DLR

CHALLENGES

One-stop government and the concept of the “point of single contact”

In future, a planned network of “points of single contact” and electronic processing should simplify the essential practical procedures necessary for the implementation of the European Services Directive. A comprehensive screening of standards aims to break down unfair limitations and discriminatory practices inherent in existing systems: this is a key component of the EU Services Directive concept.

A collective, multi-channel based infrastructure which takes existing systems into account must be established. In future, “points of single contact” should effectively support service industry businesses entering other member states’ markets as well as in the domestic market and also provide one-stop supervision. Points of single contact from other EU states should, moreover, be able to maintain contact with the German administration departments using the same infrastructure. In Germany the question of which players will position themselves as points of single contact, which portfolio of tasks they will use and how they can be integrated into the existing structure remains open.

Thus a consistent implementation of appropriate one-stop government concepts would have a significant impact on the entire public sector (at the federal, state and municipal level including the chambers) that would reach far beyond the range of applications relating to European services businesses.

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GOALS

With the “Premium Services Directive” project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems will promote an understanding of the requirements needed to successfully implement the EU Services Directive. The guidelines, which must be met, should firstly be made concrete by defining points of single contact, the technical architecture and singular essential components.

The aim is to clarify the requirements for a cooperative interoperable IT infrastructure for a nation and its administration departments and to make strategic recommendations regarding procedures for the European Union member states.

A second step should be to come up with a concept that could be used to technically implement a flexible architectural framework and that would support the various organisational possibilities. Knowledge and competencies gained from the prototypal realisation of the architecture should be used to facilitate a realistic implementation in the administrative sphere and the third sector.

The experience and knowledge gained about eGovernment, technical architectures, interoperability, standards, interfaces, high performance portals and the singular telephone number 115 act as pillars; they are most important for implementing various tasks in the EU Services Directive context.

It is of great interest to FOKUS that the EU Services Directive is implemented on time and in a state of the art manner. Partnerships and inter-institute research groups are particularly important for this ambitious assignment. An implementation incorporating all facets of the requirements will only succeed if we work together with the public sector, businesses and other research institutions. Thus FOKUS seeks contact with players that are interested in finding a high quality and pragmatic solution for the Services Directive.

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IT-Implementation

Fraunhofer FOKUS and their partner Microsoft are creating a prototype for the implementation of the EU Services Directive

In December 2006 an EU resolution was made: as of the end of 2009 citizens and businesses should be able to offer their services Europe-wide in an unlimited manner.  The German public administration has been preparing for this with great zeal. A planned network of “points of single contact” and electronic processing is now laying the foundations for the upcoming implementation of the European Services Directive. For this reason it is important to firstly foster a collective understanding of the technical and organizational structure of public administrations at all political levels.

Within the framework of its internal “Premium Services Directive” project, Fraunhofer FOKUS is developing an architectural framework as well as suggesting technical solutions that can be used to implement the EU Services Directive. An initial prototype is also being developed alongside this, demonstrating the various workflows and tasks that are part of the process of setting up a business within the Services Directive framework.

The realization will take place using eGovernment laboratory partner Microsoft’s products and technologies.

The prototype was demonstrated for the first time at the “The Government Leaders Forum-Europe” Microsoft event on January 22-23rd in Berlin. 

Fraunhofer FOKUS is developing an architectural framework and proposing technical solutions to be used for the implementation of points of single contact in accordance with the EU Services Directive.

The point of single contact and electronic processing as initiated by the EU Services Directive will significantly simplify structures, procedures and formalities in the public sector. A consistent implementation of relevant one-stop government concepts will have a significant impact on the entire public sector in all member states (at the national, sub-national and municipal level) which will, in our view, reach far beyond the European range of applications relating to European service businesses.

The aim of the project, which should be completed in the next year, is to develop a concept for an architectural framework taking the vertical multi-channel approach into account. A prototypic implementation of the architecture or a comprehensive implementation of the architectural framework could be realized in follow-up projects. The results will also have a direct impact on Deutschland-Online’s “IT Implementation of the EU Services Directive” plans and should, independent of any of their internal publications, become a key component of their interim and annual reports.

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PULICATIONS and OUTCOMES

Definitions of terms relating to portals that are used in the EU-SD/PSC context

The following definitions of terms used for portals in the public sector are oriented towards Jörn von Lücke’s habilitation treatise on high performance portals in the public sector “High Performance Portals for the Public Sector”, which was published as volume 55 in the series on information systems by the Josef Eul publishing house GMbH (ISBN 978-89936-645-7). This text focuses on the annual report of the research project of the same name conducted by Professor Dr. Heinrich Reinermann at the Research Institute for Public Administration, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer.

Observations on case management in the EU-SD/PSC context

The European Services Directive (SD) assists public administrations in setting up points of single contact. In 2008 considerations of if, how and with which functions case management systems should be used to support them will come to the fore.

Definitions of terms relating to responsibility finders in the EU-SD/PSC context

Finding the public institution responsible for a particular administrative service could become considerably easier for points of single contact such as service providers if they use a directory based responsibility finder. This article should deliver the DOL-SP project’s definitions of terms to responsibility finders. They result from the “HPP – Solutions for the Public Sector” working group at Fraunhofer FOKUS which deals with directory based responsibility finders.

More information can be found on the right as a downloadable PDF