The main purpose of the CarTool© is to be instrumental in creating and maintaining a Cartography of solutions using the EIRA© as its structure. The CarTool© can be used by Architects, Business analysts and Portfolio Managers in European and National Public Administrations for the following purposes:

1. ICT solution development: to design new solutions based on the EIRA© and its SATs, making use of existing, reusable solutions and proposed interoperability standards.
2. New legislative proposals: to assess ICT implications of policy changes by searching related solutions in the solutions’ Cartography.
3. Public procurement: to define tender specifications based on proposed standards, and use of specific building blocks.
4. Portfolio management: to assist in managing and rationalising a solution portfolio, and comparing its solutions’ architectures.

The CarTool© responds to key need of European Public Administrations and Member States for a tool with which they can model their solutions based on the EIRA©, and to implement their National Cartographies following the EIRA©’s structure. In support of this, the CarTool© results beneficial because:

• It is a free of charge plug-in designed to be used in the, also free of charge, open source, Archi® tool.
• It does not require special permissions or prerequisites for its installation.
• If offers first class support for the EIRA© and simplifies the EIRA©’s use in both the modelling of new solutions and the querying of existing ones.
• It promotes reuse by making suggestions based on what you are modelling.
• It enhances data quality by minimising manual work and ensuring consistency.
• It allows offline use and customisation so that you can tailor it to your working needs.
• It helps you stay up to date with the latest EIRA© version and Cartography updates.

The CarTool© v6.0.1 plugin has been tested with Archi® version 5.2. For performance issues, it is recommend using the CarTool© with Archi® 5.2.