IFS Confao
Business simulator for high-school students
Business simulation, Imprese Formative Simulate, IFS
2023-2024
Dashboard of the IFS ("Impresa Formativa Simulata", a.k.a. "Simulated Training Company"): teachers and students access this dashboard to manage and run their company. It serves as the entry point for all other functionalities, and allows users to have critical information at glance.
DESCRIPTION
Running a company is a tough activity that requires many skills that are rarely taught. This project, developed together with CONFAO, aims to close the enormous gap between what's taught in school and what's required by the "real world" when it comes to work.
The project, called "IFS" for "Imprese Formative Simulate", i.e. "Simulated Training Companies", provides a simple and intuitive yet comprehensive simulation environment that lets high-school students learn how to startup a company and how to run it.
This simulator follows quite closely the actual process required to incorporate a new company in Italy, thus requiring students to produce all the documents that are needed for an actual incorporation. Thanks to the cooperation with professors, the students will learn how to conduct preliminary analysis to determine the viability and sustainability of their business, resulting in the creation of a business plan. This document, together with all the analyses, is uploaded to the platform and is validated by CONFAO, which determines its compliance to the guidelines.
Next, students will have to incorporate their company. Again, CONFAO will examine and either validate or reject all the requests, providing feedback to professors and students all over Italy about their simulated business. When the company is eventually incorporated, the fun starts: students will be able to create a bank account, sign utility contracts, request loans and mortgages to our simulated banks run by CONFAO, and open an online shop.
Specifically, businesses can buy and sell goods and services to one another in the platform. Specifically, the simulator acts as a simplified CMS that manages invoices, product stocks, payments, and much more. Students can explore all other shops on the platform in several ways, including tag-based search and free-form text search. However, as in real businesses, most transactions actually start by a contact. For this reason, a messaging system that simulates and resembles emails has been integrated in the simulator: companies can thus contact each other, offer their products or require information on goods and services, before committing to buying something.
These are the high-level features of the simulator. However, it is much more nuanced and offers many possibilities to its users, with the ultimate goal of fostering knowledge on how to run companies - a usually under-taught yet extremely valuable skill.
Main ideas behind this simulator:
• Students often have little skills on how to run companies. This simulator helps them build these skills.
• Incorporating a company can be a tough process, especially in Italy. This simulator teaches students how to do that.
• Loans, mortgages, and money management are critical concepts that everybody should know. However, many people struggle with them. This simulator teaches these concepts to students in a practical way: whatever they'll do in their lives, they'll know what a loan is, when to get one, and what interest is.
• Creating a company is only part of the game, as one needs to sell goods or services to make it profitable. This simulator allows students to make (virtual) profit, thus understanding how to calculate business profitability!
• Students often have little skills on how to run companies. This simulator helps them build these skills.
• Incorporating a company can be a tough process, especially in Italy. This simulator teaches students how to do that.
• Loans, mortgages, and money management are critical concepts that everybody should know. However, many people struggle with them. This simulator teaches these concepts to students in a practical way: whatever they'll do in their lives, they'll know what a loan is, when to get one, and what interest is.
• Creating a company is only part of the game, as one needs to sell goods or services to make it profitable. This simulator allows students to make (virtual) profit, thus understanding how to calculate business profitability!
The simulator is currently available only in Italy. It is tailored to the italian laws that regulate companies, and targets high-school italian students.
The simulator had existed for many years, and it was developed by other companies.
In 2023, I took the challenge to re-design it from scratch to meet the new requirements. After a thorough analysis phase, during which I defined the objectives and required functionalities with CONFAO, I implemented the first version of the new system.
In 2024, I updated it following the feedbacks collected during one year of usage and introducing many new functionalities, especially focused on the online shops, which are now much more powerful and complete.
In 2023, I took the challenge to re-design it from scratch to meet the new requirements. After a thorough analysis phase, during which I defined the objectives and required functionalities with CONFAO, I implemented the first version of the new system.
In 2024, I updated it following the feedbacks collected during one year of usage and introducing many new functionalities, especially focused on the online shops, which are now much more powerful and complete.