Euritas hosted first executive virtual roundtable

In may Euritas (the European association of public IT service providers) hosted its first executive virtual roundtable: 46 chief executives and senior managers of Government IT Shared Services organisations joined in for 3 hours from 18 locations throughout in Europe, leveraging Cisco's worldwide TelePresence infrastructure.

The theme of the roundtable - Governance Strategies for eGovernment Services - was brought alive by a panel of distinguished speakers:

• Mr Hubert Ludwig, CEO of DVZ M-V GmbH, a full service provider for the state administration in the North-East of Germany
• Mr Günther Lauer, EGov Manager of the Federal Computing Centre of Austria
• Mr Stephen Quest, Director General of DIGIT, the internal IT service provider for the European Commission
• Mr Markus Hänsli, Deputy Director of the Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication in Switzerland and
• Mr Indrek Vimberg, COO of Estonian ICT Demo Centre

From the presentations rose a lively conversation between all participants, with the moderation of Jens Mortensen, Director, Central Government and Healthcare, Cisco EMEAR.

The roundtable centered on the question of: "How to shape the business model and governance structure of a Public IT Service Provider organisation in order to meet the evolving expectations of citizens, enterprises and government?"

A few highlights, addressed within the presentations/discussions, were:

• Mr Ludwig and Mr Lauer introduced the Euritas network - the idea, the structure and the activities of the association of several IT Public Service Providers.
• Mr Quest explained the role of DIGIT as an internal IT service provider to enable the European Commission to realise its political agenda, supported by high quality, innovative digital solutions. Mr Quest covered various programmes (ISA, CEF) designed to help European public administrations to modernise themselves through the implementation of a digital agenda.
• Mr Hänsli shared his insight on the conditions to act as a public service provider for the federal administration in Switzerland, as well as the business model, the key governance areas, and the ways to implement them within the organisation. eGovernment Switzerland is the joint program between the confederation, the cantons and the communes and the basis to orient their eGovernement efforts toward common goals. ICT is seen as one of the key enabler to provide more streamlined and efficient services to citizens and businesses.
• Mr Vimberg led the audience through the portfolio of online eGovernment services for citizens and the public sector of Estonia. He delivered a live demonstration of eGovernment services, including eVoting. In the 90s, the foundation was laid for the X-Road, a countrywide middleware that constitutes the foundation of eEstonia. An catalogue of digital services has been introduced on top of X-Road, such as eTax, i-Voting, ePrescription, etc. This enables a more efficient and time-saving interaction between government, citizens and businesses.

From a practical point of view, the use of Cisco's TelePresence facilities made it possible to easily connect people from various areas of Europe, to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas, without having to travel internationally... and with a minimized carbon footprint.

The feedback from the participants after the roundtable was very positive.

Some examples: "pretty interesting subjects and well organized and facilitated", "great demo by Estonia, nice overview of vision by CIO EU", "I found it interesting both regarding the concept of Euritas as well as the presentations", "interesting audience and speakers", "I'm looking for the next roundtable."

The next roundtable will be announced at the Euritas website and via Twitter (@EuritasEU).