4-page Case Study - Posted 3/16/2007
Views: 276
Rate This Evidence:
Baltic Government Agency Delivers Citizens’ Digital Signature Project in Just Nine Months
The Latvian government set an ambitious target of implementing a digital e-signature infrastructure in just nine months, and Microsoft® Services led a project team to deliver the solution for Latvian Post. The government chose Windows Server® 2003 and the Microsoft .NET Framework development system over Oracle. The solution went live in October 2006 for citizens, civil servants, and businesses to use the same smart card to access government and commercial electronic services. The government can now add more transactional e-government services to the infrastructure covering fields such as education and healthcare. It has also closed the gap with neighbouring Baltic states, ensuring Latvia stays competitive and meets the demands of the information society.
Situation
Latvia Post, a joint stock company responsible for postal services in Latvia, was commissioned in 2005 to work with telecommunications operator Lattelecom to deliver the first digital signatures infrastructure in Latvia. Having more than 900 post offices, Latvia Post was well equipped to promote the service to a population of 2.4 million, but it needed a strong technology partner for knowledge transfer.
In the meantime, Latvian government ministers were keen to roll out the project quickly to comply with EU targets. Legislation defining the legal status of digital signatures came into force on January 2003, and the Latvian government was anxious to develop a solution suitable for private- and public-sector customers.
Eriks Eglitis, IT Services Department Director for Latvia Post, says: “The development of electronic signatures was impeded because no certification service provider had been approved.”
The Latvian government forecast that as many as 400,000 people—or 35 per cent of economically active citizens—were likely to become potential e-signature users. Some 50,000 civil servants needed these new tools to improve productivity and make efficiency savings in their daily work.
“Accessing public services traditionally involved filling in paper forms and waiting in line at different government offices,” Eglitis says. “Unfortunately, such systems could result in transcription and data-entry errors.”
Solution
Before Latvians could benefit from multiple transactional e-government services across the public and private sectors, the joint venture needed a technology infrastructure designed to encourage interoperability and based on a services-oriented architecture. There was also pressure for rapid rollout of the project because Latvia was in danger of losing competitive advantage to its neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania.
The choice of technology platform for the Latvian Post certification services provider involved an open tender in which Microsoft competed against three other vendors: Baltimore Software, TietoEnator, and IT Alise, an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner.
“Latvia Post already enjoyed a strategic partnership with Microsoft Services to help develop our electronic services, and we liked the proposal to build the platform on Windows Server® 2003 with the Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 development system,” Eglitis says. “Local presence of required skills, coupled with balanced technology and financial proposal, were other factors in preferring Microsoft Services to other tenderers.”
Time to market was another major consideration because the government wanted the digital signature project in operation before the end of 2006. That left just nine months for implementation once the tender details had been signed off.
Leonids Paturskis, Baltic Region Managing Consultant, Microsoft Services, says: “We delivered the solution according to the promises we made to the customer and exceeded their expectations by being more than just a vendor. We were adviser and partner to Latvia Post and Lattelcom in this project.”
The technical features of the solution are:
- Users receive a smart card with two certificates (one for qualified digital signature and another for authentication).
- The card identifies and authenticates citizens accessing online public services and civil servants logging onto departmental applications.
- Users add a digital signature to a form and document and then lock the document to stop any other additions.
- Developers can easily modify existing government applications to integrate e-signatures.
 |
| Figure 1 - CSP IS architecture |
Benefits
The e-signature project, led by Microsoft Services, helped the joint venture meet a demanding timetable, leading to the solution going live in October 2006. By offering technical expertise, knowledge transfer, training, and support, Microsoft Services has reduced the risk of deployment and provided a highly scalable and flexible platform for new applications to follow.
Prime Minister Receives First Smart Card
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis received the first smart card with digital certification in October 2006.
Paturskis says: “Latvia now has a single tool that can recognise and authorise any person accessing services from across government and the private sector. This fits in with the government’s primary aim, which is to steadily modernise public administration. It makes use of the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies and e-business methods.”
Officials Ready to Roll Out More E-Services
The creation of a digital signature infrastructure brings e-government to a new maturity in Latvia, laying the groundwork for the delivery of even more transactional services.
Sixty new services will become available online by 2009, providing government targets are met. The services include Customs and tax declarations, business registration services, birth and marriage certificate requests, employment searches, and library services.
Eglitis says: “It will help develop public e-services, not only in e-government, but also in e-health and e-education. This is why the project is so important for the Latvian government. In addition, this service will help overall e-services development in the private sector as well, which will contribute significantly to information society growth.”
Helps Ministers Comply with EU Standards
The Latvian authorities want to see Latvia become a developed, dynamic, and prosperous EU country, with a democratic and efficient state administration. The digital signature project, aimed at providing more citizen-centric services online, is a step toward that strategic objective.
For example, it is expected that, using the solution, Latvians living abroad will be able to vote in elections in Latvia by 2010. Eglitis says: “The e-signature project is oriented toward fulfilling citizen needs and ensuring the competitiveness of the country, as well advancing the welfare of its inhabitants.”
Extendable to Non-Microsoft Systems Users
The e-signature solution was built with the Microsoft environment in mind, including such technologies as Windows Platform, Microsoft .NET, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004, and Microsoft Operations Manager 2005.
Eglitis says: “Only Microsoft software was used, and the delivered solution has all the necessary components from a functionality and operations perspective. Open XML was used as the document format for digitally signed documents.”
Latvia Post is now working on adjustments to the solution to ensure it can be extended to users of Linux and Apple Mac OS X operating systems.
Knowledge Transfer for Employees
When the project implementation began, the Latvian partners were short of the qualified people necessary to meet the demanding timetable for rollout. “We were very pleased with the performance of Microsoft Services here in Latvia,” says Eglitis. “We certainly experienced knowledge transfer and probably could have collaborated even more closely, if there had been more time. Because of the flexibility shown by Microsoft engineers, we made changes where necessary without delay.”
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information about Latvijas Pasts (Latvian Post) products and services, visit the Web site at: http://www.pasts.lv/
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
