduced. The software solution should also possess a component for generating complete logs (logbooks). The user interface of the software solutions should be responsive for different platforms. Software solution should enable to every citizen the access via the internet to the web page to check the entered data. Two unique identification parameters should be used to check the entered data, so a two-stage access shall be enabled.
• Statistical Office shall not make this code and the project documentation in original or amended form available to the third person, except when Statistical Office submits them to the third person for the purpose of audit. In this case, this third person shall be bound by the contract not to use the submitted software solution and project documentation for any purposes except for the purposes of audit.
• Database security – Use of security mechanisms, such as data encryption;
• Log in IP address and number of attempts – to implement functionality for log in of IP address of user to monitor activities and identify possible suspicious activities;
• Using Cloud service which ensures a protection of server against the DOS attack, contents caching, and additional security layers through the Web Application Firewall;
• Recapcha implementation; • Creating a classic web application without developing the Restfull API service
• The system for control of the code version that is placed in the production server, and the version that is delivered.

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The software was publicly available from 01.10 to 07.10. Citizens could check their data during that period. The application worked smoothly, quickly and efficiently. The application provided administrators with insight into the overall statistics and provided all the data that was interesting for us to analyze in a quick and efficient manner. The application provided clear, precise, and effective security measures, and personal data was never compromised.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The partners from Codepixel were available 24 hours a day and solved all questions quickly and efficiently.

What was your primary form of communication with Codepixel?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They solved all doubts immediately and without delay.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Codepixel could have done differently?

No improvements needed.