Deployment of the Data Retrieval Finland service

 

The OOTS entity

The Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) is a system for exchanging register data between authorities in EU countries. OOTS consists of the Member States’ systems and the shared components of the European Commission. The KEHA Centre has implemented the Data Retrieval Finland service for Finnish e-services, enabling the e-services to join OOTS, i.e. to retrieve and receive information from the registers of other EU Member States.

The Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) is a system for exchanging register data between authorities in EU countries. 

The system consists of: 

  • e-services, registers and OOTS components of other EU Member States
  • shared components produced by the European Commission
  • Finland’s e-services, Finland’s registers and national centralised components produced by the KEHA Centre for the use of the entire public administration.

The KEHA Centre offers

  • the Data Retrieval Finland service for retrieving data and the Download service for downloading data in e-services
  • a data collection and delivery service for registers
  • the Data Preview Finland service for approving the use of the information provided to users.

The services implemented by the KEHA Centre use the Suomi.fi Identification, Authorizations and Data Exchange Layer services. In addition, the KEHA Centre uses the eDelivery Gateway implemented by the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) to deliver and receive information.

The aim of the centralised OOTS components implemented by the KEHA Centre is to minimise the costs incurred by the authorities for joining OOTS. The use of components is voluntary for the authorities, but they must fulfil the obligations of the SDG Regulation in one way or another – either by using the components or with their own technical solution.

Annex II to the SDG Regulation lists the procedures for which the e-services are obliged under the Regulation to request and receive the register information required for the procedure from other EU countries via OOTS.

You can examine the procedures of other Member States whose e-services request information via OOTS on the Commission’s Evidence Explorer website.

The KEHA Centre provides e-services with a centralised Data Retrieval Finland service and a cross-border data exchange layer for retrieving information from OOTS and the Information Download service for downloading it. Before starting the search, the user logs in to the Finnish authority’s e-service using Suomi.fi e-Identification with the eIDAS means of identification. After this, the user enters the necessary information into the e-service and starts retrieving the information from another EU country using the KEHA Centre’s Data Retrieval Finland service.

User (red arrows)

  1. A link takes the user from the authority's e-service to the KEHA Centre's Data Retrieval Finland service, where the user selects the country and register from which they want to retrieve information.
  2. The user is redirected to the Data Preview service of the other EU Member State to check which information is retrieved from the register.
  3. The user accepts or declines the delivery of the information in the Data Preview service of the other Member State and is then redirected to the Data Retrieval Finland service.
  4. The user is redirected from the KEHA Centre’s Data Retrieval Finland service either back to the authority’s e-service or to the Data Retrieval Finland service’s decision page.

Information flows (blue arrows)

  1. When the user has provided sufficient information to retrieve the data in the Data Retrieval Finland service, the KEHA Centre sends a request to retrieve the information to the Finnish eDelivery Gateway.
  2. The Finnish eDelivery Gateway submits a request for information to the eDelivery Gateway of the other EU Member State.
  3. The request for information is transferred from the eDelivery Gateway of the other EU country to the country’s Data Preview service.  
  4. The Data Preview service in the other EU Member State requests the information from the register in that Member State.
  5. The register in the other EU Member State submits the information to that country’s Data Preview service, which shows the user a preview of the information. The user can then check the information and have it delivered to the Finnish e-service.
  6. When the user has approved the delivery of the information, the Data Preview service in the other EU Member State sends the information that the user has just previewed to that country's eDelivery Gateway.
  7. The information is transferred to Finland's eDelivery Gateway.
  8. The information is transferred either to the Data Retrieval Finland service interface, where the e-service can retrieve it through the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer, or to the Information Download authority service, from which the organisation's data processors can download the information manually to their computers.