connect.ie

Bizmap Project

SUMMARY

In the recent past within many E.U. member states and regions, there are a number of "e-government" projects and initiatives that are pursuing pervasive digital links amongst the various diverse communities that are seen as key actors in the provision of and development towards e.Europe.

To date, effective results have been achieved in the front-office or user side. Indeed, while attractive multi-channel portals are available, they are not often coupled, or well integrated with appropriate back- end environments, that manage both volume and diversity of relevant, official, heterogeneous,legacy data. (e.g. enterprise records, cadastral maps, citizen registry) and other various data sets required by many for working successfully to accomplish daily tasks.

While there have been many positive developments and progress made towards an e-society, through the development and use of multi channel portal technology. There is, however, a number of issues and developments that require to be addressed to create an information environment that fully provides for the diverse needs of the potential users.

Open web service provision is essential to modern government. It provides a means of delivering services and information to enterprises on demand, as well as an effective methodology for receiving information and feedback.

Governments have a wealth of information of interest to companies. Much has been accumulated over time from Sme and other business related data from both specific and other administrative activity. Much of this today is locked up in applications that companies have limited access to.

As regular business activity completes the move to electronic infrastructures, new opportunities arise to make this service a key driver for boosting and underpinning business and business decision making. In addition,the same infrastructure can be used to simplify governmental administrative procedures through the use of seamless document handling solutions, where institutional data, geographical data, legacy data are melded together.

Providing web services allows cost effective access, avoiding delay and unwanted travel. It provides all levels of government service to increase levels of services, improving opportunity and competitiveness within their regional area. The two main objectives of Bizmap.net are:

" to validate an open flexible hub, based on adaptive web services, developed mostly from the Panta Rei e.government project, able to provide full cycle service;

" to integrate "back office" systems and test the marketing model (brokerage) to deploy the outflows or "e.service pack services" across Europe.

Specific opportunities arise with the new Eastern countries, where there is a potentially high demand for consolidated information management and delivery models. The expansion of the eTEN community to 25 countries poses a challenge to all of those involved in the exploitation of Bizmap.net services and also in how to integrate the new and existing member states into a cohesive community.

The specific application goal of Bizmap.net consists in the integration of existing commercial solutions of: 1. Electronic document system, having workflow management capability 2. Web based standard federated GIS system 3. SQL database system of updated extracts of enterprise and citizen registry into one single framework, through the configuration of generic web services, communicating via XML modifiable schemas and using UDDI server specifications, by simple encapsulation service requests in any suitable e.government portal.

The cooperative interaction of Chamber of Commerce, Local Authority and specialised service centers (i.e. agency, mixed company or any other brokering entity) would be the best solution to improve business development in our "hyper" competitive society.

Bizmap.net will deploy services of common interest and it will have the scalability and reliability required to potentially accommodate all European SME'S 24 hour 7 days service requests, under strict deadline and modest budget expenditure, reaching a target mass market. Bizmap.net is expected to deliver outstanding return of investment (ROI), for it is designed as a build once use many that will reap further dividends as more enterprises adopt the "e.service pack".

The team responsible for this phase is mainly composed of people with track records, experience and the statutory commitment to validate the solution and to effectively deploy Bizmap.net e.services within their own territory and, acting as amplifiers, spread its knowledge to other sites in the near future.

The consortium has all the key actor profiles involved in the full cycle of business data management, with a good balance of the different expertise. Furthermore the activity involves initially five countries,providing local feedback and supporting the necessary inputs for time-to-market and a locally supported commercial exploitation.

While each region involved in the project has drawn up strategic plans for the future and is investing in providing an electronic infrastructure, there is a need to integrate services, organisations information and people into a dynamic online community environment. This environment will succeed by understanding all levels of user needs, whether information suppliers or customers. It is considered by all that a fundamental step is to undertake a full feasibility and market validation phase, in order to define both the business and Organisation model that will be developed and adopted as the basis for the overall project.

This phase will validate the brokerage model, utilising valuable sets of representative end-users, piloting pre-defined services, and finally preparing the business plan that will be the basis for obtaining support for project approval and prepare the ground for service deployment.

Finally the management structure and the work plan are specifically designed to guarantee a qualified undertaking of the activities and to achieve the planned results, within time and budget limits.

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