A Service-oriented Integration Platform to Support a Joined-up E-government Approach: The Uruguayan Experience

E-Government Platforms have become a key tool to support the development of e-government in many countries. They usually provide infrastructure and services that facilitate the interconnection between the information systems of public agencies, provide common services that generate economy of scale, and encourage the implementation of multi-agency services. In particular, the Uruguayan E-Government Platform has the general goal of enabling and promoting the development of e-government services in Uruguay. The platform, which follows a joined-up approach, consists of an Interoperability Platform and a set of Crosscutting Services. It implements a service-oriented architecture, leveraging the Web Services technology, to expose, use and combine government functionality implemented by public agencies. This paper presents the Uruguayan E-Government Platform focusing on two components of the Interoperability Platform: the Middleware Infrastructure and the Security System. It also evaluates its first years of operation which have shown that, although there are still many challenges to be addressed, the platform is a key enabler for developing a joined-up e-government approach in Uruguay.