IMAPS User Stories – The Czech Ministry of the Interior in the Spotlight

Interview with Tomáš Šedivec, Department of the Chief eGovernment Architect, Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic

Tomáš Šedivec has used IMAPS for assessing a number of digital public services provided by public administrations in the Czech Republic, such as the Czech Ministry of Health. He shared with us his IMAPS user experience and explained the benefits of IMAPS for his organisation.

Which digital public service has been selected for the IMAPS assessment?
The IMAPS testing was performed for the digital public service on cross border exchange of medical documentation and cross border “ePrescription” and “eDispensation”. The system enabling the digital delivery of the public service is managed by the Czech Ministry of Health. Health care professionals and citizens are end users of this service. Citizens can view their medical documentation via a web portal, while health care professionals can access patient-related information in one single point from different systems. To enter the web portal, authentication is required. The eIDAS scheme was used as reference for building the authentication interface.

How did you learn about the IMAPS solution?
They received the IMAPS questionnaire via the international e-Government Department of the Ministry of Interior. It serves as a single point of contact for the EU institutions and the ISA² programme.

What are the benefits of IMAPS?
The advantage of the IMAPS questionnaire is a set of standardised questions for assessing the interoperability of systems in public administrations that can be used in a cross-border as well as national context. Moreover, IMAPS can be applied to any existing or new system. Every organisation managing these systems should carry out an IMAPS assessment.

What value did IMAPS bring to your organisation?
The system established for the exchange of medical documentation was interoperable by default. Last time, we performed an IMAPS testing on a service that had a different level of maturity. The recommendations provided by IMAPS helped to implement the strategic point-of-view to the system. Furthermore, they provided guidance for managing changes on the system. The recommendations were very useful in particular in the area of security services regarding identification.

How did IMAPS help to increase the level of interoperability of your organisation with other organisations at cross-border and cross-sector levels?
Since the IMAPS testing was only performed recently, no major decision has been taken yet. The recommendations will however be taken into account for any future improvements. Comparing with the results of the previous IMAPS assessment, we can see a progression in the interoperability maturity level of public services which can be primarily explained by the use of unique identifiers, e.g. the registration of health care professionals. The IMAPS results show that interoperability level is constantly raising, year by year.

How has IMAPS enabled you to provide better services to businesses and citizens across the EU and beyond?
The new systems for the electronic exchange of medical documentation clearly bring benefits for its two target groups: health care professionals benefit from centralised medical documentation and a single system through which information can be accessed. The citizen’s life is simplified by the fact that one electronic identity is replacing multiple ones. They only need one user name and password.

Did you encounter any challenges using IMAPS?
The only challenge of completing the IMAPS assessment was the lack of clarity on the generic services concept. The IMAPS questionnaire is easy to understand – there is no “lost in translation” experience.

How did IMAPS help you achieve your project's objectives?
The project’s objective was cross-border interoperability. IMAPS contributed to achieving this objective by providing relevant recommendations for improving interoperability aspects. The project successfully passed the last audit test and has been approved for production.

What are the lessons learnt from using IMAPS?
IMAPS helped us to look beyond the project perspective or our individual point of interest by providing a global view on interoperability. IMAPS helped to open up our reflection by bringing EIRA and different interoperability aspects at different layers (legal, technical, semantic and organisational) and areas into play.

Would you recommend IMAPS to other organisations?
I definitely recommend it to other public administrations for three good reasons: the IMAPS survey is simple, it does not take much time to complete it and it provides recommendations. To facilitate the use by other public administrations in the Czech Republic, it would however be useful to translate it into Czech.

For more information on the Czech National Architecture Plan and eGovernment initiatives, please visit the website https://archi.gov.cz.
 

Do you want to know how your digital public service scores in terms of interoperability?
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Would you like to discover the IMAPS solution in more detail? 
Visit IMAPS on the ISA2 website or contact us via e-mail ISA2@ec.europa.eu.