This ESSnet contributes to the ESS.VIP project "shared SERVices".

It aims at:

• increasing awareness on how to use and take part in an ESS service oriented organisation;

• delivering the necessary tools for NSIs to start engaging in the implementation of a Service Oriented Architecture and share their solutions with others;

• improving the mechanism which consists in taking a copy of a component and integrating it into the NSIs environment not having available standards for defining a statistical service.

The various tasks of the project are divided into 6 work packages (WP) which should operate for the whole duration of the project (ie: 24 months):

- WP1-ESS guidelines and procedures: the objective of this WP is to provide a set of guidelines, procedures and templates for identifying, developing, sharing and implementing statistical services in local information system architectures;

- WP2-Centre of Excellence: the objective of this WP is to prepare the description of the setup of a Centre of Excellence to keep up to date either a CSPA service catalogue or CSPA compliant ESS service catalogue and a repository for sharing experiences and knowledge related to service oriented architectures in practice;

- WP3-Apply services: the objective of this WP is to demonstrate that a service developed by an ESS Member “A” (developing organization) can be implemented in ESS Member “B” (re-using organization) and be integrated to its business processes;

- WP4-Identification of re-usable services and analysis of requirements: the objective of this WP is to identify services which can be candidates for re-use in the ESS and to analyse the functional and technical requirements of a service for re-use in at least 3 ESS members;

- WP5-Fostering open source solutions: the objective of this WP is to provide information and tools regarding the state-of-art of open source solutions, that are available or planned, that can be used to better help and foster statistical production;

- WP6-Management and dissemination: objectives are the overall project management, coordination, reporting to Eurostat and dissemination towards stakeholders.

The project was designed according to 3 main drivers:

• Be concrete and pragmatic: the main priority is to build services that actually work, even if they are not very sophisticated. The implemented services should be simple to understand, install and use. All the deliverables should also reflect this orientation and be as operational as possible. The ESSnet favours hands-on experience and experimentation.

• Be complementary with other works: the partners wish to cooperate with all the relevant bodies and stakeholders. To this aim, regular liaison with other bodies both within and outside the ESS (ie. Task force on shared services, Common Statistical Production Architecture- CSPA members, architecture working group, ESS Enterprise Architecture Task force) is priviledged. In each case, good coordination and communication will enable the project to gain in efficiency and prevent from reinventing the wheel.

• Be open: open-source services will be preferred. A specific budget is reserved to help organizations to open-source their services. The ESSnet work will be conducted openly (for example on open collaborative platforms), and the statistical community will be consulted and be able to react or contribute. The partners try and involve interested NSIs and other national statisical authorities, through the organisation of mini-sprint meetings, bilateral visits to some NSIs/authorities and the organisation of a workshop.