The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first public procurement of X-Road software core development. All forthcoming EU-wide public procurements of the NIIS shall be published in the Estonian Public Procurement Register. The estimated value of forthcoming NIIS procurements is 2,5 M EUR for the contract period of three years.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian public administration and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

"This is probably the first time when a joint special purpose organization of two countries carries out a public procurement of agile software development. The X-Road is already published as open source software and the development conducted by the NIIS shall also continue as open source”, explains Ville Sirviö, CEO of the NIIS.

As a result of the procurements and other preparation by the NIIS, there shall be a development team consisiting of members from one or more companies in one or more countries, shared X-Road product backlog, development model and development tools.

“The operating model of the institute is quite unique and so are the procurement and development models we use. We are expecting to see the first X-Road software deliverables by NIIS during the second half of year 2018”, Ville Sirviö says.