Solution for ETC programmes GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

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Ruth Pearson
8 years ago
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1 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS The solution developed and distributed by GECKO is a web application that supports monitoring of publicly funded projects. Based on 10 years of experience with European Territorial Cooperation support programmes where the software has been tried and tested in international use, the solution is also well suited for project management within other e.g. national programmes. The solution supports collaboration of a variety of stakeholders over the whole duration of a programme. On the one hand, it addresses enterprises and organizations that act in the role of beneficiaries. On the other hand it addresses authorities and institutions that handle grant projects on behalf of the funding entity. MODULAR DESIGN The fact that the solution is fundamentally designed in a modular way warrants its efficient maintenance and extension. Figure 1 illustrates its clear-cut modular structure. The solution provides assistance functions for all project phases, beginning with the initial conceptualization of the project idea, followed-up by its implementation, up to its continuous monitoring and controlling. In addition, there exist modules that support administration of users and roles as well as modules that implement specific utility services such as, e.g., document management. Figure 1. The modular structure of the system supports all phases of a project s lifetime, such as initiation, implementation and controlling/monitoring.

project management within other e.g. national programmes. The solution supports collaboration of a variety of stakeholders over the whole duration of a programme.

2 BUSINESS PROCESSES AT CENTER STAGE Conceptually, the sequence of grant project activities is subject to a workflow that not only defines the temporal order of tasks but also the documents that are to be exchanged between stakeholders as well as roles and responsibilities. This is why our solution is basically a process-oriented software that conceptually supports all relevant business processes of the application domain. As an example, figure 2 shows a generalized top-level business process that spans the complete life cycle of an individual grant project, starting with its application and ending with its termination upon expiration of the archiving period. Figure 2: Generalized top-level business process (simplified).

This is why our solution is basically a process-oriented software that conceptually supports all relevant business processes of the application domain.

3 SUPPORTING USER ROLES In general, during its whole lifetime a project involves stakeholders from different organizations and institutions. However, depending on their responsibilities and the organization they belong to, these users may play very different roles. This is why our solution fundamentally implements a strong role concept. Our software may thus be interesting for any support programme in which multiple parties are collaborating and sharing information on the same matter. Figure 3. Example of user roles supported by the solution.

However, depending on their responsibilities and the organization they belong to, these users may play very different roles.

4 ENABLING E-COHESION OF THE FUTURE The current e-cohesion Policy of the European Union recommends the future exchange of documents within the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Programme to be handled exclusively by electronic means. In particular, beneficiaries should be required to provide any document only once as these data should be always available from a repository for re-use ( only once encoding principle). Currently, our system supports (shown in Fig. 4) level 3 of the e-cohesion Policy (upload of forms). In the future, it is intended to implement level 5 (push procedure) thereby continuously enhancing the level of e-cohesion Policy support. Figure 4. Enabling the e-cohesion Policy by exchanging documents via a single secure repository. Exemplary upload- and download scenarios are also shown.

In particular, beneficiaries should be required to provide any document only once as these data should be always available from a repository for re-use ( only once encoding principle).

5 OPTIONAL BUILDING BLOCKS As the solution is designed in a strictly configurable way, it may be tailored to match individual requirements. To this end, a number of optional functional building blocks are available out of which a customer may freely choose a subset to meet any specific framework conditions. All options may be combined with one another. An overview of the most important features is given in figure 5. Figure 5: Functional extensibility by means of optional building blocks. All functions are freely combinable.

To this end, a number of optional functional building blocks are available out of which a customer may freely choose a subset to

Questions & Answers. on e-cohesion Policy in European Territorial Cooperation Programmes. (Updated version, May 2013)

Questions & Answers. on e-cohesion Policy in European Territorial Cooperation Programmes. (Updated version, May 2013) Questions & Answers on e-cohesion Policy in European Territorial Cooperation Programmes (Updated version, May 2013) This fact sheet was drafted jointly by INTERACT and European Commission (DG Regional