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Klaus Hofinger intended to open the doors of department stores in Austria. In less than an hour, the programmer from St. Marienkirchen (Schrding district) wanted to recreate the very smiling platform and thus demonstrate that the multi-million dollar project could have worked cleanly and economically with just a few simple steps. His sister had enrolled him in the ORF program “Willkommen Austria”. A Christmas present that Hofinger unwrapped, the content of which was different last Tuesday night: the 29-year-old and three friends with whom he had studied at the Hagenberg University of Applied Sciences uploaded to the “Austria tests” platform.
Nine instead of 546,000 euros
The government had created the website, where users can register for a rapid Covid-19 test in their state, it cost a proud 546,000 euros. Monthly maintenance costs € 190,000, including adjustments and further development. World Direct, a subsidiary of A1, is responsible.
The Ministry of Health justified the costs: the registration interface is only a very small part of the platform, the system also handles digital appointment scheduling, controls capacity planning for more than 600 test stations, and also manages registration in the stations themselves “It’s still too expensive,” Hofinger said, and went to work. Together with Matthias Neuwersch, Paul Schnetzinger and Melanie Mitter, he reprogrammed the “Austria tests” website in 52 minutes.
“With a lead time, we needed maybe two hours total,” says Hofinger. Cost: nine euros – for registering the domain.
He wants to stay serious, says Hofinger. Platforms cannot be compared one by one. “We haven’t secured the site that well yet. Against hacker attacks, for example. But it wouldn’t cost more than a few hundred euros ”. The 52 minute version can also handle “hundreds of thousands of visitors at once”. The “Willkommen-Austria” rapid test is available at: Willkommen-oesterreich-testet.at.
