In 1993, the Italian government created the Authority for Information Technology in the Public Administration to promote innovation by defining the criteria for implementing and managing the Italian Public Administration's information systems. Its Unitary Network provides interconnection services to individual public administrations (PAs). A more ambitious objective is implementing a "secure intranet" that connects all Italian PAs.

Developing an evolutionary architecture to integrate large heterogeneous systems poses another challenge. Although these systems support vertical applications, exporting their services requires reengineering their technological services and administrative processes. The goal is to establish an architecture that coordinates information exchange among government information systems while maintaining each organization's autonomy.

The authors emphasize the importance of cooperation among administrations to develop an iterative, cyclic process considering the constraints imposed by organizational differences in size, culture, and management rules.