Business case

The aim of e-SENS is to facilitate the deployment of cross-border digital public services through generic and re-usable technical components. These components or building blocks for e-ID, e-Documents, e-Delivery and e-Signatures provide the foundation for cross-border administrative e-services and digital transactions between public administrative bodies, or between them and European citizens and businesses. The generic character of the building blocks means that they have enormous potential to facilitate many cross-border administrative processes, in different domains like health, justice, procurement, business and others, and therefore can provide huge benefits. Significant savings related to streamlining communication between businesses/citizens and public bodies can be expected.

Pilot related business case

The savings in time, maintenance, coordination and infrastructure are estimated at hundreds of millions of euros across the entire Single Market. Based on an analysis carried out within e-SENS, supported by calculations made by countries implementing the building blocks, cost savings compared to the traditional paper document flow are estimated at 23 billion euros across the EU. Numbers vary depending on the domain, the complexity of the services delivered, as well as the national infrastructures in place. Some examples can be given on the basis of the experiences of those countries participating in the e-SENS project.

In the Business Registration case it was estimated the costs could be reduced by up to 40%, while the gains from reducing paper document exchanges is estimated at €30/document and translation cost gains at €15/document. Looking at the e-Justice area, in the European Account Preservation Order, the travel costs for expert business trips to other Member States could be reduced by an estimated €61M and the recovery of cross border debt could actually provide additional resources to SMEs. Furthermore, the travel costs for parties involved in legal disputes across borders could be cut down by €4.5M and almost 7,500 hours less work for courts and administrations in analyzing certificates, as demonstrated the family law pilot. The estimations of the e-Agriculture pilot show that digital certificates for farmers could save 400 hours a year in the time needed to complete applications. In e-Procurement domain significant savings, up to 120 billion per annum, could be introduced to public sector by enabling cross-border e-Tendering. Moreover, managing fewer complaints and litigations would result in annual savings of 175 person/days, and the savings from a quicker digital process are estimated at €30M/year, with benefits for bidders in the EU amounting to €3.51M. The more effective and easier tendering process is also expected create greater competition and hence better price/quality. Additionally, digital invoicing is 60-80% more efficient than the same paper-based process. In the same area, dispute management resulting from cross border interactions could also be reduced by 8 billion euro.

Building Block related business case

The e-SENS building blocks are suitable for integration into existing systems in EU Member States and Associated Countries, and can power all kinds of public services. In the infographics available below, we present the direct and measurable benefits related to the implementation of particular IT components.

Read more about e-SENS business cases in the Deliverable 3.8 White Paper here.