GEN is a workflow engine created to manage the states or phases of the various administrative procedures developed for the General Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade.

It has been developed using the methodology of Business Process Management (BPM).  The application was developed according to Law 11/2007 of 22 June, which concerns electronic access of citizens to public services.

The procedures of Law 11/2007 have been modelled in Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) and then uploaded to GEN with an XPDL (XML Definition Language Program) generated for each procedure.

The Law for electronic access of citizens to government involves the creation of a legal framework to facilitate the extension and use of new technologies. And the main challenge facing the implementation of Information Technology and Communications (ICT) in society in general and in the administration in particular is generating sufficient confidence that eliminates or minimizes the risks associated with its use.  The mistrust stems from the perception, often unwarranted, of greater fragility of electronic information, possible risks of loss of privacy and low transparency of these technologies.

Policy Context

The application was developed according to the Law 11/2007 of 22 June, concerning electronic access of citizens to public services.

The Law for electronic access of citizens to government is justified in creating a legal framework to facilitate the extension and use of new technologies. And the main challenge facing the implementation of Information Technology and Communications (ICT) in society in general and the administration in particular is generating sufficient confidence that eliminates or minimizes the risks associated with its use.  The mistrust stems from the perception, often unwarranted, of greater fragility of electronic information, possible risks of loss of privacy and low transparency of these technologies.

The inclusion of all citizens, without any restriction on the use of egovernment is enshrined as one of the rights of citizens in the LAECSP (Chapter 6 paragraph c). Online Services Administration should reach everyone without any discrimination on grounds of culture, age, sex, social status, accessibility, etc.  The creation of a modern administration requires all citizens to have access to these electronic services.

The Ministry of Industry has a total of 326 administrative procedures should be tailored to the law for the December 31, 2009, including procedures of great complexity which have to process and manage a high number of applications.  A great number of them should be provided to citizens using GEN as the BPM engine.

Description of target users and groups

The target users of the applications are the citizens and enterprises that could take advantage of this BPM engine for using the public services with modern and electronic procedures. 

The inclusion of all citizens, without any restriction on the use of egovernment is enshrined as one of the rights of citizens in the LAECSP (Chapter 6 paragraph c). Online Services Administration should reach everyone without any discrimination on grounds of culture, age, sex, social status, accessibility, etc.  The creation of a modern administration requires all citizens to be recipients of services.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The scope of this system ranges from the definition of procedures using BPMN and integration into the engine to control the flow defined by the procedures, including the various web query processing information (based on known roles allows tasks, activities and processes) contained in each procedure and authorized users in each of them.

BPMN notation implements a model for processes, namely the original set of specifications proposed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), now part of the Object Management Group (OMG).  This is a graphical notation of the steps and activities of a business process.  It models the sequence of activities such as data or messages exchanged between the various participants.

The scope of GEN covers the information processing of the various procedures diagrammed in BPMN notation to load XPDL (XML) associated with that diagram and the subsequent consultation by the different applications and procedures to use integrated management of roles and permissions.

GEN module users are developers of other applications that need to manage their workflow.  At each time stage they know about the workflow and the possible phases that can occur.

Access to management is performed using secure connection (https).  Authentication mechanisms are established through the use of certificates and e-dni.  To access the Web application requires that the user is discharged from the group that will work.  The roles and profiles are also included in the BPMN diagrams and integrated into the application GEN based on XPDL import discussed above which are associated authorized roles or profiles in each process or activity.

Technology solution

The application was developed in NET (Web and Web Services), JavaStript relational database and SQL Server 2005.

GEN administration uses an advanced electronic signature assigned to the person responsible. The digital signature is performed in XAdES-BES format and is based on the technical specification ETSI TS 101 903 v1.2.2 standard XML Advanced Electronic Signature (XADES), which satisfies the requirements of European directive on electronic signatures.

BPMN notation implements a model for processes, namely the original set of specifications proposed by BPMI (Business Process Management Initiative), now part of OMG (Object Management Group).

This is a graphical notation of the steps and activities of a business process. For modelling the BPMN (Business Process Modelling Notation) tool is used for loading BizAgi and procedures in GEN use the language XPDL, an XML Tag of BPMN itself.

Technology choice: Standards-based technology

Main results, benefits and impacts

The adaptation of procedures to Law 11/2007 is an important milestone for the Government.  Improved services to citizens and enterprises based on the rights of citizens established by that law is an obligation for the Administration.

GEN allows the modelling, documentation, design and simulation of management procedures in the area of Energy.  It is a modular tool that allows you to collect information for each procedure analysis, integrate information and processes to provide all necessary services to different applications to process it.  The use of standards in each of the phases facilitates interoperability with different applications within the philosophy of BPM systems.

Within the standards used (XML, XPDL, web services, SOAP) using BPMN notation for the design and layout of the procedures was a major step forward in defining them, clarifying the analysis and design flows permitting processes and simplifying them.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The adaptation of more than 40 procedures shows very clearly the relevance of the application, both in terms of saving cost and time to develop such procedures.

GEN was recently selected Case os Success Finalist in SITI / asLAN Awards of 2010.

http://www.siti.es/casosdeexito

GEN was also selected in Tecnimap 2010 as one of the most important projects of the year as an example of efficiency:

http://www.csi.map.es/csi/tecnimap/tecnimap_2010/eficiencia/79eficienci…

Lessons learnt

The use of standards in each of the phases facilitates interoperability with different applications within the philosophy of BPM systems.

Within the standards used (XML, XPDL, web services, SOAP) using BPMN notation for the design and layout of the procedures was a major step forward in defining them, clarifying the analysis and design flows permitting processes and simplifying them.

The adaptation of more than 40 procedures pending adaptation shows very clearly the relevance of the application, both in terms of saving cost and time to develop such procedures.

Scope: National