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System Integration Process of Government Information

Systems

Ahto Kalja

Department of State Information Systems/

Tallinn Technical University Tallinn, Estoniaahto@cs.ioc.ee

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Introduction

Government Information Systems status and construction in Estonia have two times fully changed in last ten years.

* The first changing period started in the beginning of 90s when paper documents based folder and register system comes to the end and the DBMS-based development begin. * The second changing period has begin ten years later (and continues till now) where all stand alone databases moved to common over Internet accessed data resource.

This last change is described in my talk.

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Situation with databases Estonia started the developing public sector databases ten years ago after gaining the independence. The process of developing starts from clear place. There were no special data base management systems in use in Estonia before 90s. Such situation haves plusses and minuses. The biggest minus was that we don’t have good DB developers and IT-companies with large practices in beginning. The plusses includes that we have had possibilities to use immediately the modern DBMS and hardware. Compare to highly developed Western countries Estonia does not have a mountain of COBOL program and old type IS, which need restructuring by needs of modern DBMS.

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Estonian registers and databases (II)

1. Population register2. Business register3. Cars database4. Driving licences database5. Passports register6. Land register 7. Buildings register8. Ships register9. …

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Problems  The specialists have estimated that technically all Estonian large databases haves standard solutions. The largest databases haves special interfaces over the Internet. At the same time these interfaces have organized for different databases in very different way. Today situation shows that it is not so easy for the user to learn all possible interface details, to remember all PIN codes or to manage all special agreements with different database management companies. From such situation has been risen an idea to develop the environment, where all mentioned problems can solve only once for all databases.

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1. Aim:

The aim of the X-road project is to develop software, hardware and organisational methods for standardised usage of national databases.

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2. Importance of the project:

• First, different databases had reached the level of development, where the increasing amount of data manipulation operations needed more and more connections between different databases. Different development projects from different ministries and counties include very similar solving algorithms: one database queries data from another database over the Internet. Developing a standard set of data manipulation operations, which process data over the Internet, can solve such problem. It means, that the government orders one set of program components and every governmental organisation can use this set of software in suitable to him collection.

The purpose of launching the X-road program had several different reasons.

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• Second reason for developing such a set of standard program components lies in developing standard interface facilities. This interface allows organising the dialogue between the user (citizen, civil servant, entrepreneur) and databases. The same software guaranties the interface between databases and application programs. The standardised user interface saves resources and the communication line between the end-user and the database can very often exclude the need for a special civil servant.

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• Third reason lies in the standardised authentication service. At the moment we have solved the authentication problem by using the Internet-bank services for citizens who are customers of Estonian commerce banks. The other group of users are people who have the Estonian citizen ID-card. Authorisation services are solved by every information system.

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Vision for 2003

The citizen can get information from national databases, a common data storage, within his or her limits of authority 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.The civil servant can use all national databases in the decision-making process within his or her limits of authority.The entrepreneur can use information included in national databases for carryingout business.

The state has become more transparent, integral and intelligible for the citizens.The administration and development costs of databases have decreased by 30%in total, thanks to the unified user interface it is easier to use databases.

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X-road project participants:

• Public sector– Estonian MTC DSIS

– Data protection inspection

– Estonian Informatics Centre

• Private sector– Softshark Ltd.

– Cybernetica Ltd.

– IT Meedia Ltd.

– Cell Network Ltd.

– Andmevara Ltd.

– Reaalsüsteemid Ltd

– AA Arendus Ltd.

– Commercial banks etc.

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X-road finance

13.5 M. crowns2002

5.8 (6.8) M. crowns2001

BudgetYear

~27 M. Crowns= 2 Mill. US$

2003* 6.6 M. crowns

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Public www

Information systems

Databases

.r

Users:-citizen-civil servant-entrepreneur

SYSTEMSYSTEM(X-road)(X-road)

EnvironmentEnvironment

“Gray areaGray area”(X-road closest surroundings)

ClassifiersID-cardDigital signature

Electronical documentsE-citizen

Legislation

“Informationsociety”CitizenportalE-businesM-busines

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4. Technical assumptionsMost of Estonian databases and registers have been developed by using standardised Oracle, Informix, Sybase, Progress etc. software and they use standardised SQL-query language. MS Windows, Linux and Solaris are in use as operating systems. The connections between databases are organised over the Internet. All these components together build up the first level support for second (or service) level solutions, which include the X-road software components for application services design.Technical solution for the X-road is not one large server or one large DBMS database. The solution includes a network of securely connected databases and information systems over the Internet.

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5. The project results and users:

The X-road project solutions include different real and virtual results:- software components, which can be used for solving data manipulation

and query operations by using data from different databases and information systems. It means dialogue operations between a web-browser and a user and batch processing between application programs and databases. The authentication and authorisation for all users can be realised.

- a set of typical turn-key solutions (as special test services for project 2001 version) for database operations in Ministry of Internal Affairs. A set of turn-key solutions for other ministries (in 2002 and 2003).

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-a set of general services for citizens (developed in co-operation with other projects like e-citizen, e-election etc.) on the Internet. By the end of 2001 every citizen has had a possibility to view his/her personal data from the Population Register in a Netscape or MS Explorer browser window.

-a special service centre and team, who manages agreements, gives licenses, gives consultations etc.

-all everyday activities of citizens will become more and morepaper-free in the future, and will be based on virtual activities over the Internet.

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(X-road) development has included a set of

different steps: • Developing of the functional model and detail

specification• System realization, installation and

maintenance• Teaching of users• Developing of a service centre

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Citizen

CA ofcitizens Civil

servantPortal

Authenti-cation

MISP

Securityserver Security

server

Centralserver

Internet

Securityserver

Securityserver

CA ofservers

IS of anorganizat.

Civilservant

Adapter-server

Data-base

Users

Databaseprocessors

EncryptedSSL

channels, digitaly signatured data

communications

Centralserver

Localmonit. st.

Localmonit. st.

Localmonit. st.

Centralmonit. st.

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Citizen

CA ofcitizens

Civilservant

Portal

Authenti-cation

MISPSecurityserver

Securityserver

Centralserver

InternetSecurityserver

Securityserver

CA ofservers

IS of anorganizat.

Adapter-server

Data-base

Users

Databaseprocessors

SSL channels, digitaly signed

encrypted messages

Centralserver

Localmonitoring

Localmonitoring

Centralmonitoring

Special citizen’s web portal with standard DB-services

Functional scheme

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http://www.riik.ee/ristmik/

User manuals:

X-road manuals: Central server user manualDeveloper requirements Proving of queriesPortal installation manualPortal user manual Security server user manual

www.riik.ee/ristmik/

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X-road training materials: List of training materialsCentral server administration manual Developer requirementsPortals installation manualPortals user manualProving of queries Overview of the systemSecurity server administration manual

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X-road Technical documentation : Environment description Structure of the configurationCommunication protocolSoftware architecture Security log

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