The document discusses the Open Group Conference in Rome and the practical application of service-oriented architecture (SOA) in the public procurement processes of the European Commission. It provides an overview of the e-PRIOR interoperability platform, which was implemented to support electronic procurement at the European Commission. The presentation describes how e-PRIOR uses standards and web services to enable interoperability between the Commission's internal systems and external suppliers. It also discusses how e-PRIOR has helped increase efficiency and reduce costs for both the Commission and its suppliers.

1. The Open Group Conference in Rome
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement
processes of the European Commission*
João Rodrigues Frade
Manager
April 2010
*connectedthinking PwC

2. Short biography
• Portuguese national, living in Belgium, working with
PricewaterhouseCoopers – Advisory
• Since 2007, assisting the European Commission in a
groundbreaking e-Invoicing and e-Ordering Project
• Participating in standardisation initiatives such as the
CEN/ISSS Business Interoperability Interfaces (BII) for Europe
(on behalf of the European Commission, DIGIT)
• Master in Information Systems and Technology Management
from Instituto de Empresa - Platforming specialisation by the MIT
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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3. Setting the scene
• SOA project testimonial
• 30 minutes presentation
• 15 minutes for open discussion
• Let’s not forget that SOA is about interaction
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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4. Agenda
Introduction to Procurement
e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Conclusions

5. Part one
Introduction to Procurement
e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Conclusions

6. Introduction to Procurement
i2010 Action Plan
eGovernment Action Plan
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/
5 priority areas:
Inclusive Efficiency & High Impact
Key Enablers e-Participation
e-Government Effectiveness Services
Widespread use could result Member States committed to:
in: e-Procurement
• Giving public administrations
• 5% savings in total the capability of carrying out
procurement costs 100% of their procurement
• 10% reductions in transaction electronically by 2010
costs • Minimum target of 50% for
• Savings of tens of billions of the actual use of electronic
euro annually procurement.
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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7. Introduction to Procurement
i2010 Action Plan
eGovernment Action Plan
5 priority areas:
Inclusive Efficiency & High Impact
Key Enablers e-Participation
e-Government Effectiveness Services
e-Procurement
Supporting Programmes:
Large Scale Pilot project : e-Procurement Pilot project:
e-PRIOR project
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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8. Introduction to Procurement
i2010 Action Plan
eGovernment Action Plan
5 priority areas:
Interoperability Programme of the European Commission:
Inclusive Efficiency & High Impact
Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public
Key Enablers e-Participation
e-Government Effectiveness Services
Administrations, Businesses and Citizens http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/
e-Procurement
Directorate-General for Informatics
of the European Commission
Supportinghttp://ec.europa.eu/dgs/informatics/index_en.htm
Programmes:
Piloting of e-Procurement
Large Scaleat DIGIT
Pilot project : e-Procurement Pilot project:
PRocurement Invoicing
and ORdering e-PRIOR project
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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9. Introduction to Procurement
e-PRIOR project timeline
Assess - 2008
• Inventory of
Business
Requirements
Operate & Review -2010
• Feasibility Study Design - mid 2008
• Onboarding of Suppliers • Global Implementation Plan
• Linking with PEPPOL • Design of a Interoperability
platform (e-PRIOR)
• Elaboration of Services
respecting legal obligations
Implement - end 2009
• Go live at DIGIT
• Disseminate to other Construct - 2009
DGs and Services • Support the development of
Billing Services
• End-to-end Pilot with the
Suppliers of DIGIT
The project continues: e-Ordering and e-Catalogue
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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10. Introduction to Procurement
Public procurement processes
Pre-Awarding
Notification Submission Awarding
Post-Awarding
Customer/ Buyer: Purchase to Pay
Purchase Goods Invoice Invoice
Requisition Approval Request
order receipt control payment
Order
Framework
Catalogue
Contract Invoice
Quotation
Customer Order
Catalogue Quotation Order Billing Payments
request processing
Supplier(s): Order to Cash
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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11. • Defined &
Why Service Oriented e-Procurement? repeatable
processes
• Better data quality
• Reduction of thanks to standard
manual data definitions
processing Data & Service and business rules
Quality
• Reduction of
Payment delays
• Performance
Risk & measurement
Cost
Corporate Certainty leads to improved
Social control
Responsibility environment
• Secured document
exchange leads to
Cycle Time Compliance
• Simplified an improved risk
processes environment
• Automation of
tasks reduces • Improved
• Green procurement
the overall transparency
cycle time • Improved confidence
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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12. Introduction to Procurement
Invoice
Customer Control
(Invoice Receiver) 2009 Costs in euro per transaction
Receive
By moving to electronic Procurement
Encoding Dispute Cash
in Back- Validation Managem Managem Archiving
Invoice
Office ent ent
Saves 11 euro per transaction
1.1 €
Paper
Cost € digital€is 34% of paper €
3.0
of 4.0 2.5 € 4.8
based €
2.2 17.6 €
Digital 0.0 € 0.0 € 1.2 € 2.0 € 2.0 € 0.8 € 6.0 €
Supplier Billing
(Invoice Issuer)
By moving to electronic Procurement
Print,
Payment Cash
envelope, Archiving
Reminders Management
send
Saves 7 euro per transaction
Paper 3.9 € 0.5 € 4.5 € 2.2 € 11.1 €
Cost of digital is 38% of paper based
Digital 0.0 € 0.4 € 3.0 € 0.8 € 4.2 €
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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13. Introduction to Procurement
Interoperability challenges
Practical use of the European Interoperability Framework & Political
Processing efficiency
Open Standards
Legal
Compliance to VAT & internal regulations
Process/ Organisational
Standard choreographies
Semantic
PAPER Standard building blocks across documents
and validity constraints on their content
Standardised documents, code Lists and Identifiers
Technical
Trusted document exchange
0 Bespoke structured document sent by post or fax
Unstructured document
Level of standardisation and Interoperability
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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14. Part two
Introduction to Procurement
e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Conclusions

15. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Architecting the solution
Governance Business Domain
Business
requirements
process
Business
Processes Business
Business process
Process Rules Workflow
Architecture analysis
Business Services Business
process
Process Rules Business Transactions decomposition
Data Architecture
States Business
Target
Solution Data analysis rules
Data Model Validation Rules analysis
Application Architecture
System
System
interaction
IT Architecture analysis
analysis
Technology Architecture
Technology platform
assessment
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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16. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Bootstrapping
Solution concept diagram • Clients use WSDL 1.1 to build their interfaces
Suppliers & other Economical Operators Suppliers & other Economical Operators Suppliers & other Economical Operators Suppliers & other Economical Operators
External Business Applications External Business Applications External Business Applications External Business Applications
Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal
Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation
Internet (SOAP
Mediated message exchange over HTTPS)
• System’s interact with each other via e-PRIOR (no Point-to-Point)
JMS HTTP/ SOAP JMS HTTP/ SOAP
e-PRIOR platform
HTTP/SOAP SMTP
System Functions/ Data Exchange Services Toolbox Services
• Interaction based on the exchange of SOAP messages within a business context
Monitoring
Catalogue Business Process Request Business Process Order Business Process Billing Business Process Document Status
Catalogue Request Order Invoice
Document Inbox
Internal Communication Services
Cat. Response Willingness Order Change Inv Response
Privacy & Security Services
Query Document
Cat. Query Offer Order Resp. Simple Credit Note
Retrieve Document
Cat. Get Item Request Ack Order Ack CN Response
Attach Document
• XML messages and Web services ensure autonomy from specific programming languages
Request Cancellation Order Cancellation
View Document
Standard Information Model (structural & semantic description)
System Functions/ Data Processing Services
Logging
Document Validation & Service workflow & Document Rendering &
Document Archiving Routing Engine
Business Rules Engine Orchestration Engine Transformation Engine
and platforms (for internal applications, behind the firewall, JMS is also possible)
Infrastructure Services
e-PRIOR Transactional Repository
Web-Services Stack
Queuing Engine
• Protocol switching and message pre-processing is encapsulated
Intranet (JMS)
European Commission European Commission European Commission European Commission
EC Business Applications EC Business Applications EC Business Applications EC Business Applications
Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal Back-Office Web-Portal
Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation Protocol & Data Translation
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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17. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Detailed solution concept diagram
Suppliers & other Economical Operators European Commission
External Business Applications Compensation EC Business Applications
• Compensation within legal constraints
Internet Intranet
Back-Office Web-Portal • Idempotent endpoints (IDs Check) Back-Office Web-Portal
Protocol & Data Translation
• Ordered delivery (waiting room) Protocol & Data Translation
Write Services Standard Communication Protocols Read
HTTP/SOAP JMS
Services
System Functions/ Data Exchange Services Toolbox Services
Monitoring
Catalogue Business Process Request Business Process Order Business Process Billing Business Process Document Status
Catalogue Request Order Invoice
Document Inbox
Internal Communication Services
Cat. Response Willingness Order Change Inv Response
Privacy & Security Services
Query Document
Cat. Query Offer Order Resp. Simple Credit Note
Retrieve Document
Cat. Get Item Request Ack Order Ack CN Response
View Document
Request Cancellation Order Cancellation
Attach Document
Standard Information Model (structural & semantic description)
System Functions/ Data Processing Services
Platform Services
Logging
Document Validation & Service workflow & Document Rendering &
Document Archiving Routing Engine
Business Rules Engine Orchestration Engine Transformation Engine
Message Inbox
• e-PRIOR offers both write and read services, including a message Inbox service
Infrastructure Services Web-Services Stack
Queuing Engine
Transactional Repository
• Systems connecting to e-PRIOR do not need to be up and running all the time
Data
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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18. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Zooming in Loose control of process logic:
• Process logic control remains in the back-office
• Simple choreographies (CEN/BII) linked to a business entity)
Supplier ERP DIGIT
e-PRIOR
System Back-Office
Invoice Pre-Processing & Route to the
End-point Manual Approval
Invoice business verification
Submission Archiving Back-Office
•Authenticate
Invoice Creation
<?XML v1.0> Supplier Out Queue
<INVOICE>
• Authorise In Queue
<ID>
Supplier
<IssueDate>
Open message standard independent of legacy data models :
<Period>
• Standardised message format (Universal Business Language)
<?XML v1.0>
• Reusable content guidelines, IDs and code-lists (Core Component TS) <RESPONSE>
• Messages are processed once mapped DBan internal canonical model
to <ID>
• Syntax validation via XSD and semantics using Schematron <IssueDate>
<Period>
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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19. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Generic orchestration for (inbound) write services
Entry
point
Outgoing Message
Document
Incoming Message
Intermediary State
Received Application Response
Final State
Application Response
Processed Rejected
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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20. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Solutions for interoperability
Practical use of the European Interoperability Framework & Political
Processing efficiency
Open Standards
Interchange Control Agreement & embedded controls
Legal
Compliance to VAT & internal regulations
Standard Business Profiles (CEN/BII)
Process/ Organisational
Schematron + Standard Semantic CCTS Standard choreographies
Semantic
Standard syntax, code Lists and IDs Standard building blocks across documents
and validity constraints on their content
Secured Web services Standardised documents, code Lists and Identifiers
Technical
Trusted document exchange
0
Level of standardisation and Interoperability
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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21. e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
High Performance:
Live since October 2009 • Processing of 1.000 invoices per hour
• Processing of unlimited attachments
Suppliers Service • High availability
European Commission
Providers (Customer)
British
B2Boost
Telecom
Siemens
Certipost
Belgacom
e-PRIOR Back-Office
Systemat Advalvas
Dell Inovis
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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22. Part three
Introduction to Procurement
e-PRIOR Interoperability Platform at the European Commission
Conclusions

23. Conclusions
Some lessons
1. Avoid that today’s solutions become tomorrow’s problem,
strive for loose coupling among systems.
2. Governance is key. Keep in mind your stakeholders and their
level of maturity. Keep the interface simple and tidy.
3. Layered growth rather than big bang. Develop iteratively. Pilot
the end-to-end solution before going live.
4. Machine to Machine for Write Services works well but Read
Services are often required behind a Portal.
5. Semantics is a much bigger challenge than syntax.
6. Standardise for Interoperability. Test Conformance.
7. Reuse will not happen without dissemination
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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24. Conclusions
Summary
• European Commission is paving the way for e-Procurement and the
adoption of standards
• SOA and Standards promote Interoperability and reliable e-collaboration
between Suppliers – Customer
• e-PRIOR is a strong example of an “Enterprise Service Bus” platform
independent of the Back-Office Systems
• e-PRIOR is a catalyser of change and service orientation
• e-PRIOR is reusable in any other document exchange context
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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25. Of further interest
e-PRIOR in e-Practice: PEPPOL Large Scale Pilot:
http://www.epractice.eu/cases/ePRIOR http://www.PEPPOL.eu
Demo of e-PRIOR: European Interoperability Framewrok:
http://www.epractice.eu/en/tv/290845 http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7728
Open e-PRIOR: Granada Declaration:
http://forge.osor.eu/projects/openeprior/ http://www.eu2010.es/export/sites/presidencia/comun/
descargas/Ministerios/en_declaracion_granada.pdf
e-Catalogue Feasibility Study:
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=32432
e-Invoicing Business Requirements:
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=32108
Practical application of SOA in the Public Procurement processes of the EC April 2010
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26. Thank you very much
Woluwedal 18
1932 Zaventem
Belgium
Tel +32 2 7109284
Mobile +32 477 842292
João Rodrigues Frade E-mail joao.frade@pwc.be
Manager http://be.linkedin.com/in/joaofrade
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