Abstract
To facilitate EU-wide interoperability in public eProcurement, the European Commission co-funds the PEPPOL project. PEPPOL aims at setting up pan-European pilot solutions that conjointly exist with national infrastructures. The project has several building blocks enabling seamless use of European-wide eProcurement solutions ranging from eSignatures to electronic invoices. One of the key building blocks is the Virtual Company Dossier (VCD), an electronic document container that carries attestations and candidate statements required to evidence the fulfillment of non-exclusion and selection criteria in public tendering procedures. PEPPOL will settle a set of new concepts, adopt evolving standards, involve several stakeholders, and therewith influence ways of working in electronic public procurement. As there are many stakeholders involved in the VCD project we assume that changes will occur on very frequent basis. One of the critical questions that the development of VCD is currently facing is how to govern the project results and how to ensure sustainable operation of the solutions beyond the project. From the PEPPOL perspective governance could be defined as the process to effectively operate the VCD solutions and to propose how to keep them alive after the end of the project (long-term sustainability). In this paper we introduce key elements for governance of PEPPOL solutions within and beyond the project in order to ensure long-sustainable operation in a complex environment. The VCD will be used to exemplify the overall complexity and challenges for setting up an effective governance process.
Recommended Citation
Mondorf, Ansgar; Schmidt, Daniel M.; and Wimmer, Maria A., "ENSURING SUSTAINABLE OPERATION IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT: THE PEPPOL PROJECT AND ITS VCD SYSTEM" (2010). MCIS 2010 Proceedings. 61.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/mcis2010/61