EUPLe using eDelivery in a Peppol Logistics Environment: a success story from Portugal
In June 2022, the eDelivery team attended the final presentation of EUPLe, an action co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union which piloted how UBL and eDelivery can be enabled in a Peppol Logistics Environment. The objectives of the project were to digitise the authorisation process for accessing certain areas of Portuguese sea ports as well as the exchange of documents among actors in the logistics sector with the help of eDelivery.
In this event, international experts presented their eDelivery-based solution for establishing digital interoperability between seaport ecosystems and the Attribute Provider in Portugal, used to obtain information regarding the professional role(s) of a person being authorised entry in the port. They also presented a working implementation of both UBL and eDelivery in a Peppol Logistics Environment where the transport and logistics chain were adapted to use eDelivery in order to exchange business documents.
The project successfully reused the same eDelivery technology to address digitisation needs in the two different domains: transport and logistics and digital identification. Using the same, interoperable transport infrastructure different documents are exchanged securely and reliably in both areas. The beneficiaries deployed five eDelivery Access Points and one Service Metadata Publisher (DomiSMP) to allow actors in the workflow to dynamically discover the capabilities of the other ones’ Access Points. This action contributed to the digitalisation of logistics sector that is still heavily based on paper and data retyping along established transport and logistics chains.
« Proved open-source software provided by the European Commission allowed to speed up the development and implementation of the solution. The eDelivery building block gives a strong advantage to SMEs to create innovative solutions avoiding development from scratch. »
Rui Barros, Co-Founder and CEO of MITMYNID
The first component of the project – digital identification – deploys eDelivery to obtain the roles of an identified person from multiple sources. The authentication is possible through eWallet – the mobile application of the National Digital Wallet that allows individuals save and view a variety of their identification cards at any time. eWallet allows for storing a number of identification documents, among which citizen cards, driving licenses, public servant Health Cards, military IDs, car documents, student cards and employee cards. The identity retrieved from the eWallet is combined with attributes obtained via the eDelivery channel at the JUL (Janela Única Logística, Logistics Single Window) to provide the full information required for the authorisation procedure.
JUL is the national project in Portugal that involves all 23 Portuguese seaports and a digital ecosystem which allows all involved stakeholders to collaborate, align processes in real-time and synchronise operations. The project involves a wide range of stakeholders, including Portuguese authorities responsible for cargo and transport procedures, associations and organisations related to logistics networks and technological partners.
The second component of the project involved three European start-ups creating a digital Logistics Environment following the OpenPeppol concept to allow exchanging documents among actors in the logistics sector with the help of eDelivery. MITMYNID from Portugal, Clearview Trade from Denmark and DBE Core from Finland, high-tech companies specialised in logistics processes, digital documents and blockchain, adapted their platforms to take advantage of the eDelivery infrastructure and create a reliable and resilient interoperability environment.
The system developed within the scope of the project adopted the eDelivery Building Block as an interoperability infrastructure within the collaborative ecosystem of Portuguese ports, the Portuguese National Identification system and private providers of digital services for Logistics. The EUPLe network decided to use Domibus – the sample implementation of an eDelivery Access Point provided by the European Commission – to establish their eDelivery Access Points. As the outcome of the project, a digital Unique Port Card (Cartão Único Portuário) was developed in the National Digital Wallet for validation of citizen’s identification in harbours and for authorized access to certain harbours’ premises. The EUPLe network allows for connecting the logistics service providers with buyers and suppliers, financial institutions, and the general public (citizens).
The interoperability across the action was made possible thanks to deployment of a combination of eDelivery components (DomiSMP, DomiSML and Connectors, the five eDelivery Access Points in a four-corner model, the usage of eDelivery for eFTI National Access Points) and a blockchain component.
With the achieved results of this European project, new products and services are provided by the partners. MITMYNID improved the hcAP general connector which can simplify the connection between the Access Point and the backend systems, and DBE Core created one service to allow the connection between AS4 infrastructures and the blockchain based system. The Portuguese eDelivery component was established through the Public Administration Interoperability Platform (iAP).
The greatest achievement of the project is the ability to have economic operators exchanging data and documents with business partners and authorities on the private eFTI platforms, following the OpenPeppol concept, supporting the eFTI Regulation and using eDelivery.
How can you use the eDelivery building block in your own project?
eDelivery is a building block that provides technical specifications and standards, installable software and ancillary services to allow projects to create a network of nodes for secure digital data exchange.
Domibus is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery AS4 Access Point for the interoperable, secure and reliable exchange of data. It is based on the eDelivery AS4 profile, an open technical specification for the secure, web-based, payload-agnostic exchange of data or documents.
DomiSMP is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) for publishing and retrieving data necessary for an eDelivery party to dynamically configure its system for message exchange with counterparties using eDelivery. It is based on the eDelivery SMP profile, an open technical specification for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network.
DomiSML is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Locator (SML) for an eDelivery party to discover the URLs of other counterparties using eDelivery Access Points and their corresponding metadata. It is based on the eDelivery BDXL profile, an open technical specification for locating Access Points within a network.
The image used in this article is from Barett Ward on Unsplash