2013 eu-LISA Annual Activity Report

This report contains an overview of the activities that were carried out during 2013 by the European Agency for the Operational Management of large-scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA).

It was a busy year where the main focus of the Agency was on the initial set up of the organisation, handover of the operational management of the systems from the European Commission (via a service transition plan) and the further development and implementation of the governance and operational models of the Agency.

During the course of this reporting period, the Agency successfully assumed full responsibility for the operational management of SIS II, VIS and Eurodac and is now maintaining, evolving and delivering these systems to Member States according to agreed service levels.

In addition, the Agency assumed a number of additional tasks related to migration and technical support to VISION network. Additionally, a number of projects were identified by the Agency during the course of 2013 as business-critical and continue to be implemented by eu-LISA in conjunction with the Agency’s core tasks (current projects include but are not limited to: service hand-over implementation and follow-up, specific evolutions of the VIS/BMS system, the development and implementation of a ITSM-based service framework for the Agency, the preparation for sTESTA-NG network migration, the relocation of Eurodac and preparation for the implementation of the Eurodac recast regulation).

To assist in their delivery, the Agency has set up a Project Management Office in Strasbourg in order to attempt to standardise project methodologies (the accepted eu-LISA methodology is currently PRINCE2), cut costs and improve on project delivery in terms of both time and budget.

In terms of staffing, during the reporting period the Agency achieved its target as outlined in the 2013 Establishment Plan of finalising the recruitment of all 120 temporary agent staff members. The Agency’s governance framework also continued to be developed in 2013. It now covers areas of enterprise governance, service management and enterprise architecture. Key governance bodies such as the Change Management Board, Budget and Investment Strategy committees have also now been established.

All of the organisation’s objectives and activities for 2013 were in compliance with and sought to reinforce the Agency’s primary mission to dedicate itself to continuously add value to Member States, supporting through technology their efforts for a safer Europe.

To achieve this, the Agency sought to implement its vision of providing a cohesive and cost effective approach to the delivery of systems and services by continuously meeting and exceeding stakeholders’ expectations by providing such high quality and efficient services and solutions; it also continued to attempt to build trust within its stakeholder community through the continuous alignment of technological capability with the evolving needs of Member States and also by growing as centre of excellence

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