IT DIRECTORS GROUP EXCHANGE OF VIEWS JUNE 2013

Transcription

1 ITDG 2013/2/EN IT DIRECTORS GROUP EXCHANGE OF VIEWS JUNE 2013 Item 2 of the agenda ESS.VIP programme - update

2 ESS.VIP programme - update 1. Recommendation for action by the ITDG The ITDG is invited take note of the progress of the discussions on the ESS.VIP programme at ESSC level (annex 1); to follow and to contribute to the discussions that are taking place at DIME&ITDG Steering Group (annex 2 and meeting documents); to be prepared for a written consultation (15 July 15 August) on the business case for cross cutting projects to be presented for endorsement at the ESSC meeting in September Background and brief history ITDG has been associated to the setting up of the ESS.VIP programme through its IT related components (architectures, common infrastructures). The ESSC and PG are involved in the strategic governance of the programme. Four business projects have been endorsed since May The need for cross cutting developments has been expressed by MS delegates at the May 2013 meeting. Recently a DIME&ITDG Steering Group has been set up to steer the development of the ESS.VIP cross cutting projects. The first meeting will take place on 6 June Document can be accessed at 1. The objective of the meeting is to discuss the draft business cases for the cross cutting projects and to assess their maturity in view of their submission to ESSC in September In same context, an ESS.VIP IT Task Force has also been constituted to support firstly the IT developments of the SIMSTAT project. The mandate of the TF needs to be extended to cover all IT developments in the ESS.VIP. 3. Policy context The ESS VIP program implements the principles and ideas for a future European statistical system laid down in the Communication "Communication on the production method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade". It is a response to the challenges that the European Statistical System is currently facing. The ever-increasing demand for statistics combined with a simultaneous request for reduction in the burden posed by data collection, substantial cuts on the financial and human resources in the ESS accompanied with rising needs for measuring cross-cutting and complex phenomena, are among those challenges that are well known but must not be underestimated. The proposed ESS VIP Programme is a continuation of efforts made so far to improve the functioning of the production and dissemination of European statistics through moving towards common solutions and shared services and environment. Only in this way will the ESS partners be 1 Login on CROS portal and registration to DIME group is necessary to access the documents Eurostat 1 ITDG 2013/2/EN 05/06/2013

3 able to realise economies of scale and efficiency gains, including by sharing costs as appropriate, and thus meet growing challenges under current budgetary constraints. 4. Consequences for the NSIs The ESS VIP Programme will bring productivity gains and improvements in quality across the whole ESS. Each of the projects should bring concrete efficiency gains and improved quality. The technical cross-cutting projects are upfront investment to improve the efficiency and agility of the system regarding the exchange of information and the interoperability and reusability of processes segments reducing IT development and maintenance costs and realising economies of scale. The ESS VIP programme is a joint ESS undertaking requiring the active participation of MS in the design, development and steering of actions. The impact of the development of common IT infrastructures on MS s ones and the mechanism to ensure interoperability need to be carefully monitored. 5. Outstanding problems Some important issues around impact and costs for MS and programme governance integrating resource constraints are still being assessed. One of the issues is the lack of fully developed technical architecture to support the IT developments in the programme and to allow flexible integration of MS local architectures. The key challenge for the Programme is to ensure successful implementation of more common solutions in the individual statistical domains, whilst ensuring that resulting technical solutions are sustainable and could be used in other domains and across the countries. One of the main issues in the implementation of the programme is to ensure timely deliveries from the technical cross-cutting projects that are the necessary inputs for the running business ESS VIPs. 6. Risk assessment The ESS.VIP programme has been designed to achieve business benefits. This is putting much strain on architectural and cross cutting developments. The ESS.VIP Cross Cutting projects should demonstrate their value for providing generic infrastructure for the developments of new ESS business processes. If they fail, the risk is high to see business projects developing their own solution on the basis of legacy systems that will increase the maintenance cost and will not provide the required agility to build new systems and new products in the future. 7. Next steps 06 June 2013 : Discussions at the level of the DIME&ITDG steering group on Cross Cutting Project Business cases Eurostat 2 ITDG 2013/2/EN 05/06/2013

4 15 July 15 August 2013 : Written consultation of ITDG on ESSC document on business cases for Cross Cutting projects 28 September 2013 : Discussion and opinion of the ESSC on the Cross Cutting projects business cases Eurostat 3 ITDG 2013/2/EN 05/06/2013

5 Annex 1 ESS.VIP programme Document presented by Eurostat to ESSC on 15 May 2013 Annex 2 ESS.VIP Cross cutting projects overview and business case Document presented for discussion to DIME&ITDG Steering Group on 6 June 2013 Eurostat 4 ITDG 2013/2/EN 05/06/2013