The Albacete Provincial Council becomes the first in Spain to be certified in the National Security Scheme (ENS)

The client 

The Albacete Provincial Council has historically been a public administration that has generated technological solutions, both for its own management and for that of the municipalities in its province.

In 2014, it created the Sedipualb@ e-Government Public Platform, shared under the Software as a Service (SaS) modality with hundreds of public administrations in up to 11 autonomous communities throughout Spain.   

*In the photograph: José Joaquín de Haro Navarro, Jefe de Servicio de  Modernización Administrativa y TIC; Juan Ramón Marcobal, del Servicio de Modernización Administrativa and TIC de la Diputación de Albacete; and José Francisco Bonet, Business Development Manager in Applus+ Certification.

The challenge 

Its dedication to its service and innovation has made the Provincial Council of Albacete an example of technological reuse and inter-administrative collaboration under the legal framework created by Law 40/2015 (art. 157.3). However, as is to be expected, in a context where a large number of entities reuse and manage sensitive information, security becomes especially important, both for the Provincial Council and for the entities and citizens who use its services.  

The solution  

Certification in the National Security Scheme (ENS) allows public administrations to ensure adequate protection of citizens' information, in addition to standardising security treatment and interacting more easily with other institutions.   

Applus+ Certification specialists carried out a detailed audit to verify that the processes and electronic media used by the council complied with the requirements set out in the ENS. This step was the key to certification.  

During the process, it was of vital importance to understand that the Albacete Provincial Council is not a typical administration. What needed to be taken into account was the huge number of ICT services it provides to other public administrations and entities, in order to generate a work plan adapted to the expectations of those in charge.  

The result  

Now certified, the Albacete Provincial Council not only complies with the law, but it has added an extra layer of confidence to its processes for both its public and private users.  

As José Joaquín de Haro Navarro, Head of the Administrative Modernisation and ICT Service of the Albacete Provincial Council, points out, "Applus+ Certification has become a real ally. It has been an important one for moving forward in such an important task as the generation of a trust and security framework for our ICT solutions provision environment, understanding the particularities of our organisation and the services we provide".