Back office organizing and rationalizing is a fundamental enabler for improving the offering of services from the Public Administration to Citizens and Enterprises: The objective is improving effectiveness and timeliness, while complying with the existing legislation, ensuring safety and preserving privacy.

The DOCAREA project aims to become a practical example of this principle. it already counts among its supporting members more than 250 Public Administrations (Provinces, Municipalities and the Emilia Romagna Region) belonging to northern, central and southern regions.

DOCAREA will realize the technological and organizational infrastructure of the document management back office. While preserving their operational autonomy, the participating Administrations will share technical solutions and best practices covering the entire document flow. Highlights of the project include:

• Complete coverage of the document life cycle, from creation as a non-formal document, to transmission to the current archive as formally registered Administrative papers, to their preservation in the deposit archive, where they must be kept for 40 years before transitioning to the historical archive.
• High performance management of digital documents including their validation according to the current legislation, digital signing, archival and preservation. Documents in the system can be exchanged within the organization or with external entities, both members of the DOCAREA network or completely separated.
• Cutting edge technology: EDMS installation, integration with document numbering systems, user authentication, digital signature, certified mail, optical archiving, integration with work flow management systems.
• Compliance with the legislation and current archiving practices, thanks to the cooperation with the “Archival Superintendence of Emilia Romagna”. The project also strives to minimize its impact on the current organization of the Administrations. This is extremely important, considering the lack of case history in the field.