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Leveraging SMEs’ strengths for INSPIRE

Dialogue session at Geospatial World Forum,

Rotterdam (NL)16.05.2013

SEIS & INSPIRE IN ACTION

Giacomo Martirano (Epsilon Italia)g.martirano@epsilon-italia.it

2/14SUMMARY

Who we are and what we are doing (in brief)

Tips to stimulate the dialogue session debate ˗ The main barriers we identified˗ Barriers seen as challenges˗ Turning challenges into opportunities

3/14Who we are (in brief)

We are a small enterprise specialized in geospatial technologies

We are based in South Italy We are deeply involved in EU co-

funded projects dealing with geospatial information in general and with INSPIRE implementations in particular

4/14What we are doing (in brief)

We are implementing SEIS using INSPIRE˗ We are involved in the execution of a

contract for the implementation at national level of SEIS (Shared Environmental Information System) for 5 themes: Air, Water, Soil, Noise and Radiation.

˗ We are responsible for the design of the SEIS theme-specific geodatabases

˗ We are focusing on INSPIRE EF DS (and on O&M), so more on the data “production” side of the data chain

5/14The main barriers we identified

Organizational barriers (within the consortium and with the Client)

Technical barriers

Financial barriers

6/14The main barriers we identified

Organizational barriers within the consortium:˗ Misalignment of technical

competencies between partners responsible for the development and further integration of project components strictly correlated.

˗ Lack of coordination, both at technical and management level

7/14The main barriers we identified

Organizational barriers with the Client:˗ Misalignment of technical

competencies between the Client and the Supplier.

˗ Heterogeinity of the organizational structures of the Client’s departments/agencies responsible for the management of the relevant geospatial information

8/14The main barriers we identified

Technical barriers:˗ Misalignment between the national

reporting obligations set by EEA and the INSPIRE obligations set by the Implementing Rules on the interoperability of spatial datasets.

˗ Complexity of data modelling activities needed to merge the many applicable schemas into one single geodatabase structure for each SEIS theme

9/14The main barriers we identified

Financial barriers:˗ Competitive tender won offering a

price much lower than the reference one (- 38 %)

˗ Unfavourable payment clauses (30% advance payment after the contract signature) and 70% balance payment at the end of a 24 months project after final acceptance of all deliverables)

10/14Barriers seen as challenges

Investing in filling-in knowledge gaps: ˗ increasing manpower allocation (in

terms of 50% FTE) in order to deepen the technical and technological aspects

˗ self-training (thorough analysis of INSPIRE DS and practice with the data transformation tools and the data harmonisation workflows)

11/14Barriers seen as challenges

Investing in filling-in communication gaps:˗ spending more effort in supporting

less aware partners and also the Client

Investing in filling-in cash-flow gaps:˗ getting from the bank an increased

credit limit

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Turning challenges into opportunities

The increased technical competencies:˗ increased our competitiveness

˗ increased our productivity

˗ created new market opportunities

13/14Conclusions

Not a sales pitch but rather a networking invitation …

14/14Conclusions

If this is the business model we are aming at …

… then join us at www.smespire.eu