Main strategic objectives and principles

Last updated: October 2011

A successful eGovernment needs well-informed citizens, businesses and public authorities who work with eGovernment and realise new electronic developments. This is only possible with the right strategy. The Austrian eGovernment strategy outlines basic concepts, base components and new standards which serve as guidelines for the implementation of electronic services and its infrastructure.

Even though eGovernment has been an area of discussion since 2001, there is still much left to be done, as eGovernment is a living system that constantly grows, learns and improves itself. Citizens and businesses breathe new life into it by using it and growing with the system. eGovernment should also be viewed on a European-wide scale. In an increasingly global world, the EU and its institutions have to put eGovernment and its advantages to use for its approximately 500 million citizens and businesses, so that they can communicate and interact electronically with governments across all borders.

eGovernment Vision 2020 (2009-2020)

The Platform Digital Austria (PDÖ), as the coordination and strategy committee of the Federal Government for eGovernment in Austria, has formulated the principles for a continued fruitful cooperation in the field of eGovernment, which are included in the short document 'eGovernment Vision 2020'. This document is not a binding strategy; it rather sets out the mission statement and the basic strategic principles to be followed in the years to come in relation to eGovernment initiatives. The guidelines of Vision 2020 are relevant to the objectives of the 'eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015' for electronic public services launched by the European Commission on 15 December 2010. Establishing eID as a key enabler and advancing the inclusion with innovative public services, are among the priorities of the Austrian eGovernment strategy.

eGovernment Strategy

In the past Austria has taken decisive action to implement the eGovernment project swiftly and efficiently. In May 2003, the Austrian Federal Government launched an eGovernment initiative to coordinate all eGovernment activities, by setting up two cross-departmental coordination bodies (eGovernment Platform and eCooperation Board). At the same time, stock was taken of all on-going activities and a roadmap was agreed.

The eGovernment Act that entered into force on 1 March 2004 was a milestone achievement. Austria was one of the first EU Member States to adopt comprehensive legislation on eGovernment. As security and trust are critical factors in eGovernment and eCommerce, Austria uses the same standards and tools for both areas (Citizen Card function, electronic signature, electronic payment), which secures its position as a business location.

In September 2005, a new organisational structure was implemented that took into account future challenges like sustainability, international cooperation and ongoing innovation, thus stabilising the federal ICT strategy, the coordination procedures and the formulation process of resulting tasks.

The basic elements of the structure specified in 2001 were retained, but the different committees that pre-existed were brought together more closely. The tasks specified by the ICT board and the eCooperation Board have been consolidated and are carried out in the context of the ICT strategy as before. The obligations of the two boards are coordinated by the ICT strategy platform. The joint presidency of these bodies by the federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) ensures a coordinated approach with no overlapping.

The Federal eGovernment Strategy provides an efficient implementation of electronic government services, based on the basic premise that all businesses and citizens must be able to perform all the procedures of public administration quickly and easily electronically without having special technical expertise. To achieve this goal, the Austrian eGovernment strategies are based on the involvement and close cooperation between the federal state, cities and municipalities.

The Federal eGovernment Strategy is structured in a modular fashion:

eGovernment Strategy, Part I: online procedures

Part I deals with online procedures from the perspective of the user and provides framework, objectives and implementation directives of online processes. Online processes or online transactions are official channels and contacts with authorities, which can be conducted electronically from citizens. They should be open 7 days a week around the clock.

eGovernment Strategy, Part II: methods and procedures

Part II focuses on methods and procedures within the administration. Well-functioning automation-assisted methods require joint action by the authorities. Thus, standardised processes and systems that communicate with each other are necessary. Technical and organisational agreements must be respected and use common standards. For the realisation of electronic methods as such, it is therefore appropriate to analyse current business processes and where necessary, to restructure them.

Development of modules for online applications (MOA)

The modules for online applications are provided by the Federal government to serve as a tool by which eGovernment applications can be created efficiently and safely. The MOA are components that will facilitate the use of electronic signatures and other applications such as delivery to the public agency. The modules have been prepared on behalf of the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance. By June 2005, they were placed under the open source license for Apache Software Foundation in version 2.0. The distributions of the modules and the associated source code are thus freely available to all users.

Sample Applications

Several sample applications, like testing the Citizen Card, are open to public and private users. Some of these include: testing the citizen card, generate a toolkit for the generation of user certificates, provision of a citizen capsule (an emulation of a citizen card environment for test purposes and for the development of citizen card applications available) and a test mail message application.

The Federal eGovernment Strategy is based on a number of principles, like its proximity to citizens, trust and security, transparency, accessibility, usability, data security, sustainability and interoperability.

Programme of the Austrian Federal Government for the 24th Legislative period (2008-2013)

The two coalition parties - the Social Democratic Party (SPA) and the Austrian People's Party (AP) - intend to work together on the jointly drafted Government Programme (2008-2013) in the Federal Government so that Austria continues to move forward during this five-year period.

The Federal Government envisages a modern and efficient administration at all levels in Austria in the interests of its citizens and economy. This will simplify administration, resulting in a reduction of administrative costs. A basis for such administration is simple, fast, largely automated (electronic) information processing and the establishment of a central asset register that is standardised throughout the administration. This basis shall be implemented step by step in consultation with all relevant agencies. The programme set some key priorities:

Administrative simplifications for citizens due to easier and more efficient access to eGovernment and intensified use as a result of broader service availability and improved usability.

• Cooperation between the Federal Government and the federal provinces in the context of the platform 'Digital Austria' will be continued.
• All local and regional authorities and social insurance institutions will draw up a joint annual eGovernment plan of action. The local authorities will play a special role.
• 'Help.gv.at' is the Federal Government's universal information and transaction portal for citizens. Work on the business portal for business companies is continuous. Coordination between the various portals has to continue to ensure the best possible synergy.
• The creation of more public eGovernment terminals will be considered.
• 'Help.gv.at' and the federal province portals should serve as an electronic contact point to the administration in the framework of the EU Services Directive. It should also be considered by mutual agreement whether the electronic contact points, to be created, can also be used for other areas of the administration.

Improvement in the handling of citizen's cards for citizens and extension of the applications to include visits to public authorities for official business and secure electronic private transactions.

• All IT processes and portals of the administration of the Federal Government, the federal provinces and local authorities should support registration with the citizen's card. All newly established electronic processes should be based on identification with the citizen's card. All other existing electronic access points for eGovernment applications will be preserved.
• For citizens, it should be fundamentally possible for the verified digital signature to be contained on their ID cards.

Citizens and business owners who have registered with the electronic delivery service should be able to carry out their transactions with the administration by electronic delivery.

Optimisation of registration applications, especially to simplify the presentation of official documents by citizens. Quality improvement, ability to carry out automated queries in the main public registers, swift implementation of a central family status register, mutually agreed evaluation of the creation of a joint organisation of the Federal Government, the federal provinces, towns and local authorities for the operation and development of central register applications.

Shared service concepts in the back-office

• Continuation of shared service projects of the Federal Government, especially the project 'Service in the Federal Government - by phone' and identification of new projects.
• Joint back-up data centre location for all departments to implement the solution that has been prepared by the Federal Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Data Centre.

Other topics

• Promotion of international cooperation and cross-border cooperation and electronic administrative processes in the framework of the existing resources (e.g. the projects eID, eDoc and Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line).
• Improved service of the administration in contact with citizens by using new technology (e.g. electronic appointments, administration search engine as an electronic public authority etc.).
• Creation of an inter-departmental data network for land property data.
• Digital long-term archiving for the public administration.
• The electronic record system (ELAK) of the Federal Government should be optimised and simplified.
• The eGovernment projects of the Federal Government will continue to pay special attention to compliance with international standards for barrier-free access.

Previous eGovernment strategies

ICT-Strategy 2005+ (2005)

The platform 'Digital Austria' coordinated a working programme in the new 'ICT-Strategy 2005+', which aimed at promoting the cooperation of all partners - federal, state, cities, municipalities and business - in the field of eGovernment in order to provide an efficient and coordinated approach overall.

eGovernment Offensive (2003)

The Offensive aimed at the swift and sustainable evolution of eGovernment, in order for Austria to reach a leading position in the EU. Within the scope of the Austrian eGovernment Offensive, the main parts of eGovernment have been developed with interoperable communication in mind. The main objective was to avoid incompatible solutions and divergent parallel developments. The implementation of different interfaces in eGovernment applications would result in enormous effort and not so optimal quality, if sub-functions were integrated.