Revolutionise and enhance citizen engagement through a unique dedicated public platform

Project Information

PublicApp

Grant agreement ID: 808609

DOI

10.3030/808609

Project closed

EC signature date 19 February 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 31 August 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

PIN APP SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PublicApp (Revolutionise and enhance citizen engagement through a unique dedicated public platform)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2018-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Both the European Digital Agenda and national e-government strategies share ambitious goals to radically increase the use of online public services and harvest massive savings from digitalization. More specifically, the goal of the Digital Agenda is the realization of a Single European Digital Market.
The digital transformation of government is a key element to the success of the Digital Single Market, helping to remove existing digital barriers and preventing further fragmentation arising in the context of the modernization of public administrations.
The Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe (DSM) identifies eGovernment as one of the key elements to maximize the growth potential of the digital economy and to achieve an inclusive digital Europe. Online public services are crucial to increase the cost-efficiency, transparency and quality of the services provided to citizens and companies, in particular for SMEs.
For the public sector organization the siloed structure obstructs cross-agency collaboration, inter-agency mobility, and leads to satisfy limited citizens’ needs. In addition, the lack of data sharing across agencies due to several structural, cultural and technology challenges leads in duplicate processes and higher cost structures.
PUBLICapp aims to overcome the “silos approach”, historically adopted by the Public Administration and promote the realization of a new P.A. platform as a service (PaaS) that:
• ensures better digital accessibility of public services and information for all citizens and businesses, improving the accessibility of public administrations’ websites and mobile apps;
• uniforms and rationalises the infrastructures and IT services used by the Public Administration;
• improves security thanks to a multilevel architecture that ensures separation between back end and front end and allows access to back ends only in a controlled manner and through standard APIs;
• promotes the implementation of new services according to the subsidiarity principle (through API interactions), reducing implementation times and economic commitments for administrations both in development and in the process upgrading;
• introduces once only options for citizens and businesses in digital public services by collaboration and data exchange across the administrations at national, regional and local level.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

All the envisaged objectives have been achieved with positive results and, therefore PIN APP is committed to continue with the project. The strategic vision of the company with respect to PUBLICapp project has been enhanced by the results of the feasibility study.
In particular, the objective of the initial project application remained the same: to develop and commercialize a new P.A. information system that facilitates and ensure correct interaction among all players of the system (citizens, businesses and public administrations), promoting transparent sharing of data, information, platforms and services.
The impact assessment has been improved through a more detailed analysis of the users segments and their needs. The market trends have been analysed into detail from different prospective (segments, geographical etc.). Other potential applications and acquisition of new customers from other sectors have been explored.
The inputs from the technology feasibility allowed to underpin a technology roadmap which has identified the key partners, key activities, and key resources to deliver the technology, operational and commercial strategies. Thus, the business model has been detailed through the application of the business model Canvas.
With respect to the financial projections in the initial application, the growth impact of the company is much relevant in terms of turnover and employment, thus, confirming the financial sustainability and economic feasibility of PUBLICapp project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PUBLICapp is both a mobile app based on citizen-centric approach in the delivering of government services as well as an interoperable ecosystem, which allows to each P.A. the interoperability of its systems with those of other parties.
In terms of competitive solutions, there are two type of competitors operating in different countries:
• businesses specialized in the development of mobile apps that facilitate communication between citizens and public authorities;
• businesses specialized in the development of ICT software solutions for P.A.
In the feasibility study an in-depth analysis of the competitors have been provided and, in particular, with respect to the offer of solutions. The key features characterising PUBLICapp resulted beyond the state of the art represented by known commercial solutions.
The expected results and potential impacts regard the growth of the applying company thanks to the commercialization of the developed solution. Indeed, the financial projections show interesting levels of turnover and profit margin with a turnover of about €/million 5.8 and an EBITDA ratio of 44.6% at year 2025.
The project’s figures show a financial requirement:
• growing during the first two years due to the phase of R&D and market launch of PUBLICapp, investments for the marketing of the new products and for the working capital, with a pick of about €/million 0.79 in 2022;
• declining from the third year with a Net Financial Position (NFP) of about €/million -1.65 at the end of year 2025.

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