Transforming e-procurement Platforms for PEPPOL and WCAG 2.0 Compliance

Transcription

1 Transforming e-procurement Platforms for PEPPOL and WCAG 2.0 Compliance The anogov-peppol Project José Martins 1, João Barroso 1,2, Ramiro Gonçalves 1,2, André Sousa 1,2, Miguel Bacelar 1, Hugo Paredes 1,2 1 Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal 2 INESC TEC (formerly INESC Porto), Porto, Portugal jmartins@utad.pt, jbarroso@utad.pt, ramiro@utad.pt, mbacelar@utad.pt Abstract: The increase in the complexity inherent to public administrative activities, including public procurement, has led ANO to develop a public e-procurement platform in order for Portuguese public entities to perform their contracts and acquisitions. Given the introduction of European PEPPOL standards and the requirement for all Portuguese e-procurement platforms to be WCAG 2.0 level A compliant, ANO company established a consortium with the UTAD University in order to improve their platform and develop the required features. By using a specially designed stage-based work methodology, the R&D project was carried out with success and all initial goals were achieved. Keywords. e-procurement, Web accessibility, anogov, PEPPOL. 1 Introduction The evolution of society has led to a significant increase in the complexity inherent to public administrative activities, including public procurement. In Portugal, with the creation of legal rules and regulations directed at transforming all public procurement activities to digital platforms, ANO (a Portuguese IT/IS company) created a public e- procurement platform for public entities and organizations to perform their contracts and acquisitions. Despite ANO s initial effort to develop an efficient and quality based e-procurement platform, a new requirement appeared and ANO had to integrate this platform with Europe s PEPPOL standard while at the same time, complying with Portuguese legal requirements to be accessible according to WCAG 2.0 level A standard. This integration would allow for ANO to expand its operation to all European countries and public entities. This was the initial context for the creation of a R&D project between ANO and the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), named anogov-peppol,

2 in order to analyze, plan, execute and test a set of new features that would completely transform anogov platform e-procurement platform and take it to another level. In order to achieve acceptable levels of success a new work methodology was defined and followed during the entire anogov-peppol project. This methodology was composed of five different stages that ranged from initial requirement analysis to final functional, technical and accessibility testing. By making use of the defined work methodology, both project teams were able to achieve reasonable improvements in their own abilities and knowledge. They were also able to simultaneously improve the complexity and quality of the anogov public e-procurement platform, thus proving the success of the inherent R&D project. The present paper is divided into five sections. We begin by presenting an introduction to the paper (section 1) and a compact e-procurement background characterization from technical, functional and accessibility perspectives. In the third section, a brief anogov-peppol project description is made in order to present the project, its goals and aims in a simple and efficient manner. The work methodology inherent to the referred R&D project is described in section 4 and we conclude by presenting some final considerations in the fifth and final section. 2 Public e-procurement The Portuguese Perspective The complexity inherent to public administrative activities has raised several issues to both governments and citizens. In order to solve these problems, information technologies and systems have been used, including for conducting transactions between government and suppliers (e-procurement), thus achieving an increase in quality and cost efficiency [1]. 2.1 e-procurement Characterization According to Corsi [2], e-procurement refers to the use of electronic mechanisms, typically Web based, to conduct transactions between entities and suppliers. In order to fully satisfy both entities and their suppliers, e-procurement platforms were forced to support all stages of the purchasing process: 1) initial requirement identification, 2) negotiation, 3) payment, and 4) contract management. By extrapolating the e-procurement concept, one can perceive that it can be characterized according to whoever intervenes in the inherent transactions. This said, e-procurement can represent a B2B, B2C or B2G purchase or sale of supplies or services through the Internet and other online information systems [3]. When analyzing e-procurement from a public or governmental perspective, one should acknowledge that it concerns a process in which governments and public entities use Internet-related information systems to agree on the acquisition of products or services (contracting) or to purchase products or services (purchasing). From a functional point of view, e-procurement encompasses several key functionalities, such as electronic ordering and bidding, reverse auctioning and integrated automated procurement systems [1, 4].

3 In 2006 the Portuguese Government decided to create a set of legal regulations towards the compliance of the European egov Action Plan, a decisive change in the way in which public entities performed their purchases occurred. Despite the initial visible changes in the Portuguese public procurement, it was only when the DL-18/2008 law was published that a legal obligation for performing all public procurement contracts through Web hosted electronic platforms came into effect [5, 6]. In order to regulate e-procurement in Portugal, the national Government created a public entity, named CEGER that holds the powers to not only regulate, but also to apply penalties to those who fail to comply with the existing legal regulations [7]. At the present time, there are eight e-procurement platforms in Portugal that operate concurrently in both public and private sector procurement activities, thus ensuring that all organizations with operation in the country can perform their purchases and sales in an electronic manner [8]. 2.2 Portuguese e-procurement Web Accessibility Requirements In the opinion of W3C [9], Web accessibility refers to the creation of Web interfaces that might be perceived, understood and operated in the same manner by all people, including those with some sort of incapacity or disability. When in 2010, the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics promoted a census study aimed on analyzing the Portuguese population, it was possible to acknowledge that almost 10% of the Portuguese population has some sort of incapacity or disability [10], thus assuming a direct relation with the European statistics [11]. The Portuguese concerns with Web accessibility started fifteen years ago and led to the publication of several laws and regulations towards the dissemination and application of the topic. Examples of these publications were the Resolution of the Ministers Council 110/ where the government presented the National Program for the Inclusion of the Disabled Citizens in Society [12], and the Resolution of the Ministers Council 155/2007 that forced the public websites to make themselves accessible to the majority of the disabled citizens [13]. Despite the relevant efforts towards the application of Web accessibility standards and the best practices in all public electronic platforms, at this time no law or regulation has been created in order to force privately-controlled Portuguese websites to become accessible to all users, including those with some sort of incapacity of disability [8, 14]. In terms of Portuguese public e-procurement, when the Portuguese Government published the 18/2008 law [6], it brought a set of mandatory requirements that e-procurement platforms, in which there was a compliance requirement with W3C s Level A Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) or with a corresponding more updated regulation. With the mandatory requirements for Web accessibility in mind, all the e-procurement platforms producers began to make an effort towards making their platforms more accessible and easy to use. However, as it can be seen by analyzing the studies that focused on the evaluation of the accessibility levels of Portuguese entities, both public and private, the levels for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines compliance fall short

4 from what one would expect, thus allowing for the existance of poor Web accessibility levels [8, 14]. 3 The anogov-peppol Project Given the need to comply with Portuguese legal requirements for Web accessibility in e-procurement platforms, a partnership between ANO and the University of Trás-os- Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) was created. This partnership aimed at allowing for a much needed knowledge transfer between the two entities, especially the advanced know-how concerning Web accessibility and usability that UTAD has developed over the last ten years. 3.1 Project Characterization Over the recent years there has been a substantial technological evolution associated with how public and private sector organizations perform their operations and how they relate among themselves. [15-17]. The adoption of new Internet-based business models will certainly generate positive business revenues, thus the potential for e-business is high enough for motivating enterprises to go online [18-20]. When in 2005 the European Commission (EC) analyzed the full spectrum of electronic public procurement initiatives existent in the EU space, it identified a need for the creation of a set of standards and systems in order for all organizations from every EU member-state to be able to participate in the European e-procurement community in an equal manner. With this in mind, in 2008 the EC created the Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) project that introduced mandatory standards and compliances that organizations would have to follow in order to be able to provide goods or services to any public entity in the European space [21]. Considering the above, the present paper presents a detailed description of a R&D project (anogov-peppol), performed by the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), in association with ANO, which aimed to adapt ANOs electronic procurement platform (anogov) in order for it to be compliant with the standards and technology indications that PEPPOL incorporated, thus taking a strong stand towards the development of products that are able to be traded internationally. Adating anogov e-procurement platform to PEPPOLs standards also transformed this software into a more innovative and competitive solution for the European market. With this in mind, ANO (who prides on being a very innovative enterprise) established a partnership with UTAD, aiming to take advantage of this University s background and current research activities on the topics of Web accessibility & usability and e- Business/e-Commerce. The anogov-peppol R&D project was active between September 2011 to August 2014, during which, a set of activities have been analyzed, planned and performed through a very interactive work and collaboration methodology between both institutional entities. Due to this effort it was possible to not only adapt anogov platform to PEPPOL but also to make this a more usable and accessible internet platform.

5 Stage 5 Stage 4 Stage 3 Stage 2 Stage Work Methodology The work and collaboration methodology that was followed during this project can be characterized by a sequence of stages (composed by events, decisions or actions) that allowed for a mutual agreement on all the performed steps. During the first stage, both the ANO and UTAD teams analyze a given requirement individually and in detail in order to obtain a full understanding of its functional and technical characteristics, as well as what kind of tasks might be associated with it. After reaching conclusions on the analyzed requirement, both teams schedule a live meeting where they would share notes and opinions. ANO UTAD Requirement Analysis Requirement Analysis Achieving Requirement Consensus ANO Feature Development Technical and Functional Testing Accessibility & Usability Testing + Functional Testing Requirement Conclusion Fig. 1. -anogov-peppol project work methodology. After the teams from UTAD and ANO performed an individual analysis to a given requirement, they meet and shared the results of their previous work and discussed the strategy through which they were going to approach the specific requirement. When the work strategy definition occurred (achieved from a consensual agreement), a task

6 schedule was designed in order to ensure alignment between ANO s team (responsible for the development of all features) and UTAD s team that would be responsible for the functional testing, as well as for the accessibility and usability tests. During the third stage, ANOs team underwent technical efforts towards developing the agreed feature, always incorporating in their developments the concerns and suggestions that UTAD s team was transmitting over time. When this development stage reached its end, both teams started a testing stage where all feature details were analyzed and tested from a technical, functional, accessibility and usability perspective. Every time UTAD s team was faced with some sort of error, it transmitted its feedback to ANO s team in order for them to carry out the necessary corrections or adjustments. In the fifth and final stage, and after both teams had finished their tests, a live meeting was schedule in order to assure the initial requirement finalization. This work methodology has allowed for a significant improvement in both the efforts need for developing good software solutions and the periods of time and costs needed to do so. On the other hand, it also allowed for an exchange of knowledge between the University and ANO that was very rich and understanding, which would not have been possible without the R&D project and the designed and implemented work methodology. 4 Project Results Given that anogov s public e-procurement platform already existed, when anogov- PEPPOL project started, an initial accessibility evaluation was performed, aiming to set the basis for all the improvements that ought to be made in the context of this project. This initial evaluation revealed that the platform mentioned above was far from accessible, thus assuming a clear tendency to not implement good-practices in terms of programming that should allow for a significant reduction of the accessibility errors detected. Based on the information obtained with the initial accessibility testing combined with UTAD s knowledge of Web accessibility, a programming manual of good-practices was developed and presented to s collaborators in order to improve their skills and results. When anogov-peppol project reached its first released version in a development environment, a new evaluation of accessibility was performed and a set of improvements to the overall accessibility level of the platform was determined. This allowed for the overall acknowledgement that the implementation of best practices for Web accessibility-related programming works as a trigger for accessibility improvements of websites. The improvement of the anogov platform accessibility levels was a reality throughout the remaining accessibility tests performed during the duration of the project. This fact was proven when the WCAG 2.0 compliance level A was reached when the project ended and the final version of the platforms was achieved. Besides assuming the requirement for achieving a WCAG 2.0 level A compliant public e-procurement platform, the teams associated with the project also intended to ensure that a minimum level of simplicity and ease of use was available for all platform

7 users. In order to ensure this reality at the same time as all feature developments, several usability manual tests [22, 23] were performed, using both IT/IS experts and simple administrative personnel. The feedback obtained from these usability tests allowed for design and functional changes during the process of feature development and also allowed for significant savings in time and effort (compared to having to perform all changes after the full feature development). 5 Final Considerations The anogov-peppol project was initially defined as a project that would allow for a customization of an existing public e-procurement platform to integrate with Europe s PEPPOL program. In addition to this initial goal, ANO, in association with UTAD University, defined extra goals by assuming that ANOs public e-procurement platform should also be WCAG 2.0 level A compliant (ensuring that it was accessible to a wide range of users) and easy and simple to use. By assuming a stage-based work methodology the R&D project was executed without any schedule problems or deviations and with all initial goals achieved. This work methodology, created specifically for the project, proved to be the correct one for this type of development. With the execution of this project, and in addition to the platform developments that completely integrated it with PEPPOL and made it WCAG 2.0 level A compliant, ANO also seized the opportunity to improve the technical abilities of its collaborators and their standards of good-practices, and UTAD also acknowledged a wide range of knowhow on how to develop and manage public e-procurement platforms. Acknowledgements This paper was supported by the project anogov PEPPOL, Nº , financed by the European Regional Development Fund, through the North Operational Programme by the Systems of Incentives for Research and Technological Development. 6 References 1. Moon, M., E-procurement management in state governments: diffusion of e- procurement practices and its determinants. Journal of Public Procurement, (1): p Corsi, M., E-procurement overview. 2006, OECD. 3. Farmer, D., et al., Procurement, Principles and Management. 2008: Pearson Education. 4. Ndou, V., E-government for developing countries: opportunities and challenges. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries,

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