Oslo krets av Norsk Kolonihageforbund is an interest organisation for allotment gardens and community gardens in Oslo. The Oslo regional association looks after the interests of the individual allotment garden associations and works with Norsk Kolonihageforbund. It is responsible for Oslo's nine allotment gardens, with a total of 1,100 plots, and as many as 9,000 people are on the waiting list. Some of them have been on it for 15 years.
The need for a better system
The Oslo regional association had a custom-built system to keep track of plot allocation, waiting lists and the various indicators that affect allocation. The vendor was going to discontinue this system and move to a new one.
- We then had to choose between following along to a new platform with the same vendor or finding something new. What we were using had many weaknesses and was expensive to maintain. We wanted to move to a platform with many other users, so that the vendor would also be interested in continuing to develop it, explains Bente Mogård, chair of Oslo krets av Norsk kolonihageforbund.
Affordable and tailor-made
Mogård searched for vendors of similar software and sent an enquiry to around 10 of them, setting out which needs the software had to cover.
- Three or four came back with positive replies, including Rubic. After another round with them, we chose Rubic. The reason was that the solution was built on a standard solution that could be adapted to our needs, while also being affordable. And not least, that it requires little maintenance on our part. That matters, since much of the administrative work is done by volunteers.
An adapted standard solution
The solution chosen is basically a standard Rubic module. In addition, it has been adapted to the special needs of the allotment gardens:
- To apply for a plot in Oslo, you must have a permanent address in Oslo. This is required both when you join the waiting list and when you are allocated a cabin. The system therefore has to be able to check against the Norwegian National Population Register to make sure this is correct. At the same time, some allocations require the applicant to be part of a family with children, so it must also be possible to register several family members and their ages.
They have also ordered Rubic's registration module, which they call “hyttetorget” (the cabin marketplace). Cabins that become available are posted here.
- Around 40 cabins change hands each year, and they are posted on hyttetorget with photos and descriptions. There, people on the waiting list can register their interest in a viewing. Each garden has a sales committee that needs access – so there is also a need for different access levels for what each person can do in the system.
An exciting customer
For Rubic, the allotment gardens are a very exciting customer that contributes to the further development of the system while also increasing the number of users in it.
- They contacted us before Christmas last year, and the agreement was signed in January. By May we had already gone “live”. This is an exciting customer with many members. For us it was a strategic choice, as tailoring standard solutions to each customer is exactly what we want to do. At the same time, we try to encourage customers to choose standard solutions as far as possible, for simple, fast and cost-effective updates.
- Along the way, we also take what we learn from each customer into the further development of the systems, which makes them suitable for most types of organisation, explains Rune Solholm Bakken, one of the founders of Rubic.
Solution-oriented and professional
- For us it has been a very positive process, with skilled technical developers who have been good at following up and very well organised. Not least, they have been good at delivering on time. It feels like a relief to move to a more standardised solution, which I find users and administrators think is easy to use, unlike the previous one, which was both time-consuming and complicated.
- Rubic has been very solution-oriented, positive and very professional. They were very good at either meeting our requests or explaining that something would make things very complicated – and then finding other solutions that do the same job. We are very satisfied and recommend Rubic to others, Mogård concludes.