Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Entwicklung von Zukunftsszenarien, anhand derer die Entwicklung der Technik und des Einsatzes elektronischer Signaturen im europäischen eGovernment im Jahr 2020 untersucht werden kann. Mit Hilfe der Ergebnisse im Vergleich zur aktuellen Situation soll ein Forschungsplan entworfen werden, der vorhandene Lücken schließt und die Weiterentwicklung des Themas auf die zukünftigen Veränderungen unserer Gesellschaft vorbereitet.
Public electronic procurement (eProcurement), here electronic sourcing (eSourcing) in particular, is almost certainly on the agenda when eGovernment experts meet. Not surprisingly is eProcurement the first high-impact service to be addressed in the European Union- recent Action Plan. This is mainly dedicated to the fact that public procurement makes out almost 20% of Europe- GDP and therefore holds a huge saving potential. To some extent this potential lies in the common European market, since effective cross-boarder eSourcing solutions can open many doors, both for buyers and suppliers. To achieve this, systems and processes and tools, need to be adoptable, transferable as well as be able to communicate with each other. In one word, they need to be interoperable. In many relevant domains, interoperability has reached a very positive level, standards have been established, workflows been put in place. In other domains however, there is still a long road ahead. As a consequence it is crucial to define requirements for such interoperable eSourcing systems and to identify the progress in research and practice.