System Integration Process of Government Information Systems

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System Integration Process of Government
Information Systems

• Ahto Kalja
• Department of State Information Systems/
• Tallinn Technical University Tallinn,
  Estoniaahto_at_cs.ioc.ee

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Introduction Government Information Systems
status and construction in Estonia have two
times fully changed in last ten years. The
first changing period started in the beginning of
90s when paper documents based folder and
register system comes to the end and the
DBMS-based development begin. The second
changing period has begin ten years later (and
continues till now) where all stand alone
databases moved to common over Internet accessed
data resource. This last change is described in
my talk.
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Situation with databases   Estonia started the
developing public sector databases ten years ago
after gaining the independence. The process of
developing starts from clear place. There were
no special data base management systems in use
in Estonia before 90s. Such situation haves
plusses and minuses. The biggest minus was that
we dont have good DB developers and
IT-companies with large practices in beginning.
The plusses includes that we have had
possibilities to use immediately the modern DBMS
and hardware. Compare to highly developed
Western countries Estonia does not have a
mountain of COBOL program and old type IS, which
need restructuring by needs of modern DBMS.
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Estonian registers and databases (II)

• Population register
• Business register
• Cars database
• Driving licences database
• Passports register
• Land register
• Buildings register
• Ships register

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Problems   The specialists have estimated that
technically all Estonian large databases haves
standard solutions. The largest databases haves
special interfaces over the Internet. At the
same time these interfaces have organized for
different databases in very different way. Today
situation shows that it is not so easy for the
user to learn all possible interface details, to
remember all PIN codes or to manage all special
agreements with different database management
companies. From such situation has been risen an
idea to develop the environment, where all
mentioned problems can solve only once for all
databases.
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1. Aim
The aim of the X-road project is to develop
software, hardware and organisational methods
for standardised usage of national databases.
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2. Importance of the project
The purpose of launching the X-road program had
several different reasons.

• First, different databases had reached the level
  of development,
• where the increasing amount of data manipulation
  operations needed
• more and more connections between different
  databases. Different
• development projects from different ministries
  and counties include
• very similar solving algorithms one database
  queries data from another
• database over the Internet. Developing a standard
  set of data
• manipulation operations, which process data over
  the Internet, can
• solve such problem. It means, that the government
  orders one set of
• program components and every governmental
  organisation can use this
• set of software in suitable to him collection.

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• Second reason for developing such a set of
  standard program
• components lies in developing standard interface
  facilities.
• This interface allows organising the dialogue
  between the user
• (citizen, civil servant, entrepreneur) and
  databases.
• The same software guaranties the interface
  between databases and
• application programs.
• The standardised user interface saves resources
  and the
• communication line between the end-user and the
  database can
• very often exclude the need for a special civil
  servant.

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• Third reason lies in the standardised
  authentication service.
• At the moment we have solved the authentication
  problem
• by using the Internet-bank services for citizens
  who are customers
• of Estonian commerce banks.
• The other group of users are people who have
• the Estonian citizen ID-card.
• Authorisation services are solved by every
  information system.

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Vision for 2003
The citizen can get information from national
databases, a common data storage, within his or
her limits of authority 7 days a week and 24
hours a day. The civil servant can use all
national databases in the decision-making process
within his or her limits of authority. The
entrepreneur can use information included in
national databases for carrying out business.
The state has become more transparent, integral
and intelligible for the citizens. The
administration and development costs of databases
have decreased by 30 in total, thanks to the
unified user interface it is easier to use
databases.
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X-road project participants

• Public sector
• Estonian MTC DSIS
• Data protection inspection
• Estonian Informatics Centre

• Private sector
• Softshark Ltd.
• Cybernetica Ltd.
• IT Meedia Ltd.
• Cell Network Ltd.
• Andmevara Ltd.
• Reaalsüsteemid Ltd
• AA Arendus Ltd.
• Commercial banks etc.

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X-road finance
å
27 M. Crowns 2 Mill. US
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Environment
Gray area(X-road closest surroundings)
Classifiers ID-card Digital signature
Electronical documents E-citizen
SYSTEM(X-road)
Information society Citizen portal E-busines M-b
usines
Users -citizen -civil servant -entrepreneur

Information systems
.
r
Legislation
Public
www
Databases
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4. Technical assumptions
Most of Estonian databases and registers have
been developed by using standardised Oracle,
Informix, Sybase, Progress etc. software and
they use standardised SQL-query language. MS
Windows, Linux and Solaris are in use as
operating systems. The connections between
databases are organised over the Internet. All
these components together build up the first
level support for second (or service) level
solutions, which include the X-road software
components for application services
design. Technical solution for the X-road is not
one large server or one large DBMS database.
The solution includes a network of securely
connected databases and information systems over
the Internet.
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5. The project results and users

• The X-road project solutions include different
  real and virtual results
• software components, which can be used for
  solving data manipulation and query operations by
  using data from different databases and
  information systems. It means dialogue operations
  between a web-browser and a user and batch
  processing between application programs and
  databases. The authentication and authorisation
  for all users can be realised.
• a set of typical turn-key solutions (as special
  test services for project 2001 version) for
  database operations in Ministry of Internal
  Affairs. A set of turn-key solutions for other
  ministries (in 2002 and 2003).

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• a set of general services for citizens (developed
  in co-operation with other projects like
  e-citizen, e-election etc.) on the Internet. By
  the end of 2001 every citizen has had a
  possibility to view his/her personal data from
  the Population Register in a Netscape or MS
  Explorer browser window.
• a special service centre and team, who manages
  agreements, gives licenses, gives consultations
  etc.
• all everyday activities of citizens will become
  more and morepaper-free in the future, and will
  be based on virtual activities over the
  Internet.

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(X-road) development has included a set of
different steps

• Developing of the functional model and detail
  specification
• System realization, installation and maintenance
• Teaching of users
• Developing of a service centre

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Special citizens web portal with standard
DB-services
Authenti- cation
CA of servers
Users
CA of citizens
Citizen
Portal
Central server
Central server
Internet
Security server
Security server
MISP
Security server
Security server
Adapter- server
SSL channels, digitaly signed encrypted
messages
Civil servant
Central monitoring
Data- base
IS of an organizat.
Local monitoring
Local monitoring
Database processors
Functional scheme
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www.riik.ee/ristmik/
http//www.riik.ee/ristmik/ User
manuals X-road manuals Central server user
manual Developer requirements Proving of
queries Portal installation manual Portal
user manual Security server user manual
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X-road training materials List of training
materials Central server administration manual
Developer requirements Portals installation
manual Portals user manual Proving of queries
Overview of the system Security server
administration manual
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X-road Technical documentation Environment
description Structure of the
configuration Communication protocol Software
architecture Security log
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