SPC (Italian Network for Public Administrations) and RIPA (International Network for Public Administrations) are two initiatives, leaded by CNIPA, to build an efficient telecommunication motorway in order to give the Public Administrations the tools to promote eGovernment services, improve back-office applications, increase security, decrease paper utilization, increase efficiency and than generate savings. Both the initiatives are supported by a legislative framework: the “CAD 2006” (Digital Code for Public Administrations). Two European tenders have been issued by CNIPA to find the best Service providers and to implement the SPC&RIPA project.

Policy Context

The SPC & RIPA project is managed by CNIPA, a national body belonging to the Italian Prime Minister's Office which main task is to implement the directives of the Minister for the Reforms and Innovations. CNIPA gives support the all PAs in the ICT field, promoting tools and procedures to improve the quality of telecommunication services and to reduce the operational costs of the PAs.

Description of target users and groups

The target group is the Central Public Administration and its 20.000 sites. It is mandatory for them to use SPC and RIPA services to connect their sites. For the Local Public Administrations, SPC or RIPA services are optional.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

CNIPA manages the whole project with a federative approach. The Management Committee, whose chairman is the President of CNIPA, is made of Central and local PAs representatives. The technical bodies supporting the Committee are: the SPC Management Center, the QxN Consortium and the Security Operation Center. The SPC Management Center monitors the SPC security system through the Security Operation Centers of the four providers and the security representatives of the PAs (there is one security representative for each PA).

Technology solution

The procedure is simple: the PAs choose the appropriate services (IP multi-channel services, voip services, security services, etc), to connect their offices from a list managed by CNIPA. If they are located in Italy, the SPC qualified Service Providers will be used, if they are abroad (embassies, consulates etc.) the RIPA Providers will be used. RIPA can be considered the worldwide extension of the SPC project.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The first significant impact is the cost saving that is about 50% compared to the previous expense. Another important result is decupling the bandwidth available to PAs. Further the quality and security of e-government services have been improved. The project involves 56 central PAs (20000 sites to be connected), 20 regions, 110 provinces and potentially 8000 Municipalities. The case is an innovative multi-providers model that promotes competition between ICT providers. The SPC can be considered as a set of infrastructural tools and rules allowing the interoperability of PAs applications. The underlying idea is to choose the best Internet Service Providers to supply qualified and secure connectivity services to all the Italian PAs. All the qualified providers are connected to the qualified exchange network (QxN) made of different Neutral Access Points and managed by CNIPA through a specific Consortium. In order to implement their networks the PAs choose the appropriate services from a list ( IP multi-channel services, voip services, security services,). Depending on where those sites are located (Italy or abroad) the SPC or RIPA qualified ServiceProviders will be used. An innovative model of tender (open procedure) has been implemented which foresees multiple Service Providers: the Provider with the lowest price gets the biggest part of the supply. Four SPC Service Providers have been identified by CNIPA: Fastweb, BT, Wind and Telecom Italia. The estimate cost saving is about 50%. The deployment phase has been started on June 2006 and 46 out of 56 PAs have already signed the contracts. The RIPA connects four Ministries (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Institute of Tourism and Customs Agency) for a total of 450 sites. The tender has been assigned to a Consortium made by EDS and BT Infonet on December 2004. The network is already operational and almost all ministries have deployed their networks and activated the main services on their sites, including VoIP (Voice over IP). Now the Application Services phase is going to be started. Several services are planned to be on the network, such as the “Electronic Visa” and the “Electronic Passport” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

Several countries all over the world have asked information and details on SPC & RIPA project: China, some African countries. The LINX of London asked information to propose the same model to the English Government.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 -The multi-provider model promotes a real competition among providers of telecom and data services. Lesson 2 -The impact of the project on the Digital Divide is remarkable as it is improved because of the competition model. Lesson 3 -The cost saving and the consequently price reduction of ICT services due to the competition doesn’t apply only to PAs but indirectly also in others area like finance, industry etc. Scope: National