4. Conclusions
We were interested in understanding how COTS software in- fluences the procurement of ATS systems in state-owned organizations. To that end, we conducted an initial client-centered study on the Spanish Automated Air Traffic Control System (SACTA) in ENAIRE, one of the major European ANSPs. The results revealed that some of the governing factors identi- fied in our preliminary approach to the case are not new, for example the need to optimize resources in a liberalized ATS environment, the complexity of certification processes, the value of the service experience and the lack of knowledge about COTS software, being the difficulties of ENAIRE to accurately estimate the economic benefit of COTS software integrations in SACTA the most relevant factor. However, the inflexibility of the public procurement system, the existence of natural monopolies and the possible reluctance of the end user to change SACTA for a COTS-based ATS system are emerging themes that were identified through our research. All these factors seem to hinder the incursion of COTS software with ATS functionalities into SACTA, especially the persistence of an old natural monopoly due to the long record of experience between the provider (Indra) and the client (ENAIRE).
