Evaluating and rationalising ICT in public administrations

2016.36 Assessment of trans-European systems supporting EU policies

When is this action of interest to you?

You are a European public administration that would like to increase its efficiency and decrease the costs. The rationalization of IT systems supporting EU policies will contribute to this objective by identifying reuseable building blocks.

What is this action about?

The European Commission is currently implementing an overall strategy to rationalize and streamline the IT systems it develops, maintains and operates. A similar process is also ongoing in Member States at their national or even regional levels.

The aim of this rationalization is to avoid duplication and promote common, reusable and flexible solutions.

Rationalising the number of information systems supporting EU policies will result in a reduction of costs in terms of development, maintenance, implementation, operation and training at the EU and national level. At the same time the use of a reduced set of solutions, methods, processes and tools will simplify cooperation between EU wide administrations.

This action targets systems that support EU policies and exchanges between European Public Administrations at European and national level. It also covers those systems managed by the European Commission allowing for exchanges between Member States.

A study will define assessment criteria for the rationalisation, describe the building blocks, deliver an analysis based on these criteria and propose a list of rationalization opportunities.

It will also provide a map which will be the basis for a strategic plan to boost the reuse and sharing maturity of the EU systems. At the same time it will provide input to the EU cartography to be built in the context of the “European Interoperability architecture” (EIA) Action.

The study will deliver the basis for rationalization decisions. The rationalisation decisions themselves will be the responsibility of the Commission or other relevant bodies' policy entities.

What are the objectives?

Given the current scarcity of resources, all European Public Administrations, at the various levels, need to become more efficient with reduced means. The action will build upon the available inventories compiled of such IT systems, improving and further refining the methodology for the assessment. Performing the analysis based on the assessment criteria will identify areas of rationalisation and create a list of re-useable building blocks. At the same time it will provide input for the EU cartography (=used to map building blocks to EIA conceptual reference architecture which is being developed in the context of the EIA action) and identify potential areas of rationalisation.

What are the benefits?

More streamlined interfacing/integration with existing EU IT systems;
Use of more similar IT systems (to those used in other Member States)
Reduced training efforts as fewer IT tools are used;
Less time needed to obtain IT tools for new areas;
Reduced IT development and maintenance costs;
Reduced training, helpdesk and awareness raising costs;
Less time needed to deliver IT solutions for new areas.
Reduced administrative burden and increased efficiency
Improved and accelerated services delivered by public authorities;
Reduced administrative burden by replacing requirements to provide paper certificates and documents with a fast and reliable information/document exchange between public authorities.#

What has been achieved?

TES Cartography v2.2.0, TESCart solution, was released with 86 TES (5 new) and it is accessible through the CarTool to Commission users
TES rationalization report 2019 Edition released. This report is considered a key document when providing recommendations/comments on new TES business cases and new TES project charters
Interoperability Quick Assessment Tool v1.1.0, IQAT solution was released
Reusability Quick Assessment Tool v1.1.0, RQAT solution was released
EIC v1.0.0 was released

What are the next steps?

In 2020, the next steps include:

Release of a new version of the TESCart including new TES in production
Perform the graphical modelling (reverse engineering) of 5 TES in the TESCart who only have tabular information
Provide help-desk support to stakeholders developing High-Level or Detail-Level requirements SATs upon requests of stakeholders
Implement the EIC v1.2.0
Assess and improve the data quality of the TES in the TESCart
Assess the reusability level using the RQAT and the interoperability level using the IQAT of all TES and their components
Promote user awareness of the TESCart in the EC
Develop and publish service in the DIGIT catalogue of services to promote the exploitation on demand of the TESCart
Start promoting the EC lessons learned on the TESCart in the Members States supporting their implementation of national cartographies via pilots
Release a new edition of the TES Report