Streamline Data Flows (FR0040)

Streamline data flows within the State with FranceConnect Plateforme
Lead institution(s):
Minister of State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister
Other stakeholders:
All ministries
New commitment
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Innovation and technology for openness
Challenges
By 2022, all of the public authorities, at national and local level alike, will be using the components and services of the technical infrastructure FranceConnect Plateforme to deliver secure, simple, personalised, completely digital services which guarantee procedural traceability and respect of fundamental freedoms. This platform is enabling the gradual, ongoing construction of a modular, reusable public information system designed to facilitate innovation and to be open to all State partners, whether public or private. It supports agile, low-cost developments, focusing efforts on the search for "business value".
Thanks to its core range of basic services:
Citizens, businesses and public officials can obtain e-identification means tailored to their needs via FranceConnect identité;
Data and services can be published with a view, on the one hand, to facilitating communication between public authorities and personalising relations with users (thereby avoiding repeat requests for supporting documents for example, applying the "dites-le nous une fois" (tell us just the once) rule), and, on the other, to enabling different developers, whether they are working within a State institution or externally, to create value-added services;
Trust can be enhanced by guaranteeing protection of data and privacy.
Ambitions
The FranceConnect Plateforme is organised into two concentric circles:
The 1st circle ("core"), comprising a basic services provision for guaranteeing the smooth running of the platform and swift delivery of the services for users and businesses (e.g. FranceConnect identité, data exchange service, data protection service);
The 2nd circle, comprising common assets: services and components characterised by their high degree of re-use by the other departments, and therefore by a high risk of disruption should the service be upgraded or become unavailable. These services include, for example,
the main APIs on the reference data (businesses, households, taxation, geodata, etc.) or the "public data service";
The FranceConnect Plateforme development pathway takes an iterative approach with the user (starting with a "minimum viable product"), enabling an incremental and collective development of services.
In this platform model, the ministries, operators and local authorities become stewards of the development of the modular public IS. They are responsible for presenting data and services for the attention of officials or the public. These services are either new modular-native services ("API First" approach) or services from legacy systems that have gone through API- fication processes.
FranceConnect Plateforme is then expected to be opened to external developers and enhanced as and when they add new contributions. It will also be possible to develop new services from available public services and data. Such services could, for example, allow user authentication via FranceConnect identité.
The road map in detail

Develop the core services of FranceConnect Plateforme, to guarantee the smooth running of the platform and swift delivery of the services for users and businesses:
The platform infrastructure;
The identification services based on FranceConnect identité
(Household, Official or Business);
The data exchange functions: internal reference frameworks,
API SEO, drawing up of contracts and authorisations,
presentation and transmission of data;
The functions bearing on protection (integrity, confidentiality,
access control, traceability and history of exchanges) and
trust;
An access interface for users and local authorities publishing
information in open-data format (number, type, geographic distribution) 2 years for the first complete operational environment (followed by continuous improvement)
Develop the priority services of common interest (minimum functional base, 2nd circle) to fast-track the development and provision of new online services, underpinning the "core" features of FranceConnect Plateforme.
In particular: APIs opening up the reference data, pooled components enabling the integration and ongoing roll-out of developments according to a DevOps mindset; universal payment "brick"; Vitam-as-a-Service (Vitam is a software program for developing a digital archiving base that can be re-used by government departments), etc. 5 years

11. Streamline data flows within the State with FranceConnect Plateforme

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

By 2022, all of the public authorities, at national and local level alike, will be using the components and services of the technica l infrastructure FranceConnect Plateforme to deliver secure, simple, personalised, completely digital services which guarantee procedural traceability and respect of fundamental freedoms. This platform is enabling the gradual, ongoing construction of a modular, reusable public information system designed to facilitate innovation and to be open to all State partners, whether public or private. It supports agile, low-cost developments, focusing efforts on the search for "business value".

Thanks to its core range of basic services:

Citizens, businesses and public officials can obtain e-identification means tailored to their needs via FranceConnect identité;

Data and services can be published with a view, on the one hand, to facilitating communication between public authorities and personalising relations with users (thereby avoiding repeat requests for supporting documents for exam ple, applying the "dites-le nous une fois" (tell us just the once) rule), and, on the other, to enabling different developers, whether they are working within a State institution or externally, to create value-added services;

Trust can be enhanced by guaranteeing protection of data and privacy.

The FranceConnect Plateforme is organised into two concentric circles:

The 1st circle ("core"), comprising a basic services provision for guaranteeing the smooth running of the platform and swift delivery of the services for users and businesses (e.g. FranceConnect identité, data exchange service, data protection service);

The 2nd circle, comprising common assets: services and components characterised by their high degree of re-use by the other departments, and therefore by a high risk of disruption should the service be upgraded or become unavailable. These services include, for example, the main APIs on the reference data (businesses, households, taxation, geodata, etc.) or the "public data service";

The FranceConnect Plateforme development pathway takes an iterative approach with the user (starting with a "minimum viable product"), enabling an incremental and collective development of services.

In this platform model, the ministries, operators and local authorities become stewards of the development of the modular public IS. They are responsible for presenting data and services for the attention of officials or the public. These services are either new modular-native services ("API First" approach) or services from legacy systems that have gone through API- fication processes.

FranceConnect Plateforme is then expected to be opened to external developers and enhanced as and when they add new contributions. It will also be possible to develop new services from available public services and data. Such services could, for example, allow user authentication via FranceConnect identité. [49]

Milestones

11.1 Develop the core services of FranceConnect Plateforme, to guarantee the smooth running of the platform and swift delivery of the services for users and businesses:

• The platform infrastructure;
• The identification services based on FranceConnect identité (Household, Official or Business);
• The data exchange functions: internal reference frameworks, API SEO, drawing up of contracts and authorisations, presentation and transmission of data;
• The functions bearing on protection (integrity, confidentiality, access control, traceability and history of exchanges) and trust;
• An access interface for users and local authorities publishing information in open-data format (number, type, geographic distribution)

11.2 Develop the priority services of common interest (minimum functional base, 2nd circle) to fast-track the development and provision of new online services, underpinning the "core" features of FranceConnect Plateforme.

In particular: APIs opening up the reference data, pooled components enabling the integration and ongoing roll-out of developments according to a DevOps mindset; universal payment "brick"; Vitam-as-a-Service (Vitam is a software program for developing a digital archiving base that can be re-used by government departments), etc.

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2023

Context and Objectives

Public services online are scattered and require users to create several accounts to sign up. FranceConnect offers an “official” user authentication and allows users to access several public services in one single place. Users can request official documents, verify remaining points on a driving license, and submit a demand for financial support, among other actions. The platform fits within the government’s effort to digitalize public administration and its services. This commitment is a continuation of France’s 2015–2017 action plan, in which the government committed to testing and launching the platform. [50] This commitment aimed to strengthen the platform through several fundamental services (e.g., secure identification, data exchange) and the development of new online services.

The IRM researcher considers the commitment relevant to access to information. One of the milestones of the commitment requires the creation of a public access interface, with the publication of information in open data format. The commitment is also relevant to technology and innovation, since it requires the improvement of a digital platform.

Overall, this commitment is verifiable. The first milestone contains concrete activities to be undertaken and a list of core services that should be integrated into the platform. The second milestone is, however, vague. It only indicates that a second round of improvements will be implemented, without further information except that it should include the APIs (application programming interface) to open reference data.

In terms of the impact of the commitment, the IRM researcher deems this initiative to have a potential minor effect. This commitment seeks to develop digital services and facilitate citizens’ access to public services. The first commitment on FranceConnect was considered to have a potential moderate impact in the last IRM evaluation round. The platform is already in place, and this commitment aims to strengthen the system. Thus, the IRM researcher considers the change envisaged to be incremental and believes it would have a minor potential impact.

Next steps

The IRM researcher suggests that this commitment not be carried forward to the next action plan. Alternatively, it could be made to fit the objectives of widening access to information, improving citizen participation in public affairs, and providing citizens with the means to hold the government accountable. The action plan could also group all commitments that concern e-government and the digitalization of public services. Grouping them would make the overall strategy easier to understand. It would also streamline open government initiatives in all such commitments (e.g., linking the digitalization with the publication of performance and budget data).

11. Streamline data flows within the State with FranceConnect Plateforme

Completion: Limited

Administrations can now use 60 new APIs and DINUM developed numerous API resources. [xliii] Local governments are not included in the platform. There is some confusion between what the action plan set out to do with the objective of making public services more accessible to users and businesses and the language of the government self-assessment that focusses on the circulation of data amongst administrations. The vagueness of the formulation of the second milestone makes it hard to assess implementation. [xliv]