Cornel VintilaExpert in IT&C policies and regulations,

Enterprise Architect, BPM Expert

The framework "i2010 - A European information society for growth and employment“ was launched by the European Commission in 2005, and it provides the broad policy guidelines for what we call the emerging "information society" in the years up to 2010.

The main goals of i2010 are:

i2010 promotes a European Information Society for all citizens. Actions implemented under this priority of i2010 aim:

eGovernment is the use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) to make public administrations more efficient and effective.

Inclusive eGovernment – ensuring equal access to public services

Benefits of eGoverment:

•Electronic invoicing in Denmark saves taxpayers €150 million and businesses €50 million a year. If introduced all over the EU, annual savings could add up to over €50 billion. •Disabled people in Belgium can now obtain benefits over the Internet in seconds, whereas previously this took 3 or 4 weeks. Such time savings and convenience can become widespread and benefit all citizens in Europe in many public services.

We consider that in order to ensure eGoverment initiative’s success, the following items are crucial:

a. Public Services’ inventory

b. Public Services benchmarking Will provide an assessment of the digitization’s current state, and thus a basis for building the objectives of any eGoverment initiative.

Capgemini’s 2004 assesment – degree of digitization of the 20 public services

The study covered: citizen’s access and usage of internet, companies access and usage of IT&C technologies, the costs of internet access, eGoverment and digitization of education, medical services, commerce and business.

Capgemimi’s 4 degrees of on-line sophistication:

• Information - the information is on-line• Unidirectional interaction – downloadable

forms • Bidirectional - the forms can be

electronically completed on-line• Complete digitized transactions - public

service is performed exclusively on-line

After the inventory of public services and their assessment, several measures have to be performed:

c. Design of the secondary legislation concerning the IT&C field, that must regulate the national market of IT&C-related products and services

d. Creation of the Public Services RegistryThe implementation of a National Public Services Registry can be performed after the BundOnline project of Germany, that became a Best Practice in EU. The initiative is designated to make available online by all the public services capable of electronic delivery.

e. Implementation of eID at national level

f. Regulating and implementing interoperability standards - enabling collaboration for the national institutions (between themselves or to the EU public sector)

The 'Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens' (IDABC) – a European Commission's program, addresses these challenges by coordinating common rules for collaboration and related infrastructure projects.

SEMIC.EU is an implementation measures taken by IDABC – a catalyst for the preservation of meaning in eGovernment data exchange.

a) Adopting the i2010 guidelines to the national secondary legislation

The i2010 guidelines can be easily introduced into the secondary legislation; thus, beside preparing for compliance with the EU requirements, it can facilitate an easier transition to eGoverment by introducing or adapting EU’s best practices in the field to the national reality.

b) Implementation of self-assessment for public services OR … The self assessment methodology will help institutions to measure their performance, indentifying

strong points and the areas needing optimization; prioritize the optimization activities ; measure their efficiency

c) … licensing the not developed market segments by introducing Public Sector Brokers (situation met in Ireland, project that became a Best Practice Case in EU).