TechnoLogica Presents the National Reference Architecture for Interoperability

The results of the project will help public organisations interact more efficiently by enabling data exchange between their information systems and introducing standards for their development, design and construction and implementation. The Bulgarian reference architecture is part of the European Interoperability Framework, which is shared by all public administrations in the EU. It operates as a common denominator for relevant information systems at EU, national, regional and local level.

TechnoLogica designed the Bulgarian National Interoperability Framework under a project financed by the Good Governance Operational Programme.

In recent decades, public administrations across the EU have invested in information technology to upgrade their internal operations, reduce costs and improve service delivery to citizens and businesses. Despite the significant progress made and the benefits reaped, the public administration still faces significant obstacles to sharing information and collaborating in an electronic environment. These include legislative barriers, incompatible work processes and information models, and the variety of technologies used. This is due to the fact that in the past public sector information systems were set up independently rather than in a coordinated way. The National Reference Framework addresses this problem.

The workshop was opened by the Deputy Minister of e-Government Atanas Maznev and TechnoLogica CEO Ognyan Trayanov, who said that with multiple projects implemented in the public sector and more than 600 clients in the real economy, the Bulgarian software company was proud to be involved in all projects aiming to make Bulgaria a better home for us and our children.

We are currently finalising 4 projects that will enable Bulgaria’s accession to EU-wide systems, Mr. Trayanov emphasized. Europe is currently heavily investing in solidifying its reputation as a continent of values and there should be no barriers to fighting for more Europe in Bulgaria.

For us, the interoperability reference architecture is a key project. There are more than 1 000 services that we provide electronically via the egov.bg portal, Nikolay Minev, Head of the E-Government Systems and Components Directorate at the MEU, said. And owing to the European interoperability framework, Bulgarian citizens will be able to use the same services as those available in all other EU Member States.

Mr. Minev gave an example of the effect of the RegiX inter-register exchange system, developed and implemented by TechnoLogica, through which nearly 200 million electronic documents have been generated instead of their paper equivalents.

TechnoLogica’s experts presented the underlying principles of the interoperability framework and made an analysis of the progress achieved so far, which places Bulgaria in the middle of the ranking at EU level. The lack of a systematic approach and the outdated regulatory framework still pose challenges to building interoperability. Recommendations for the development of e-government in Bulgaria include technical neutrality (no involvement of systems with products and technologies of certain manufacturers), more open source systems (but not for the sake of it, because the government has costly and well-performing systems with non-open sources in certain sectors), the development of a map of the operating modes of public administration and information flows and the identification of repeatedly used information routes as these have the potential to improve the focus and transition to a ‘life events’ type of administrative service delivery, ensuring the security and privacy of personal data.