What is e-bourgogne ?
e-bourgogne is a local industrial platform delivering e-government services to all public entities in the Burgundy Region. It covers digitized shared services to public entities in their relationships with enterprises, citizens, local authorities and Central Government.
Context of e-bourgogne:
Information and Communication technologies are being considered nowadays as a crucial factor for efficiency, competitiveness and attractiveness especially in rural territories. The project e-bourgogne was conceived as part of the governmental strategic plan for e-government (ADELE : ADministration ELEctronique), under the Prime Minster Office (ADAE : dedicated agency). In a context of transfer of responsibilities from the State power to the decentralized entities, e-bourgogne consortium has been entrusted to test the model of a local concentrator consortium.
Looking at delivered services, e-bourgogne was initially set up as an answer to legal constraints (starting 2005-01-01 with virtual public marketplaces) that eventually built up as a common shared electronic platform for purchasing needs (e-tendering). Unlike most of the French public organizations, which developed their own solutions or chose commercial licenses, the Burgundy public entities (from total of around 2200) use a single regional platform. As results, the platform:
offers for small and medium sized enterprises a unique web access to all public markets with, moreover, some dedicated self-tailored functionalities (automatic alert for relevant markets, geo-tagging, .);
makes better use of taxpayers’ money as less public markets are unfruitful and the prizes are lower;
participates to reduce environmental issues, downsizing the use of paper through now fully digitized procedures;
has a significant impact on local economic policies, even more in the crisis context, as public purchasing represents around 16% of GDP.
Nevertheless, the regional virtual marketplace was only thought as a first element of a regional platform of e-services for all. Nowadays, e-bourgogne has become a one stop shop for all public grants and devices dedicated to the SMEs in the region (the “J’Entreprends en Bourgogne” service) and is successfully deploying new user-friendly services such as: electronic workflow for digital signature of documents, transmission of legal documents to the control of legality, websites generator for small municipalities, geo-tagged public services.
e-bourgogne has become a reference in France and in Europe thanks to the wide usage of its service addressing Lisbon i2010 agenda objectives and to its original model of shared governance. It’s values and methodology were shared throughout the eTen Procure Project, coordinated with success by e-bourgogne within the 6th Framework Program.
Currently, e-bourgogne is working on launch of new services within a 10-year Public-Private Partnership (PPP) which has been signed in late 2009 with Atos Worldline as prime contractor. The PPP already allowed rebuilding the entire infrastructure with a full array of industrial processes as well as proposing new or enhanced services, some of them targeting henceforth the citizens.
The legal structure for e-bourgogne is a Grouping of Public Interest (GIP) : a consortium of publics local organizations.
Develop and run a shared services platform for Burgundy LA’s.
Fully support the change management process.
Design and deploy a comprehensive education plan for the whole Region (towards elected deputies and civil servants).
no SME’s, no LA’s left behind in Information Society
Solidarity and cooperation between Local Authorities, sharing of resources (infrastructures, knowledge, expertise and tools)
Self administration of each LA - Respect local identity
Equal access and accessibility to all services
Quality and continuity of public service
Building administrative capacity to LLa’s and LLg’s (up to 2 200 public entities and 45 000 local civil servants)
The information and communication technologies are key assets to bring simplified administrative procedures to the public especially in rural areas. The switch from classic procedures to “zero paper” objectives calls nevertheless to a comprehensive approach of ICT uses in target populations. Thus, modernization and digitization of exchanges requires in-depth deployment of services amongst users, that’s the reason why a peculiar importance is given to the trainee and awareness raising sessions (notably toward civil servants and elected members of municipalities). Hence, user accompaniment and assistance are as important as quality of technical architecture so that solutions are widely used. Not to mention the role of ICT assembling people and sharing resources in the crisis context, as well as traceability and transparence.
The main target groups were until recently the public administrations, with both elected deputies and civil servants, and the small and medium sized enterprises. Apart awareness-raising and trainee sessions organized throughout Burgundy, the methodology relied also on a network of the so-called ambassadors. On the other words, trained users from purchase departments and economic operators with the help of Chambers of Commerce and professional branches provide testimonials and help their homologues. This action of sharing best practices among peers was revealed as peculiarly efficient and credible and contributed to the overall success of the project together with systematic meetings (more than 2 000) with local elective deputies. Anyone could also request either a physical demonstration and question-answer session or a hotline assistance to understand process and gain confidence to this new tool. There are now 1 000 public entities and 22 000 enterprises enrolled and using the platform.
Nowadays GIP e-bourgogne focuses on the third population: citizens. Indeed, up to a recent survey ordered by French administration, citizens are waiting for e-services enhancement in order to interact with public administration. Based on this assessment, the platform provides useful services to the 1.6 million Burgundy inhabitants and the companies implanted in Burgundy, simplifying common administrative procedures and modernizing relationship with local public administrations. Thus, all Burgundian can access in real time to local and national public information with several devices through the first French implementation of “open data”. Moreover some services are structured by concrete situations. For instance, “families” are able to pay school canteen or enroll a child at school; an “individual” is able to ask for an appointment with the mayor. These services ensure openness and a better efficiency, which are adapted to nowadays new usage and way of life (24h/24h).
Citizen services’ take-off move citizens’ front office closer to civil servants’ back office in order to allow emergence of new quality in social link.
1. The French government has entrusted the Burgundy Region within the ADELE program at the end of 2003 to deploy a shared model of e-procurement platform anticipating new legal constraints of the public purchasing code. Despite a political majority switch during the program, the project has been constantly supported by the deputies. Through this measure, the Region was willing to enter the economy of knowledge thanks to modern e-services delivered to its citizens and especially enterprises.
2. This commitment to the modernization of public administration has been recognized several times at national and European level. In 2007 project was rewarded of title of redactor’s choice of epractice.eu site.
3. In 2007 started the European eTEN Procure project, managed during 21 months by e-bourgogne. The objective of Procure was to boost trans-border cooperation between virtual marketplaces (5 European regions participating).
4. In April 2008, the decree allowing set-up of the first Grouping of Public Interest was issued. E-bourgogne is now no longer a part of the Regional Authority. This evolution opens new opportunities in terms of sustainability and scope of activity.
5. In 2009, the French Ministry of Finance awarded in 2009 the prize of ‘Public Manager of the year’ to Louis-François Fléri, Head of project.
6. In the same year the Project won the prestigious European Public Service Award organized by the European Institution of Public Administration in category “Performance improvement in public service delivery”.
7. In late 2009, after a 10 months negotiation, e-bourgogne chose a strategic partner for the upcoming decade. The legal framework used to give e-bourgogne a full industrial environment is now a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). This 10-year contract is the first of its kind in France (i.e. a service PPP for local authorities instead of a regular network infrastructure contract). It has been designed with a strong focus on risks management and quality assessment that results directly into user satisfaction and success fees. The economic sustainability is mostly driven by a common understanding of how shared services can demonstrate cost efficiency policy (ICT investments, large scale training, common participation to national programs, etc). The main beneficiaries are the smaller municipalities. The region, as whole, also benefits from a definite edge in attractiveness and competitiveness. A dedicated company has been build from ground up in order to manage the investment and financial workflows during the course of the PPP. The overall contract structure about e-services is twofold: a provisional list (mostly the three first years) and an optional one.
