ELAK im Bund (Federal Electronic File Management)

TASK

The "ELAK im Bund" (federal electronic file management) project is considered to be the European showcase project in the implementation of eGovernment strategies. The federal ministries in Austria have been creating, managing and editing their files fully electronically since 2004. As the software supplier, Fabasoft is responsible for product updates and product developments (including, for example, ELAK Espresso and Dual Delivery) that mean a new degree of user-friendliness.

SOLUTION

The ELAK reference solution based on Fabasoft eGov-Suite is run in the federal computer centre in a central hardware and software infrastructure. Regular software updates enhance user-friendliness and add new functionalities. The upgrade to Version 7.0 SP1 of Fabasoft eGov-Suite took place in 2008 to provide further eGovernment functionalities, such as the full text search Mindbreeze Enterprise Search 3.0. The upgrade to the branch solution Fabasoft eGov-Suite Version 8.0, based on Fabasoft Folio, and to Mindbreeze Enterprise Search (MES) 2009 has been scheduled for spring 2010.

IMPLEMENTATION

The federal electronic file management project "ELAK im Bund" is part of the Austrian eGovernment strategy which aims to enhance the services provided by the federal administration. The comprehensive implementation of the electronic file is intended to result in all central offices of the federal ministries replacing paper files with the electronic file. ELAK thus means a completely automated handling of business processes and seamless administrative cooperation between the respective authorities. The project "ELAK im Bund" was born in July 2001 to meet these requirements. An international tender was issued in 2002 to find the right partner to implement the electronic file management system. The specification catalogue of the ELAK Concept 1.1. served as the basis for the tendering process.In 2003 Fabasoft, as a subcontractor of the ELAK consortium, was appointed to implement the electronic file based on Fabasoft eGov-Suite. In the course of an intensive test phase it became clear that with Fabasoft eGov-Suite, Fabasoft fulfilled virtually 100% of the requirements (over 800 individual requirements) of the ELAK Concept 1.1. and, as a result, the desired single-product strategy of the Republic of Austria. The electronic file has been available in Fabasoft eGov-Suite Version 7.0 SP1 since 3 November 2008. This update includes further new functionalities such as the Mindbreeze search, dual delivery and official digital signature.Fabasoft operations managers support ELAK operators to ensure the electronic file management system runs smoothly. No downtime is allowed.

OBJECTIVES MET

Thanks to the introduction of ELAK the Austrian federal administration has been able to considerably improve its service performance. The inspection and exchange of correspondence between departments now takes place to a large extent electronically. This greatly reduces the time it takes to deal with administrative processes. The concept means that it would be possible to expand the solution to offices and departments beyond the current scope. The electronic file replaces paper-based files as the original at federal level.

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