During the last few years there has been an increase in Local bodies purchasing on the MePa - the PA Electronic Market, for the purpose of procuring goods and services such as electronic voting systems as well as technological tools that they must have for their own activities.
According to the last Istat (Italian Institute of Statistics) report, dedicated to "Information technologies and local PA communication" products are already being purchased more and more frequently via technological platforms of e-procurement the electronic market, used by 92,4% of the local administrations with an increase of almost 30% compared to 2012.
The data published by the Italian Institute of Statistics confirm the on-growing importance reached by MePa, the virtual marketplace of the Consip (Authority for Public Information Systems), on behalf of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to negotiate contracts for supplying goods and services using digital signatures.
Eurel aware of the opportunities offered by this tool, has already been present on MePa for many years. More and more clients in fact rely on this e-procurement platform to acquire or renew their information systems, as for example, the Como Municipality for the overall re-designing of the Integrated Multimedia System in their Council Hall.
According to the data on ISTAT local administrations are exploiting new technologies more and more also because of the undeniable greater financial advantage as well as cutting costs for Public Administrations. Compared to 2012, for example, not only do they adopt the e-procurement modality of use but e-learning platforms as well (risen from 12.3% to 34.5%) and cloudcomputing services from 10.5% to 2.7%).
The survey performed by Istat for the purpose of analyzing the penetration rating of the local PA's has further shown that there are more and more Bodies who have decided to invest in an office specially dedicated to ICT. All the autonomous Regions and Provinces and 85.5% of the Municipalities with over 60 thousand inhabitants are involved.
This significant signal emphasizes how much the support of digital technologies has already become indispensable for Public Administration activities. This phenomenon has involved not only offices and the bureaucratic apparatus of the administrative machine but even the places where the fulcrum of all the democratic activities are performed not to mention the participation of citizens: Municipal, Provincial and Regional Councils.
Automating works performed in assembly halls and hemicycles is, in fact, already a reality for all local bodies ranging from the largest to the smallest, also thanks to the use of wide band connection and mobile technologies.
The present digital revolution is therefore changing drastically Public Administration interaction modalities and commercial relationships offering those, who are capable of taking advantage, new opportunities related to growth and innovation.
