What is PITER?

Emilia-Romagna's Telematic Plan (PiTER) is the main planning tool of Emilia-Romagna Region, and more generally speaking of local administrations within the regional territory, with the aim ofto fostering the territorial development of information society. The programme is a concrete contribution to the fulfilling of objectives established by the Lisbon Agenda, intending to make of the European Union the most competitive and dynamic economy of the world, through the development of the information society.

PiTER planning takes place every three years through the definition of specific Guide Lines, in compliance with provisions of regional Law 11/2004 “Development of Information Society”. The law has been issued by  Emilia-Romagna Region with the aim of promoting - together with the system of local authorities - ICT potential in view of supporting knowledge-based society and the development of a digital administration at the service of people and local businesses.

The Guide Lines are the reference points for the definition of annual operative programmes. With these programmes, the Region and local authorities define specific intervention actions and the budgets for their implementation. 

The latest Guide Lines refer to the three-year period 2007-2009 and were passed by the legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna in May 2007. For their implementation Emilia-Romagna Region and local authorities have earmarked an investment budget of circa 200 million Euro.

The latest PiTER operative Programme refers to 2009 and was passed by the regional Council in June  2009.

PiTER 2007-2009 pursues the following main objectives:

• promoting a wider and more articulated information society, by focussing not only on technological features, but also on specific cultural and training initiatives;
• building a community network of local authorities, in order to assure equal opportunities of growth and development, as well as a more effective actions against the  digital divide, within the entire regional territory.

In order to reach these objectives, planning has been defined by keeping in mind the following principles and features:

• regional - and not by the Region - planning
  all local authorities are directly involved in the definition and development of projects, and this makes them truly suitable for local needs; their participation does not entail only decision-making, but also accountability in terms of reached results;
• multi-sector - not vertical - planning
  the definition of objectives comprises all ICT activities and projects planned by the different Directorates-General and healthcare trusts (healthcare, production activities, tourism, education, labour, environment, ….): thus, overlapping is avoided and there is a convergence around common objectives;
• inclusive planning, supporting local authorities
  in order to avoid overlapping of investments and to make back offices truly inter-operative, the identification, coordination and procurement of technological services take place by considering availability and needs of local agencies, in particular, smaller administrations, which need extra support to digitalize their activity;
• constantly monitored planning
  an IT system is specifically designed to follow the progress of individual projects co-funded in the operative plans; this enables to track in real time what has already been accomplished and reached results, in order to act - if required - to make needed modifications.