4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The Austrian Federal Ministry of the Environment initiated a feasibility study in 1996 dealing with electronic data exchange in the waste management sector. Soon it was obvious that it would be necessary to expand the project to the entire environmental sector in order to reduce the administrative burden for companies and authorities and to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
To provide the necessary information to the different competent authorities on the one hand and to protect sensitive company data against misuse on the other hand detailed provisions had to be elaborated and were put into force with the Waste Management Act 2002 in a first step.
The following organizations are cooperating in the development and implementation of EDM:
- Ministry of Life (various sections and departments)
- Federal authorities (e.g. Ministries of Economic Affairs and of Finance)
- Provincial authorities of all 9 federal provinces
- District authorities Austria-wide
- Federal Economic Chamber
- Platform Digital Austria, Statistics Austria – business register, commercial register, trade register, etc.
There is cross-border cooperation in the field of EUDIN.
In a first step the technical requirements are defined together with representatives of the parties concerned and the EDM IT specialists. The IT business analysts compile the functional specifications for the software. Technical requirement gathering, business analysis document and functional specifications all undergo an extensive coordination and harmonization process. This is followed by implementation and extensive test. End users and special interest groups are directly involved in the development process in order to enhance practical suitability and user friendliness.
The structure of the EDM programme with its projects and cross-cutting topics and the legal background (EU and national regulations) are shown in file “EDM Overview LEGAL Background.pdf”
EDM is an extremely extensive and complex “Software as a Service” application. It can be accessed on the Internet via standard protocols, is neither bound to any specific terminals nor does it require any local installation. Provision of the service is automatic, needing no interaction with the operator of EDM. All resources and data are freely available for the many users in the form of a pool. The services of EDM are provided for the most part free of charge and without requiring a licence. Access and export of data are carried out in compliance with the strict requirements of Austrian data protection legislation. EDM is a cloud application in the classic sense of the NIST definition.
Open and standards-based interfaces provided by EDM mainly via web services are essential in the interoperability architecture. Well-established international technical standards are applied.
A key basic EDM principle provides that data are collected and managed only once, namely when they first arise, and after that are transmitted and processed exclusively without media discontinuity.
Mobile devices are supported for example for reporting obligations related to the transport of waste and serve as an example showing where the exchange of information with EDM is a core part of commercial IT solutions.
EDM pursues interoperability on a semantic level, enabling cross-context usability of data. The interoperation options offered by EDM are widely used. Many private market software companies have integrated interoperation capability with EDM into their business software solutions, and many companies fulfil their reporting obligations this way.
Harmonization has been achieved mainly by employing existing United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) standards, especially by basing data formats on Core Components from the UN/CEFACT Core Component Library (CCL). Additional contents have been submitted to UN/CEFACT for harmonization and standardization. Due to the relevance of harmonization, the EDM project has contributed to UN/CEFACT for years and continues to do so.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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As stated EDM has a “cross-administrative” design. In other words the federal government, the provinces, district authorities and other organizations can communicate directly with each other via this central eGovernment platform. Cross-administrative acts can be implemented simply or controls managed jointly thanks to the extensive possibilities EDM offers for communication between companies and authorities. Complete documentation of the processes is carried out in compliance with the legal requirements of eGovernment and Austrian data protection law.
EDM is already used as a cross-member state application. Some parts of it are used in cooperation with authorities in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, which of course makes cross-border cooperation a lot easier.
Cooperations with Digital Austria, the Chamber of Commerce, EUDIN Network, Statistics Austria – business register, commercial register, trade register, etc.
The development of uniform standards for the design and functions of the EDM applications and the involvement of usability experts together with the publication of a number of user manuals and guidance documents and many different user manuals constitute a major benefit for the users of EDM.
The development of the system or its sub-applications has led to more intensive networking and an increase in the exchange of knowledge between the federal government, the provinces, district administrations and the other stakeholders. The broad cooperation leads to a common understanding and a uniform approach. The execution activities of the various authorities are also standardised by the use of EDM.
Uniform conditions combined with wide-ranging support of application and permit procedures, reporting and verification obligations support a fair and equitable competition and reduce the administrative burden for companies and authorities alike.
Due to these benefits broad support for the development of EDM by the above-mentioned organizations is guaranteed.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria (BMLFUW) is the promoter of the project. 15 employees of the ministry work for the EDM - first of all as programme managers and managers of one of the (sub-) projects. 50 IT experts of the Austrian Federal Environment Agency carry out IT business analyses and implementation work on behalf of the ministry, accompanied by at least 10 additional contractors, most of them stemming from international IT service providers. Approximately 100 employees of the provinces and of local authorities support the elaboration of requirements specifications and of IT analyses by their knowledge of administrative processes. Selected companies representative of the Austrian enterprise structure were involved in the requirements specification and in user tests.
EDM has already been up and running since 2005. More than 20 mio EURO have been invested for different services so far. The actual framework development plan covers a development period until 2018. At present, costs for service and maintenance (operational costs) amount to 1 mio EURO per year.
The programme is funded by Government grants. The Federal Environment Agency is the main contractor and partner. It supports not only the business analyses but also operates the EDM software and contributes to the development costs (approx. 5 - 10 %).
Specific waste collection systems (collection systems for packaging waste and for used electric and electronic equipment) contribute to the operational costs (10% of the operational costs).
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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For each sub-project a working group with experts of competent authorities was established for requirement specifications and business analysis. Due to the intensive discussions a common understanding of the authorities responsible for the enforcement of the regulations was reached. Furthermore, the uniform enforcement by all competent authorities is supported by the software (as it provides the same procedure with the same check rules, requires the same data and gives the same evaluation and visualization for everybody).
By the involvement IT-experts already in the elaboration of a national regulation a better understanding of the content and the consequences is gained already before the regulation is put into force. This increases the quality of regulations.
By evaluation and analyses of the data gathered a better understanding of the activities and procedures of the companies, their environmental impact and the effects of changes (e.g. due to changed regulations) can be gained. This enables the elaboration of demand-orientated and targeted regulations and thus the development of effect-orientated administration.
EDM establishes a network of environmental data. Due to continuous quality control and completeness of the reported data supported by cross-sector data evaluation, IT-supported plausibility checks and cross checks and comparison with the results of on-site verifications and environmental inspections data integrity is consistently improved. This comprehensive pool of information enables targeted control by competent authorities and thereby ensures a high level of environmental protection despite reduced administration staff.
The introduction of EDM has made it more difficult for companies to dispose of waste improperly or to cover up dubious emissions. This prevents environmental pollution and helps with imposing the “polluter pays” principle.
The better understanding and uniform enforcement of the regulations as well as the improved control causes a better legal compliance and thus an improved environmental protection on the one hand and a fair competition of environmentally aware companies on the other hand. The support provided by EDM in achieving efficient management of resources is a decisive factor in the competition of companies; it ensures their competiveness and creates additional employment. The more effective controls facilitated by the use of EDM will allow progressive readjustment of the market with regard to those service providers whose dumping prices endanger the economic existence of serious providers. This in turn makes e.g. the waste branch more interesting for new companies wishing to comply with the high standards demanded. This creates new jobs for well-trained skilled workers.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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EDM is designed as a long-term programme split into a set of content-driven projects, often based on specific law acts. Each of them is individually managed and controlled. The whole programme is led by a small team of experts with reporting obligations to the management of the Ministry of Life.
Software implementation follows a waterfall model (from requirements specification to the launch of an application). Each major phase of any single project is accompanied by reviews involving representatives of all stakeholders (companies included!). Moreover, monthly status reports put together the resources used, the milestones reached (or missed) and a forecast to completion thus helping to keep the plan. In a first step these reports address the responsible persons of the ministry and a digest thereof is used to keep the programme management and the steering board informed.
Control of the quality and completeness of the reported data is carried out by the ministry and the competent authorities. Cross-sector data evaluation, IT-supported plausibility checks and cross checks support the control tasks of the authorities. Available data and evaluation results are compared with the results of on-site verifications and environmental inspections.
Last but not least an evaluation takes place through the daily business of nearly 50,000 registered users relying on EDM databases and applications.
Since EDM is financed by government grants the standard controlling procedures of administrative bodies (internal audit and Austrian Court of Audit) apply.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The greatest challenge envisaged by far is the fact that administrative processes laid down in numerous legal regulations, administrative processes and office organizations are designed along traditional, paper-based thinking. Therefore at the beginning a lot of efforts at persuasion had to be spent in order to convince stakeholders from all levels of administration about the fact that EDM as an eGovernment initiative means much more than digitising forms. Consequently, these efforts ended up in the introduction of a steering board involving high-level-representatives of the different ministries and all federal provinces. Based on internal rules of procedures this steering board meets at least twice a year and is responsible for the strategic orientation of EDM.
In order to enable dissemination of knowledge about EDM and how it could serve both administration as well as companies so-called EDM Coordinators have been installed in each of the nine Austrian provinces. They serve as contact points and gather specific requirements raised by regional stakeholders. This has proved to be the most effective measure in order to exchange experiences stemming from on-site legal enforcement involving officials and company representatives.
Since environmental and especially waste-related regulations are scattered among a wide range from European to federal legislation another major threat to overcome was to bridge the lacking harmonisation by the means of technical solutions. EDM is built as a collaborative system of more than 20 IT applications using one master data register. The same data, mainly provided by registered parties (i.e. companies), are used to fulfil different legal obligations.
It is very difficult to gain full knowledge and understanding by all partners on the needs and innovative solutions in this complex environment
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