Interoperability of SME Databases from the Project Management Point of View

The term "Information Society" describes an economy and a society in which access, acquisition, storage, processing, transmission, dissemination and use of knowledge and information play a decisive role. The Information Society implies changes in all areas: administration (e-government), business (e-commerce), education (distance learning), culture (multimedia centres and virtual libraries) and working (the remote work). At the heart of these transformations is the use of the Internet. The Internet influences how we live, how business is done, how the work is done, how to study, how people interact and how to spend their free time [1], [2]. In this context, this paper purpose is to present the implementation of a project developed by the Ministry of Communication and Social Information from European funds in the sphere of project management, which is different than the management of other IT projects.


Introduction
Project management is the process of coordinating, organizing and managing interdependent activities and allocated resources to ensure that the objectives set to the required quality standards are attained, under conditions of constraints about time, resources and costs.Project management must be carried out by a team of specialists who need to have technical knowledge, knowledge of legislation, knowledge of public procurement and economic knowledge.The project manager will need to carefully plan the assignments of each team member to complete all of the steps described below during the implementation time.
In the case of public institutions implementing projects financed by European funds, project management is much more complex than the management of a project carried out by a private entity for instance.Depending on the value of the project, different stages of project management are required.For projects whose value exceeds € 50,000,000 (major project), project management is done with JASPERS [3], an entity approved by the European Commission, which will cover the project documentation for its approval by the European Union.An example is the RO-NET project, developed by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society with a value of 83.000.000EURO.Given the particular complexity of this type of projects, we will focus our attention on projects whose value is less than 50.000.000EURO and which are implemented by most governmental entities in Romania.The steps for the project manager together with his team have to go through for the implementation of such a project are as follows: These fundamental documents are: The Feasibility Study (the form being regulated by the legislation) and the Technical Project in which the technical way of implementing the approved project will be presented.From this stage, the project is also monitored by O.I.P.S.I. through a project officer; 4.These documents will be subject to the approval of the following structures: The Technical-Economic Committee of the public entity (formed by the public-sector specialists) and the Inter-Ministerial Technical and Economic Committee (if the value of the project exceeds RON 2.500.000without VAT) of ministerial representatives of all existing ministries.Prior to the approval in the Inter-Ministerial Technical and Economic Committee, the project will have to obtain a visa of the Technical Committee of Specialists, which consists of highly technically trained personnel to identify possible issues related to cyber security, interoperability [6], double funding and technological independence.5. Elaborating the Specifications -this phase involves either the declaration of the Technical Project as the Specification or the much more detailed refining of the technical implementation modalities of the project described in the Technical Project; 6.Following completion of the Specification, it will have to be re-approved by the structures de-scribed in Stage 4; Signing the contract with the winning economic operator and starting the project according to the execution schedule (the GANTT graph of the project), a graphic that is included in the specifications and in the technical offer of the economic operator; 13.Supervising the actions necessary for the development and implementation of the project.In parallel, the project management team prepares the interim reports and repayment requests required by O.I.P.S.I for the project settlement; 14.Implementation of the project ends with a public event and then signing the final acceptance by the project management team.

Content details
The Ministry of Communications and Information Society has successfully implemented the project "Development of database interoperability SMEs", a project to which we will refer in the following.
In Figure 1 is presented the system architecture implemented by the project "Development of database interoperability SMEs" -a complete interconnection of all the hardware and software components.The software implementation consists of some software modules which are described below.

Document management module
This module enables collaborative work between SMEs, between SMEs and public authorities and between public authorities.In this way, you can put together the documents required for certain activities.For example, when two or more SMEs want to participate jointly in an auction, using this module, all the involved SMEs may have access to documents produced in this regard.Another very relevant example is the case of inter-ministerial committees that can use this module for sharing documents on the working committee.
Security plays an important role in the document management module by automating the signing and approval process to any kind of document it uses inside or outside the institution.The signature system allows signing on multiple levels (counter-signatures) and multiple signatures per level (co-signatures) for perfectly mimicking a plain document.[8] Collaborative working module The role of this module is to provide a way in which two or more entities work on the same document.This module provides a chat application that allows communication via the Internet between two or more users.

Module for reports and synthesis
This module is used by public institutions for aggregating data from several ministries and getting reports to develop public policies and to support business in Romania.
GIS module -This module allows to display the map of SMEs in Romania from their registered address.
Flows Module -This module is dedicated to the automation of activities between public institutions or between SMEs.

Developed applications module
This module contains a total of 30 applications developed in partnership with eight ministries/public institutions that were partner in this project.The developed applications were divided into three main categories: Business to Business (B2B), Business to Government (B2G) and Government to Government (G2G).All applications follow the rules of automated data synchronization in distributed environments [9]. ensuring the logistical resources necessary for the implementation of all components;  continuous implementation of the principles of quality management;  periodic reports;  human capital management of the project;  applying public procurement procedures, etc.The componence of the proposed team and their responsibilities in the project: Project Coordinator Project Coordinator from the Ministry of Communications and Information Society will ensure the fulfilment of the contractual terms of the institution throughout the project.The designated person must have a full understanding of the institution's objectives in order to resolve the is-sues and conflicts of interest arising in the course of the project.Its responsibilities for project coordination are:  manages the project team to achieve its objectives;  coordinates, plans and is responsible for the efficient organization of activities approved by the project;  ensures and is responsible for the correctness, legality, necessity and timelines of operations related to project implementation;  ensure the smooth running of the project activities and the drawing up of the required documents during the process of project implementation and implementation;  ensure the confidentiality of the activities and documents produced by the project team members;  solving the problems that may arise as unforeseen circumstances, including by requesting amendments to the contractual conditions;  continuously monitoring the project's activities, evaluate the results of the project implementation according to the approved activity chart;  manages / assists the internal audit activities / programs carried out by company auditors or external auditors;  correlating actions within the project to maintain information coherence, avoid overlapping skills and limitating the effort of the project team;  establishes a communication manner with the members of the project team;  compares the progress of the project with the planned one;  supervises the Supplier's fulfilment of the obligations assumed under the signed contract;  signing the documents in accordance with the project plan;  signing the acceptances.Financial Accounting Officer must have at least the following responsibilities in the project:  is subordinated to the project coordinator;  it will draw up the accounting records and keep the accounting records in order to reflect the project's activities;  it will prepare the financial reports of the project, partial and final;  it will keep records of the documents;  it will participate in the procurement procedures for the award of contracts.

The technical team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Society
The project team will be supported by a technical team whose contribution is needed to achieve the project's objectives and maintain its effects, including the following positions:  Software Application Administrator;  Database Administrator;  Network Administrator (portal).

Project management methodology
Concretely, specific activities financed by European funds will be carried out as follows:

I. Purchases Responsible: Ministry of Communications and Information Society, supported by Technical Coordinator (TC), and Financial Accounting Officer (RFC).
The internal procurement department of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society will ensure the management of the entire procurement process, consisting of: elaborating the award documentation, launching and conducting the procurement procedure and contracting suppliers (for project management and information management consulting services; publishing, IT solutions implementation services).The procurement team has a good understanding of the current legislation, as it is primarily responsible for the procurement of goods and services necessary for the day-to-day operation of the institution.The project coordinator and his team will be responsible for carrying out the entire procurement process, both for the consultancy contract and for the procurement contract of the IT solution provider.Within the Public Procurement Compartment, the following tasks are fulfilled:  Follow-up of public procurement contracts, investment contracts, supply contracts, service con-tracts, works contracts;  Providing specialized assistance for public procurement of products and services in the field of information society and communications;  Initiation of public procurement procedures, publication of participation notices and invitations to participate in SEAP.The procedures mentioned above will be car-ried out in strict compliance with the legislation in force.

INPUT OUTPUT Information on existing IT systems
Service and Goods Contracts Technical assistance requirements Analysis of the needs and feasibility study Terms of reference and assignment documentation for services and goods

II. Financial Management Responsible: Ministry of Communications and Information Society, Financial Accounting Officer (RFC) and Project Coordinator (CP) assisted by the Consultant through Project Manager (MP) and Financial Manager (EF).
For the good management of the budget allocated to the project, until the reimbursement of the requested sums, the consultant's team will develop an expenditure register for the chronological registration of all expenditures made, broken down into eligible and ineligible, as well as details of the supporting documents and actual payment data.expenditure verification step is intended to ensure that all expenditure conducted under the project is compliant with the Applicant's Guide, the financing contract and the legislation.At the same time, the reimbursement requests which will accompany the progress reports will be submitted for approval to O.I.P.S.I.The selected Consultant team will provide support to the Ministry of Communications and Information Society in order to achieve the progress reports set out in the financing agreement.Thus, progress reports will be prepared by the Project Manager and forwarded to the Project Coordinator from the Ministry of Communications and Information Society, who will verify and sign the above-mentioned reports.Progress reports will be based on the activity reports transmitted monthly by the Project Manager and discussed the monitoring meetings.These reports will comply exactly with the requirements specified in the Applicant's Guide and in the financing agreement signed with OI.P.S.I. and will be filed with OI.P.S.I. at the deadlines set by the contract, together with all other documents expressly required by the grant agreement.

INPUT OUTPUT
Reimbursement applications that will be attached to the progress reports will be prepared by the Project Manager with the support of the Financial Officer and the reimbursement file will be prepared in accordance with the requirements specified in the contract and will contain all the supporting documents necessary to verify the eligibility of the expenditure incurred and payment.

Progress reports
The financing contract Claims for reimbursement Activity reports of Service Providers and Goods

IV. Archiving documents Responsible: Ministry of Communications and Information Society, Project Coordinator (CP) assisted by Project Manager (MP), Financial Manager (RF) and Expert Structural Funds (EF)
According to the Community regulations, the audit circuit (audit trail) is the establishment of in-formation flow, the duties and responsibilities related to it, as well as the archiving of complete supporting documentation for all stages of an action, while allowing the reconstruction of operations from the total amount to individual details and vice versa.The audit trail is therefore a chronological record of the project activities to allow the reconstruction and examination of the sequence of events and / or changes.The applicant will prepare and ensure an adequate audit trail by keeping and archiving documents so that they are not altered by human and time factors.Thus, with the support of the Consultant, the Ministry of Communications and Information Society will take the following measures:  Original copies of invoices and documents attesting payment will be kept by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society at the location of the project together with a certified copy both in paper and electronic form (CD / DVD, etc.);  The documents elaborated within the project will be kept as follows: 1 original copy and 1 copy on paper and in electronic version;  The reports, reimbursement requests and other official documents requested by the OIPSI will be drafted in an original copy and the number of copies established under the financing con-tract, to be handed over to the OIPSI, and a certified copy will be kept, at the project site;  The archiving will be done at the completion of the project, the complete file with the original documents will be kept in a protected space, together with a CD / DVD containing all the scanned documents, remaining at the location of the project during the legal archiving and retention period post-implementation).

INPUT OUTPUT Project budget and expenditure register, accounting documents -in original and certified copies
Files/cassette box, correctly inscribed and retained

The financing contract
Copy the hard copy of the project into electronic support Progress reports and reimbursement requests, other documents produced within the project The archiving procedure

V. Ensuring the visibility of the project Responsible: Ministry of Communications and Information Society, Project Coordinator (PC), assisted by Consultant through Project Manager (PM) and Expert Structural Funds (EF)
This activity has a particular importance in the dissemination of the funding opportunities made available to the public administration for the development of information systems in order to improve the quality of services to citizens and the business environment.The information and publicity activity will be in compliance with EU regulations and will be prepared by the Public In-formation and Press Relations Service of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society, together with the selected consultant, and will run throughout the project.The competencies of the Public Information Service and press relations are as follows:  Coordinating the ministry's work with the media, other institutions in the public system, with private sector organizations or civil society;  Supervising the organization and conduct of activities initiated by the ministry or in which the ministry is involved, including seminars and round tables or other actions alike, dissemination of information or public awareness; for these purposes, they may contract consultation, expertise, technical assistance, in accordance with the legal regulations in force;

INPUT OUTPUT Information and publicity plan, project information
Press releases and communicated on the website of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society Start and finish events of the project Informative flyers and posters

Minimum requirements for project management
The project management consultant to be contracted will meet the following minimum requirements: It must have specialists in the following areas: The monitoring procedure used by the management team The monitoring process involves obtaining information that allows knowledge and understanding of the project stage at a given mo-ment, as well as the trends in the activities included in the project.Monitoring can be done through discussions with the personnel involved in the project, by recording the results and the problems that have arisen, by observing the activities carried out.The ongoing monitoring of the project (monitoring activities, stage of the plans, costs, results of the project) allows reporting of its realization, thus obtaining the information whose processing supports the reporting process.The process of monitoring the contracted project management team will include, but is not limited to, the following:  Delivering timely documents and reports, respecting the requirements of the Applicant's Guide, the Financing Agreement and its annexes, the European procedures, the relevant Romanian legislation, the plan of activities and the deadlines set and submitted for approval to the Beneficiary;  Information / publicity activities (for audit and information and publicity services where applicable) are implemented according to the information / publicity plan and in accordance with the Visual Identity Manual;  The procurement activities are finalized according to the project planning, being implemented according to the Romanian legislation;  Progress reports based on project activity reports provided by the Consultant are approved by OI PSI;  Reimbursement claims submitted to the OIPPI.and developed with the assistance of the Project Manager;  The quality and transparency of the archiving and recording system will be monitored through the ease of access of the specialists who will perform the partial and final technical and financial audits of documents, equipment and solutions and technologies.The consultant's team, the internal team of the institution and the Project Coordinator will meet twice a month in a two-hour session so that the information discussed can be transmitted, assimilated and implemented within a short period of time.Bilateral monitoring sessions will be finalized with some minutes that will be signed by all participants and will be archived in the original.Copies of the minutes will be sent to each participant and the measures implemented will be dis-cussed at the opening of the next meeting.Project monitoring will follow the criteria specified above and will be consistent for both team members to implement the project, both Consultant representatives and employees of the institution.This activity will be based exclusively on quantifiable data, indicators and sources of pre-approved verification at the start of the project, when the Project Plan and project milestones were based on the minutes of the meetings the previous monitoring and on the terms and conditions set out in other documents elaborated within the project (procurement plan, information and publicity plan etc.).

Conclusions
Project implemented by the Ministry for Information Society is open and scalable so that its further development will be very easy to do.The new electronic services will become available to all users, because there will be an adequate infrastructure, the deployment will be centralized and the integration will follow the European standards.Each user will have a unique identity to all services due to secure authentication.Costs for SMEs and Central Administration will be reduced because the project offers:  Common infrastructure;  Reduced processing times;  Eliminate redundancy;  Guaranteed quality and safety services.The economic agencies will provide access to two types of information:  public -general information and public documents, schedules, operating committee's powers of government structures;  private -dedicated application providing the possibility of creating a direct and secure connection with public administration, where personal access data that are used or required are protected.The project "Development of database interoperability SMEs" was successfully implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society and all the amounts invested by the Romanian state were fully reimbursed by the European Commission following all the stages described by this paper.Project teams need to have knowledge in areas such as public procurement, finance, European and technical funds, due to the fact that the Romanian Public Procurement Law contains over 1000 articles and the European funds legislation besides the laws governing public finances must be taken into consideration.This is a main reason which leads to difficulties in the implementation of projects financed by European funds.At the present moment, there are no complex courses presenting all the stages of implementation for a project funded by European funds, starting with the preparation of the documentation for the submission of a project and finishing with the reimbursement and the sustainability of the project.The published guidelines were incomplete or they were treating certain sections of this ample process, for

Fig 1 .
Fig 1. Project implementation scheme for SMEs and Actors

Table 2 .
The timetable for monitoring activities