Case:Interoperability Platform Valencia (description)
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The legal framework in Spain previews the distribution of most competences among the national,
the regional, and the local administrative levels. Whereas some of them are exclusive for the
national level such as foreign affairs and defence, many others are decentralised and correspond
to regional or local governments. In this context, the Regional Government of Valencia is
competent to provide important public services such as health, education and justice services.
Nevertheless the Spanish law stipulates that Local Governments are responsible for the keeping
and maintenance of key personal data such as the updated address. This implies that, if a regional
administration needs to get or check the validity of the name and address of a citizen in order to
provide a concrete service, the data have to be retrieved from the local administration.
This distribution of responsibilities enforces the adoption of interoperability (IOP) solutions between administrations. In this case study, the main problem to overcome was the elimination of the need for citizens to submit a census certificate to apply for a regional service, in concrete to request a Health ID Card. The rationale to select this service was that it has an outreach of 100% of the Valencian population, and consequently the automated validation of the citizen personal data would have a great impact.
To address the problem of IOP, the Regional Government of Valencia is setting up and testing a clearinghouse infrastructure, an IOP platform, to guarantee the seamless exchange of information both between different departments of the Regional Government, and between the Regional Government and other public organisations that operate in the Region (State and Local Governments, business associations etc.). This IOP solution is an action included in a framework program devoted to develop an Integral and Multi-Channel Citizen Service System (Sistema Integral de Atención Multicanal al Ciudadano, SIMAC).
The IOP platform offers different levels of integration services depending on their complexity (data, application and business process integration services, and composite and support services). To this purpose, the IOP platform is composed of a set of functional modules to route the service request, adapt the data format between organisations, and guarantee the security and integrity of the exchanged data.
The main resources enabling the seamless and secure exchange of data between the organisations connected to the IOP platform are the corporate network and the Public Key Infrastructure of the Regional Government, as well as the IOP platform technologies themselves. These resources are complemented by a legal framework to guarantee the privacy of personal data. Actually a legal agreement between the Regional Government and the Local Government of Valencia is going to be signed to this purpose. Besides this, a general legal framework is going to be released in order to validate the transactions through the IOP platform.
The IOP platform solves two types of requirements. The first requirement is the IOP between different stages of a supply chain (vertical integration) when different organisations cooperate to provide a full service to a client. In this case study the two organisations are the Regional Government of Valencia and the Register Offices of the Local Government of Valencia. The second requirement is the [[IOP] between different services referring to the same applicant and resorting to common data (horizontal integration). This is the case for services provided by different agencies or departments of the Regional Government of Valencia, and the common data are the personal data of the applicants which are maintained by the Local Government.
The implementation of an IOP solution has a great impact on the Local Government of Valencia as it releases approximately 200,000 census certificates and 30% of them are used as an attached document to apply for Regional Government services. Among these services, the provision of the Health ID Card is the most important one as this service covers 100% of the Valencian population that is 4.7 million inhabitants. So the exchange of personal data through the IOP platform saves human and economic resources and also has a positive effect on the quality of the service provision, both for the local and the regional government, because of the elimination of paper flows. The application of the Health ID Card is the first public service organised via the IOP platform between the Regional Government of Valencia and the Local Government of Valencia. Following this example further services are currently in development and will be provided in 2007 (e.g. social security benefits and tax services). Agreements with other Local Governments, foremost the 2nd and 3rd biggest cities of the Region, Alicante and Elche to provide public services using the IOP platform are currently taking place.
One of the key success factors of the regional IOP platform project is that it provides a central point for the exchange of electronic data covering all the government levels in the Region of Valencia: the departments and agencies of the Regional Government, the National Government through the connection to the national IOP platform (SARA), and the Local Governments that could join the platform freely on their own initiative. This is the key driver for the joining of new organisations to the platform, as the benefits of the seamless exchange of information grow with the number of connected authorities. Technically speaking, the main features of the IOP platform are the employment of a Service-Oriented Architecture, and the use of a common PKI provided by the Regional Certification Authority (ACCV). These features allow the standardisation of interfaces and the easy integration of legacy systems on the one hand, and the secure exchange of information on the other.
Finally, it is also worth noting that the setting up of a clear strategy to modernise the public sector as well as legalise them in binding acts, has provided a clear framework to develop and promote the adoption of a regional IOP platform. This high level vision has thus avoided uncoordinated and disperse developments in the region.
