FASTeTEN project

Acronym of the case:

FASTeTEN

Web address of the case:

http://www.eu-fasteten.eu

Country of the case:

France , Spain , United Kingdom , Pan european

City/region:

Sheffield (UK), Valencia (Spain)

Posting Date:

28 July 2008

Last Edited Date:

10 October 2008

Author:

Stephen Gardner (euro-correspondent.com)

documents | Secure | exchange

stephen@euro-correspondent.com's picture

Type of initiative

Project or service

Case Abstract

FASTeTEN is a project to deploy a bundle of services for secure electronic document exchange across Europe. The bundle of services, FAST â€“ Fournisseur d'AccÃ¨s SÃ©curisÃ©s Transactionnels (Secure Access Gateway) â€“ has been successfully developed and piloted in France. FASTeTEN will demonstrate FAST in different eGovernment contexts in Spain and the United Kingdom. A group of potential future deployers (from Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Malta) will monitor the demonstration deployments with a view to further implementations of FAST across Europe.

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

Sector

Education, Science and Research | Communication (infrastructure) | Procurement

Date

January 2007 to December 2009

Date operational

January 2007

Target Users

Administrative

Target Users Description

The bundle of services in question (FAST) could be used by public administrations across Europe, at local, regional, national and pan-national levels.

Scope

International

Status

Implementation

Language(s)

English | Spanish | French

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

IT infrastructures and products

Overall Implementation approach

Partnerships between administration and/or private sector and/or non-profit sector

Technology choice

Proprietary technology

Funding source

Public funding EU | Public funding regional | Public funding local | Private sector

Project size

Implementation: €1,000,000-5,000,000

Technology solution

FASTeTEN is a project to deploy the FAST bundle of services for secure electronic document exchange in two different European contexts â€“ in Spain and the UK. On-going analysis of these deployments will permit the establishment of a methodology for other deployments in different European countries. Importantly, FASTeTEN is demonstrably a pan-European project on a technical level, with the same security mechanism and transmission protocol used in different countries: France, where FAST was developed, and in Spain and the UK during the FASTeTEN project.

FAST stands for Fournisseur d'AccÃ¨s SÃ©curisÃ©s Transactionnels (Secure Access Gateway Provider). It was developed by French public financial institution Caisse des DÃ©pÃ´ts et Consignations (CDC). The FAST development project began in 2002. FAST has been extensively and successfully tested in the French dÃ©partements of Yvelines and Deux-SÃ¨vres. FAST allows secure and legally watertight exchange of electronic documents, supported by a range of functions including receipting, encryption, authentication, electronic signatures, timestamping, and archiving.

FAST offers resource and efficiency savings, cutting down on paper documentation and on the costs of delivering documents by post. It saves time because electronic transmission of documents can be done instantaneously, rather than requiring several days for documents to be delivered by post.

Impact, innovation and results

Track record of sharing

The 'sustainable development' aspect of FASTeTEN is coordinated by e-Forum and is designed to ensure that the pilot deployments in Sheffield and Valencia should be the springboard for further and wider deployments.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - It is possible to transfer good practice between European countries; the pre-conditions for this are technical interoperability, coupled with examination of the legal and organisational barriers that may exist. FASTeTEN has shown how this can be done, through a programme of workflow analysis that can be applied across different organisations. FASTeTEN has also established a potential deployers' group to monitor the pilot deployments (Sheffield and Valencia). This is a way of giving public authorities that may be interested in the pilot project a no-commitment way of participating, as well as an opportunity to monitor the deployment of the FAST bundle of services in other countries, thus highlighting the type of barriers that must be overcome.

Lesson 2 - FAST saves money and time for administrations. FAST streamlines back office processes and makes document exchange easier, lightening the load of administration officials. This has been shown in France, where authorities are required to exchange notifications on the occasion of marriages, deaths and other life events requiring certification, and are also required to exchange statistical data and information concerning electoral registration with national statistical authorities. All of this documentation is easily exchangeable through FAST. By reducing the time required for dealing with administrative demands and the associated costs, FAST thus makes a contribution to improving government efficiency in Europe.

Lesson 3 - By deploying FAST in different administrations across Europe, citizens throughout the EU can share in these benefits. Procedural burdens are lessened â€“ for example, citizens will not have to ask for a copy of a birth certificate where it is required for a benefit application.