Evaluation study supporting the interim evaluation of the ISA² programme. CEPS Project Report. June 2019

In compliance with Article 13 of Decision (EU) 2015/2240 establishing the ISA2 programme, the interim evaluation assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, EU added value, coherence, utility and sustainability of ISA2. Based on primary data collected from 129 consulted stakeholders, extensive desk research, and expert assessments, the evaluation confirms that ISA2 performs well in all the evaluation criteria. The objectives pursued by ISA2 are still pertinent in relation to the evolving needs and problems in the field of interoperability of digital public services, and the results achieved so far are aligned with the objectives of the programme. As ISA2 progresses and solutions are further developed, the expected results should be attained, given that the implementation of the programme is continuing as planned. There are substantial synergies and limited overlaps among ISA2 actions. Moreover, particularly strong synergies exist with the Connecting Europe Facility. ISA2 contributed to enhancing cross-border interoperability and users generally tend to be satisfied with the solutions provided. Overall, ISA2 plays a crucial role in enhancing the interoperability landscape in the European Union. In light of these findings, the evaluation outlines some measures to improve the performance of ISA2 and future editions of the programme

Interoperability challenges for ICT-enabled governance: towards a pan-European conceptual framework

In the European academic and institutional debate, interoperability is predominantly seen as a means to enable public administrations to collaborate within Members State and across borders. The article presents a conceptual framework for ICT-enabled governance and analyses the role of interoperability in this regard. The article makes a specific reference to the exploratory research project carried out by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission¿s Joint Research Centre on emerging ICT-enabled governance models in EU cities (EXPGOV). The aim of this project is to study the interplay between ICTs and governance processes at city level and formulate an interdisciplinary framework to assess the various dynamics emerging from the application of ICT-enabled service innovations in European cities. In this regard, the conceptual framework proposed in this article results from an action research perspective and investigation of e-governance experiences carried out in Europe. It aims to elicit the main value drivers that should orient how interoperable systems are implemented, considering the reciprocal influences that occur between these systems and different governance models in their specific context

Framework for a business interoperability quotient measurement model

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova da Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial (MEGI)Over the last decade the context of Interoperability has been changing rapidly. It has been expanding from the largely technically focused area of Information Systems towards Business Processes and Business Semantics. However, there exists a need for more comprehensive ways to define business interoperability and enable its performance measurement as a first step towards improvement of interoperability conditions between collaborating entities. Through extensive literature reviews and analysis of European Research initiatives in this area, this dissertation presents the State of the Art in Business Interoperability. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a model that closely captures the factors that are responsible for Business Interoperability in the context of Collaborative Business Processes. This Business Interoperability Quotient Measurement Model (BIQMM), developed in this dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to capture the key elements responsible for collaboration performance. Through the quantification of the relevance of each element to the particular collaboration scenario in question, this model enables a quantitative analysis of Business Interoperability, so that an overall interoperability score can be arrived at for enhanced performance measurements.Finally, the BIQMM is applied to a business case involving Innovayt and LM Glassfiber to demonstrate its applicability to different collaboration scenarios

O Mercado Único Digital e o seu desígnio políticoconstitucional: o impacto da Agenda Eletrónica Europeia nas soluções de interoperabilidade1

O Mercado Único Digital é o novo objetivo político e, por essa razão, tem vindo a promover a criação de todo o tipo de soluções digitais para potenciar a evolução da União Europeia. Só isso poderá torná-la mais atrativa ao investimento por parte de agentes associados às tecnologias deinformação. Assim, a União Europeia estabeleceu um conjunto de medidas de interoperabilidade para que tanto os Estados-Membros como as instituições europeias estivessem habilitados a dar o exemplo quanto à relevância das ferramentas digitais e a fim de as identificar como um dos instrumentos indispensáveis à observância das finalidades da União. Neste contexto específico, a União Europeia adotou o Programa ISA2 para implementar soluções de interoperabilidade para as administrações públicas, as empresas e os cidadãos e que visa acarretar maior transparência para aquelas relações estabelecidas entre as administrações públicas (administrações funcional e organicamente europeias) e os cidadãos e as empresas. A médio prazo, as soluções de interoperabilidade dotarão a União Europeia de uma e-Administração (administração eletrónica) cuja face visível será um fenómeno de e-Governo (governo digital). No entanto, para que a União Europeia não se depare com uma degeneração baseada no uso excessivo das tecnologias de informação e dos componentes eletrónicos, os princípios da proporcionalidade, igualdade e não discriminação têm de ser usados como “princípios de teste” de todas as medidas que o Mercado Único Digital objetiva implementar. Afinal, uma disseminação alargada das tecnologias de informação noutros domínios constitucionais – como é o caso da definição de um sistema democrático e da prossecução dos interesses públicos primários pela classe política (decorrendo desta nova realidade um fenómeno de e-Política) – pode conduzir a um caminho incerto, tendente a comprometer o arranjo político-social tal como o conhecemos hoje.Digital Single Market is the new political goal that promotes the creation of digital solutions to support the European Union’s evolution. It is believed to be one means by which the EU can attract investments from new IT tools’ economic agents. For that purpose, the European Unionsettled various interoperability measures so that both Member States and European institutions were able to set the example on how digital tools are important and one of Union’s goals. In this particular setting, the European Union engaged the ISA2 programme to promote interoperability solutions for Public Administrations, citizens and companies which aimed to bring more transparency to those relationships established between Public Administrations (both functional and organic European administrations) and common citizens and companies. In the medium run, interoperability solutions will provide the European Union with an e-Administration (electronic administration) which visible face will be an e-Government (electronic government) phenomenon. However, to avoid the European Union facing a degeneration based on excessive use of electronic realities, principles of proportionality, equality and non-discrimination must be used as testing principles to all measures the Digital Single Market aims to implement. In fact, a wide dissemination of IT tools in other constitutional areas – such as the definition of a democratic system and the public interest guaranteed by politics (steaming from this new equation a e-Politics) – can lead to a dangerous path, compromising society as we know it, its constitutional setting and democratic principle as they are being developed

European Regions Financing Public e-Services: the Case of EU Structural Funds.

EU Structural Funds represent by far the main source of funding for innovation in general and for eservices in particular in the lagging regions of Europe classified into the “Convergence” objective. The paper explores the amount of resources dedicated to public e-Services and Information Society by elaborating European Commission data on programmed resources for the 2007-13 period. Moreover, the paper represents the first attempt to use a quantitative approach – i.e. a principal component analysis and a cluster analysis – in order to identify the different strategies adopted by European Regions for Information Society development. The results shows that in the “Convergence” Regions, a specific “public e-services strategy” emerges. Regions investing in public e-services tend to concentrate available resources to e-government or e-health, while very low percentage of total funding is dedicated to the other categories such as broadband or infrastructural services.Information society, regional policy, Cohesion Policy, Structural Funds, e-Services, e-Government, Cluster analysis.