NIIS has selected Gofore to develop X-Road technology of Estonia and Finland

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has selected Gofore Plc in public procurement as a cooperation partner to develop X-Road data exchange layer technology. This framework agreement is made for three years, and Gofore is the sole supplier. The estimated value of the framework agreement is 2.1 M EUR.

“In the cooperation, the core components of X-Road are developed by using agile software development methods”, says Ville Sirviö, CEO of NIIS.

X-Road is an open source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information over the Internet. X-Road ensures confidentiality, integrity and interoperability between data exchange parties. 

X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian public administration (X-tee) and in the Finnish Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer (Suomi.fi-palveluväylä) service. Finland's and Estonia's data exchange layers were connected to one another in February 2018.

“This new contract with NIIS is strategically very important to us. We are very excited to be involved in building the digital society and developing cross-border cooperation”, says Timur Kärki, Managing Director of Gofore Plc.

Estonia and Finland explore ways to bring next digital components under joint development by the NIIS

The governments of Estonia and Finland convened together for the first time in history on 7th May 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia. The jubilee meeting reached agreement on many concrete measures by which digital connections between Estonia and Finland will be enhanced.

The governments decided to explore ways to bring next digital service infrastructure components under joint development into the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions, and to support the Institute in efforts to find new member countries.

The goverments also decided to ensure and take all the necessary actions that the ongoing data-exchange projects shall be completed in due time in 2018 and 2019, and the use-cases and roadmaps in next data exchange areas shall be identified by end of 2018.

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions is currently completing its first public procurement and starting development activities of the X-Road data exchange layer technology.

Estonia and Finland launch a public procurement of X-Road software core development

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.

Petteri Kivimäki appointed CTO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Petteri Kivimäki has been appointed Chief Technology Officer of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) starting from 22nd February 2018. Before joining the NIIS, Petteri has been working as a software architect in a leading global professional services company. Petteri holds a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

During years 2014–2017 Petteri worked at the Population Register Centre of Finland as an information systems manager. He was the technical lead of X-Road implementation project in Finland and was coordinating the joint open source development of the X-Road solution between Finland and Estonia.