Estonia announces social insurance procurement worth up to €28 million — ERR News
In Estonia, the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre TEHIK has announced a procurement for the phased shutdown of the outdated SKAIS1 social insurance information system and the migration of its services to SKAIS2 or other suitable systems. The maximum value of the framework agreement will be up to €28 million over five years, ERR News reports.
SKAIS1 is used mainly by officials, while the newer SKAIS2 supports self-service and a range of current e-services. The parallel operation of the two systems requires support for different technological environments, interfaces and processes, increasing costs, workload and technical risks.
The system is scheduled to be shut down in 2028
About 15 services are still operating in SKAIS1, with a migration path defined for each of them. The largest and most complex is the old-age pension service, which covers more than 320,000 recipients. Data must be preserved during the migration, and the old system is planned to be fully decommissioned in 2028.
The procurement has been divided into five areas: benefit and pension calculation logic, technical work for the new architecture, the financial component, user channels and common components, as well as major developments to be commissioned through separate tenders. Developments valued at more than €600,000 will be put out to tender again among the framework agreement partners.
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Transition to PostgreSQL and phased development
TEHIK also plans to update the technical platform of SKAIS2. The system will gradually move from the Oracle database platform to open-source PostgreSQL. This is expected to reduce licensing costs and technological dependence, simplify system management, and create conditions for further development and the use of cloud solutions. The transition will be carried out by separate modules rather than through one large-scale upgrade.
Before migrating services, TEHIK is to review and, where possible, simplify their logic in order not to reproduce accumulated exceptions and complex processes. The centre said the changes should reduce the amount of manual work for employees and ensure uninterrupted payment of pensions and benefits.
Responsibilities divided among three institutions
Following the troubled history of SKAIS2 development, TEHIK has defined a new management model: the Ministry of Social Affairs will be responsible for strategic direction, the Social Insurance Board for services and system needs, and TEHIK for technical solutions and development. Decisions by the steering group, deadlines and responsible persons will be documented to avoid an unclear division of roles.
Funding for the upgrade is provided for in the state budget. Work will be commissioned according to specific needs and results, so €28 million is the procurement ceiling rather than an automatic amount of expenditure.
