Toon Timbermont

Want to tackle your backlog of dossiers?

What should I put in this form? Why do I need to fill in this data again? Why does it take so long to get an answer on my request? Every single one of us recognizes these frustrations when thinking about the administrative procedures when dealing with our electricity provider, at the city hall, in the hospital, etc. 

But why is this still the case? How come that - in the digital age we are living in today - these problems still occur? This post will give you some insight into these questions and outlines how administration can be simplified.

> "Smart simplification requires breaking through the barriers of digital paper"

## Paper paradigms
Throughout history, paper has shaped our view on information modelling and sharing - so much so, that many digital processes and documents of today still rely on the paper paradigms:

1. When you scroll through a word or pdf document, you see 1 page at a time, in a fixed lay-out; you need to browse through the pages sequentially to discover the content, even though certain parts are not relevant to you;Sharing documents via mail is like carrying around paper. If many people need to receive the information, you make standalone copies that never get updated after the distribution;
2. In too many digital contexts, changes are made by a person on a standalone copy - without any side effect on the other copies, forcing anyone who needs a merged version to do the complex job of “diffing & merging”, i.e. finding the differences between versions and creating one common version;
3. Only very few digital applications link to relevant knowledge existing on other pieces of paper. It is up to the author or reader to spend time in the “digital library” and hopefully find something useful;

In a recent article, Forbes pinpoints the limitation of simply porting the solutions from paper to screens.

The problem with digital paper comes when you are using it for repeatable processes in which knowledge is created that could be of greater value and could be shared & operationalised.

This certainly applies to administrative processes and documents. So, any endeavour addressing administrative complexity should take this into account. True simplification and better service means a digital approach that goes beyond the paper paradigms.

## Break through
We see 4 ways to break through the barriers of digital paper.

### (1) Separate Structure from Lay-out
Information that lives in your process or documents must be usable for different purposes. Sometimes you need the nitty gritty details, sometimes you need the overview. At any time, you want actionable reporting.

To have this flexibility, separation between the data structure and the lay-out is needed. Indeed, if the data is present in a (semi-)structured format, different lay-outs, filtering and reporting can be applied.

### (2) Activate Deep Integration
Nobody likes to ask people for the same information over and over again. Rather, you want to reuse information that is already present. And you want to be able to integrate newly captured data in your further processing.

As a result, integration must happen in 2 directions: inbound integration that enables maximal reuse of the data that is already available and outbound integration to provide other systems with the data needed for operational tasks.

### (3) Allow Seamless Collaboration
With the digitisation of processes and documents, people expect a clear view on the progress of administrative processes, they demand quick reactions and expect short execution cycles.

As an organisation running these administrative processes, you want to make the best use of your collaborators’ time. To realize this, the process must be collaborative by nature and maximize parallel work.

### (4) Harvest Existing Knowledge
A lot of existing bodies of knowledge can be very useful as further assistance to users when they complete documents. The challenge lies in providing relevant information at the right moment.

Technologies from the semantic web, natural language processing and data mining are available today and allow existing knowledge to be harvested during the administrative process and/or when the user is completing the document.

> "Technology is ready to further reduce the (digital) hassle and improve your service"

Technology is now at a point that allows breaking through the barriers of digital paper.

In a first round of digitisation, the paper paradigms were used as the reference. This was not only the case because technology limited the possibilities, but also because of our overall affinity with the “paper way of doing things”.

Today’s technology allows us to go further: it can support smart simplification to administrative processes and documents. Now it is up to all of us to realise this simplification

Blogpost - digital paper.jpg

But why is this still the case? How come that - in the digital age we are living in today - these problems still occur? 

Four ways to break through the barriers of digital paper

The idea of a Proof of Concept (POC) is slowly but surely finding its way to digital government projects. Before you buy or develop a software solution, you test if the project you have in mind is the right answer to your needs. In a limited period of time, you do a dry-run of the project and create a simplified version of the solution. You only focus on the key features, use dummy data, etc. 

But why should you consider it? Here are the 5 reasons why you need a POC when initiating a digital government project.

### 1. Change management 
Introducing new software has a big impact on your team, costs, day-to-day work, etc. A POC gives you the chance to involve a mix of people with different responsibilities in the early stage of the project. They can be the ambassadors throughout the project and will help you to make it a success.   

### 2. You’ll have proof
As a result of the POC, you’ll have a working application that shows the potential of digitalisation. It’s tested with the end-users and you can already show the value and impact of the project. It’s proof that will be difficult to argue against. It will help you to convince your head of department, politicians and other stakeholders. 

### 3. Fail fast, learn faster 
After the POC, you’ll have a better idea of the constraints and challenges of the project. This is the moment where you can adjust the idea and implementation without any big risks. Should you limit the scope? Did you have the correct IT solution in mind? Adjusting these when the project is up and running will be, as you know, very difficult. 

### 4. Helps you to make your business case
You’ll get a better idea of the priorities and requirements of the solution. During the POC you’ll gather a lot of input to set out the project roadmap and timeline. You’ll get an idea of the feasibility of the project and its costs. 

### 5. Dry-run at a low cost
Avoid spending a lot of money on something that is not viable. If your manager is not completely convinced of the solution, your chances to receive the estimated budget are low. Try to convince him/her to do a dry-run at a low cost. Once you have proof that the solution is viable, you’ll have a leg to stand on during the budget negotiations.

To wrap up: A POC helps you to draw a first project roadmap and cost estimation, reduces the risk of failure of the end-solution and is an important driver for change. All of this reached in a limited period of time and at a low cost. 

## What do you think?
Is a POC at the start of your project something you would consider? What questions do you have on doing a POC? Send us an [email](mailto:info@skryv.com) or leave us a [message](/contact).


Blogpost - 5 reasons you need a POC.svg

The idea of a Proof of Concept (POC) is slowly but surely finding its way to digital government projects. But why should you consider it? Here are the 5 reasons why you need a POC when initiating a digital government project.


The 5 reasons why you need a POC at the start of your digital gov project

The head of the department asks you to find a solution for the piling backlog of dossiers. You are excited to get going, but where do you start? 

You want to start by finding the root cause of the problem. A key mistake managers make is treating the symptoms of a problem instead of tackling its root cause. Many techniques can help you find the root cause, e.g. Pareto charts, fishbone diagrams… But do not forget the easy and yet effective method: the “5 Whys” approach.

## What's 5 whys?
As the name suggests, you need to ask why over and over again, much like a toddler. This might seem stupid at first, but it forces you not to make any assumptions about the underlying issue. This way you will be able to capture much more information from all stakeholders involved. Which will, in turn, allow you to make a better assessment of the problem at hand. 

Depending on your problem or the answers you receive, it might be needed to ask “Why” a couple more times. Less is however very rare, except for the simplest of problems.

## An example: backlog of dossiers
Let’s look at an example. Your government agency has a huge backlog of premium requests. You want to analyse why, so you decide to use the 5 Whys approach. 

“We have a huge backlog of files”

- Why? Dossiers keep piling up.
- Why? We receive 200 dossiers per day but are only processing 140 per day.
- Why? The productivity of the case manager has decreased from 10 to 7 dossiers a day. 
- Why? Treating dossiers has become a lot more difficult.
- Why? There are a lot of exceptions in the new ruleset. 

Because of the complexity of the ruleset, evaluating dossiers takes more time, which results in a piling backlog. Based on this analysis you may decide to invest in rule automation to accelerate the treatment process and support the case managers. It will allow the case managers to spend more time treating dossiers instead of figuring out the rules. This example demonstrates why using the 5 Whys approach is a great way to analyse problems in your business process. 

Without the 5 Whys, you might have decided that your head of department needed to hire more employees. This would not have solved the root cause of the problem, as there was no capacity problem but it was the complex ruleset that slowed down the progress. The 5 Whys approach forces you to keep asking questions which allowed you to identify the root cause of the problem. Knowing the root cause, you were able to find a much more efficient solution to the problem.

## Key takeaways
Analyzing a problem is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time there are a lot of different stakeholders and not all knowledge is readily available. 
When using the 5 Whys approach you cannot make any assumptions about the problem beforehand. This allows you to get a better understanding of the environment you are in.

## What do you think?
Do you feel like you know a bit more about how you can find the root cause of a problem? What questions do you have about the 5 whys approach and defining a problem in general? Send us an [email](mailto:info@skryv.com) or leave us a [message](/contact).

Blogpost - 5 whys.jpg

The head of the department asks you to find a solution for the piling backlog of dossiers. You are excited to get going, but where do you start? Start by finding the root cause of the problem with the 5 whys approach. 

How to conquer the backlog of dossiers? Find the root cause with the 5 Whys approach.

Well, we’re obviously not referring to Oslo, the capital of Norway. No, we’re referring to OSLO, the Open Standard for Linked Governments (Overheden). OSLO is standardising the way local, provincial and regional governments inter-operate in Flanders. Read here what OSLO is, how it is put into practice, and what Skryv does to ensure OSLO-compliancy.

## A dispersed government landscape
The Government landscape in Belgium and Flanders is very dispersed. There are local governments, provincial governments, regional governments (e.g. Flanders) and a federal government. Each of these levels is responsible for its own set of services (cfr. the product catalogue of Flanders), but these services obviously don’t operate in isolation.

Services concerning a similar topic can play at different government levels and similar services require similar information. Indeed, if we take the example of the adaptation of a home, we notice there are different compensations foreseen at different government levels. When we take a closer look at these individual compensations, we notice they all require similar data, such as personal data, address data, home-ownership data, etc.

Despite the overlap in services and information needed, there is little to no exchange between the different government levels. Additionally, public service descriptions delivered through e-Government portals are usually unstructured and not machine-readable. This impacts the quality and the efficiency of public service provision, increases the administrative burden and makes public service provision more costly.

## OSLO = semantic interoperability
With OSLO, it becomes possible to ensure that the similar data that is required at the different levels is always standardised in the same way. Indeed, OSLO is a semantic standard, ensuring that the different levels become interoperable and can exchange the common structured information.

OSLO covers the following information domains: person data, company data, contact information and address & location data. For each of these domains, the OSLO standard defines the standard data elements, with their structure and their properties.

We note that for most of these information domains (all except for contact information), authentic sources are available. The OSLO standard is a superset of these authentic sources, and as such stimulates reuse of data from authentic sources, incorporates the only-once principle and ensures interoperability.

## OSLO at Skryv
At Skryv, we ensure compliancy with OSLO in two ways.

First, we ensure that all data from the aforementioned domains is structured according to the OSLO-standards in our Skryv applications whenever needed. When person data is used in a Skryv application, it is possible to model this person data according to the OSLO standard. The same goes for company data, contact information and address & location data.

Secondly, we provide the required connectors with the authentic sources, to ensure that this data is reused and is only asked once (the famous only once principle). Indeed, Skryv can easily integrate with

- CRAB: for adress data
- KBO: for company data
- National registry: for person data
- GRB: for location data
- Cadastre: for home data

By doing this, Skryv provides deep integration with the government landscape, by making sure that data from authentic sources is only asked once, is automatically pre-filled and is structured according to the OSLO standards for optimal exchange of information.

Blogpost - Oslo standards capital of flanders.jpg

OSLO is standardising the way local, provincial and regional governments inter-operate in Flanders. Read here what OSLO is, how it is put into practice, and what Skryv does to ensure OSLO-compliancy.

OSLO is the capital of Flanders

We are living in a digital era. Everything changes faster and there are new requirements around how agile your business is. Agile development and continuous integration are key enablers for this, but how to get to this agility when you have workflow-driven applications? That have long-running instances?

In this blog post, I'll explain how workflow migrations help to reach the business agility required by more and more public agencies.

## Volatile requirements ask for an agile business

Each public administration has to deal with requirements from different stakeholders. Think about citizens that want to (digitally) interact with your department to request a subsidy or to know where a recognition as a certified professional is.

These use cases often use workflows (modelled in BPMN, CMMN or a combination) to underpin the digital applications for these uses cases. And during the project, you model the workflow with the information you have.

Soon, you'll find out that the requirements are volatile:

- Regulations may change;
- Requirements of the user may not be as clear as you'd like or workflows may not run as smooth as you thought they would (even if you've involved users early on and ran all possible user tests, real production usage will still be a critical source of learning & improving);
- Time constraints or external deadlines may force you to model only the 1st phases of your workflow, as a 'minimal viable product'.

In the "waterfall" world, you would try going back to the initial list of signed off requirements, but this model no longer works. Agile development, involving (business) users and providing short feedback loops to get early feedback has changed the rules of the game. Continuous integration and continuous delivery have also pushed this to the release cycle beyond the project team.

## How to make your workflow-driven applications agile?


### 1/ Readable workflows

Have readable workflow designs and decompose your workflow in small units. Understanding the workflows is the basis to assess the impact of workflow migrations. So pay attention to the workflow design. Use logical separation between a high-level end-to-end workflow and the relevant sub-levels. What we typically see is that the overall lifecycle of the case is modelled in BPMN, calling various sub-workflows (BPMN) or expert work phases (CMMN).

### 2/ Right tooling to support workflow migration

Change is inevitable, so you will be faced with workflow migrations. Make sure you foresee the workflow and tooling to support workflow migration

- As part of your release cycle, foresee time and people to do the workflow migration
- Ideally, your tooling foresees in a (visual) migration, showing you the impact.

Similar to the continuous delivery of code, small changes are easier to release than big changes. So do not hesitate to release early and often. A small change will likely affect less running workflows and make the number of interventions smaller.

### 3/ Think about data migration as well

Workflows always manipulate data in one or another form. So do not forget to consider that as well!

*Source image: Camunda cockpit*

## What do you think?

What challenges do you run into during workflow migrations? What is your view on an agile business with workflow-driven applications? Want to read more about this topic? Let us know via [email](mailto:info@skryv.com) or send us a [message](/contact).

blog-skryv-camunda-cockpit.png

Our fast-changing environment asks for an agile public administration. Requirements are volatile and digital applications need to follow. This article explains how you bring agility to workflow-driven applications.


How to make your workflow-driven applications agile?

On the 14th of November, I joined investors, public servants and other start-ups at the second GovTech Summit in Paris. An event that gathers various international speakers to discuss today's state of GovTech. Below you'll read my 4 takeaways of the day:

## 1. We passed the POC phase

We passed the POC phase of digital transformation. We now need to keep improving and update what is already there. Increase the knowledge of technology and opt for projects with easy implementation. In other words how Lisa Witter phrased it: "*We are making the boring work well*".

## 2. Policy entrepreneurs

My second takeaway is about the pledge for more policy entrepreneurs in government. The meaning is two-folded. First, it means working more agile with shorter and smaller projects. Working on 5-year programmes is something from the past.

Secondly, entrepreneurs refer to the ability to take risks and learn from mistakes. The management of public organisations at the summit asked for a cultural mind-switch.

> "If we want to have goodness we can not expect it to be right from the first time" - AWS

## 3. Technology is not only for the elite

A panel member stated: "*technology is not only for the elite*". The elite he refers to is the small group of early adopters amongst citizens and civil servants who fully believe in the digital transformation. They encouraged the audience to invest in digital inclusion and to focus on those individuals who need more convincing and/or support. The president of Estonia sums it up: "*It is all about people, there is no use in developing solutions that are not being used*". Something to keep in mind.

## 4. Transparency on citizen’s data

I heard it before by Barbara Van Den Haute from Informatie Vlaanderen and heard it again at the conference. We need to give the data ownership back to the citizen. Governments should create the legal space that on the one hand clearly protects the privacy of citizens. On the other hand, leaves the freedom for companies to experiment with anonymised data. So they can create new GovTech solutions.

## To wrap-up

I expected to hear a lot of buzzwords on the newest technologies and trends. Instead, I was positively surprised that the overall tone was to focus on a human-centric digital government and to improve what's already there. I am curious what GovTech Summit 2020 will bring.

GovTech Summit.JPG

On the 14th of November, I joined investors, public servants and other start-ups at the second GovTech Summit in Paris. An event that gathers various international speakers to discuss today's state of GovTech. Read my 4 takeaways of the day.


4 Key Takeaways from GovTech Summit 2019

Sta je voor de uitdaging om een nieuwe toepassing te bouwen en werk je voor de Vlaamse Overheid? Dan zijn er enkele zaken waar je rekening mee kan houden om het niet alleen goed, maar ook snel te doen.
 
## Tip 1: Bouw verder op de kennis van je mensen en de organisatie
 
Binnen elke organisatie is er een massa kennis beschikbaar. Spreek dus zeker met mensen of teams aan die soortgelijke toepassingen al gemaakt hebben.
 
Dit kan zowel binnen je agentschap of departement als in de ganse Vlaamse Overheid. Initiatieven zoals Trefdag Digitaal Vlaanderen en Sandbox Vlaanderen zijn ideale momenten om aan kennisdeling te doen.
 
## Tip 2: Breng Business & IT dicht bij elkaar
 
Het gebeurt nog al te vaak dat een toepassing die gebouwd wordt niet voldoet aan de verwachtingen van de gebruikers. Breng daarom business & IT zo snel mogelijk samen en werk in kleine iteraties met veel feedback. Dit zorgt voor duidelijke alignering & heldere prioriteiten.
 
Maak vervolgens de vooruitgang visueel. Denk daarbij niet alleen aan de planning, maar ook aan de oplossing zelf. Doe dit bijvoorbeeld met visuele analyse en demo's. Als je nog een stap verder wil gaan, kan je kiezen voor een low-code aanpak waarbij de analyse en het bouwen van de oplossing quasi tegelijk verlopen.
 
## Tip 3: Gebruik wat er al is
 
Hergebruik kan op verschillende niveaus. Denk bv. aan het hergebruik van een concept, maar ook het hergebruik van kennis, bouwstenen of data.
 
Hergebruik van concepten kan onder andere door bij het begin van het project persona van vergelijkbare projecten te gebruiken als inspiratiebron.
 
Hergebruik van kennis bouwt verder op elkaar goed begrijpen. Dit begrip kan versneld opgebouwd worden door internationale (bv. BPMN, DMN), of meer lokale standaarden (bv. OSLO) te gebruiken. Op die manier kan je (deel-)processen en datamodellen uitwisselen.
 
Applicaties binnen de Vlaamse overheid kunnen veel bestaande bouwstenen & diensten hergebruiken. Bekende voorbeelden zijn het Magda platform om data uit authentieke bronnen op te halen, ORAFIN om betalingen uit te voeren en ACM-IDM voor sterke authenticatie. Maar ook UI libraries zoals webuniversum of communicatiekanalen zoals Mijn Burgerprofiel & Ondernemingsloket zijn krachtige manieren om beter & sneller tot een goed geïntegreerde toepassing te komen.
 
 
Sta je zelf voor de uitdaging om een nieuwe applicatie te bouwen en heb je graag een klankbord? Twijfel dan niet om contact op te nemen met [toon@skryv.com](mailto:toon@skryv.com).

Screenshot 2020-08-10 at 12.27.18.png

Sta je voor de uitdaging om een nieuwe toepassing te bouwen en werk je voor de Vlaamse Overheid? Dan zijn hier alvast 3 tips om het niet alleen goed, maar ook snel te doen.

Snel & goed een nieuwe toepassing voor de Vlaamse Overheid bouwen? 3 tips.

The call for administrative simplification is everywhere. Companies need it to do better business. Citizens demand it to be better served. Governments put it high on their agendas. And for Skryv, it is our purpose.

## Beyond the buzzword
But what does administrative simplification really mean? How to get beyond the buzzword and achieve results? The dictionary definition for “simplify” is: “ to make (something) simpler or easier to do or understand”. Belgium’s Agency for Administrative Simplification defines administrative simplification as: “steps to facilitate and simplify administrative procedures that companies (and citizens) are required to perform to meet the requirements imposed by the authorities.”

Both definitions indicate that simplification is an active process (to make [… in] steps). So the key is to find the right levers that advance the simplification process.

> "Simplification is a game of rules, people, technology & communication"

## The conceptual model

When looking at administrative simplification, we use the conceptual model pictured above. 

- **Legislation & Regulation** is the source of the “requirements imposed by the authorities”. This set of rules is the factor that has the potential to reduce the (essential) complexity of a certain administrative process. Unfortunately, change in this domain is hard to achieve and requires time and (political) resources; 
- **People**, be it citizens, company representatives or public officers, are key players in the administrative process and may or may not be required to do (repetitive) administrative tasks to get the process running; 
-  **Technology** can facilitate the manual work, improve overall quality and significantly reduce processing time;
- **Communication** about the services and processes must make it simpler to understand for people involved to find out what the service means to them and how it works.

> "Technology can only reduce the need for (repetitive) manual administrative work, but will not reduce the intrinsic complexity. To realise an intrinsic simplification, a change of rules is needed."

## Say goodbye to digital paper
In the mix of these 4 levers, technology is not a magic tool that resolves all the problems. It is however possible to address a lot of the accidental complexity of the process: stuff that doesn’t necessarily relate directly to the solution, but that we have to deal with anyway.

Keeping in mind this limitation, there is still a great simplification potential through digitisation in the public sector. A great deal of processing is still done manually by civil servants or citizens / companies. Processes that have been digitised may suffer from “digital paper”-syndrome. Blocking them from realising the full digital potential. Smart use of technology helps to overcome the barriers of (digital) paper. It helps to simplify the administrative processing, reduce administrative processing time & costs while improving the overall quality. 


Blogpost - Simplification done smartly.png

The call for administrative simplification is everywhere. Governments put it high on their agendas. And for Skryv, it is our purpose. But what does administrative simplification really mean? How to get beyond the buzzword and achieve results?

Administrative simplification done smartly

Fancy smart and easy-to-use online services? 

The Vlaams Rampenfonds compensates individuals and companies who suffered from damages caused by an exceptional, general disaster (e.g. excessive rainfall). The disaster fund was created after the state reform of 2011 when the competence was delegated from the federal to the regional level.

## The challenge
The team had to find a new way to treat the submitted compensation claims. They tried out multiple approaches but none seemed to fit the bill. Systems were aged, it took a long time to treat the claims and collaboration with multiple people was a challenge.

The two biggest motivators for the Vlaams Rampenfonds to move to a case management software were:

* To ease the collaboration between the different stakeholders (external experts, case managers, citizens, head of the department,…)
* To simplify and digitize the request process for citizens and companies that suffered damages

## The solution: an end-to-end digital process that fits the ecosystem

Due to the introduction of new legislation, the organization had to start from scratch. It had no internal IT team at its disposal. Skryv started off with a business analysis track (Think & Try). At the end of the workshop series, the organization knew what the future would look like and what features the solution should have. The three most important features for the organization are:

### A smart ePortal.
Citizens can now submit their request for compensation digitally via the ePortal. It guides the user through the forms and ensures a seamless experience. It is powered by smart forms, the collection of data from authentic sources and error recognition (e.g. when the national number is missing a digit). Before the introduction of the ePortal, different paper forms had to be completed based on the damage one had suffered. Today, a digital request is possible and the citizen is led to a customized form based on his context.

### Digital processing of the claims. 
Today there is one smooth digital flow, from the moment a citizen starts a request to the actual payment (or denial) of the compensation. This allows for a significant decrease in processing time of the claims. Firstly, all the information is brought together on the Skryv platform. The case manager has everything he needs within reach. Secondly, all calculations are done automatically, based on a limited number of inputs from the experts. Lastly, all communications to the citizen are generated automatically by the system.


### Integration with the building blocks of the Flemish government.

The Flemish government provides different IT building blocks. Both the ePortal and case management platform needed to fit into this ecosystem. Today the Vlaams Rampenfonds fetches data from different authentic sources (parcel registry, KBO, …), uses the login system of the Flemish government and has an ePortal that reflects the Flemish corporate identity.

##Advantages
This digital and automated way of working created various efficiency gains:

-  **Simplified administrative process.** Requesting compensation is no longer an administrative hurdle. The citizen does not have to enter the same information over and over again. He gets a personal approach that fits his context. Once submitted, the request can be handled promptly. 
- **Improved collaboration with all stakeholders.** The case managers, victims, heads of departments and external experts work together on one platform. Based on the allocated rights they have secured access to the appropriate data and dashboards.
- **Quality improvement, both for the organization and the citizen.** By following the only-once principle and automating repetitive tasks, typos and miscalculations can be avoided. This speeds up the process and prevents the case manager's frustrations about incomplete or incorrect dossiers or repeating the same acts over and over again.


Customer story - Vlaams Rampenfonds.jpg

Citizens submit their requests via a smart eportal which triggers the digital evaluation process on the Skryv platform. Fully integrated with the Flemish gov IT building blocks.

Rampenfonds created a digital experience for the citizen and a better collaboration with external experts 

Your DIY toolkit to digitise your services and create the best online experience for citizens. It is easy to set up and adjustable at any time.

Create and edit forms without having to rely on a developer. Fast to set up, maintain and in a language that both business and IT understand.

product-1-feature-1.png

Low-code DIY platform

Actively inform the citizen on changes or questions about his dossier. Send notifications via different channels (email, eBox, MijnBurgerprofiel, etc). It helps you to decrease the number of worried phone calls by citizens and increase transparency.

Proactive communication

Ease the evaluation of the dossiers and integrate with your back-office system by using API, webhooks or file-export.

Back-office integration

Minimize the effort for the citizen and avoid mistakes by using smart form techniques. Requesting a service will become a walk in the park.

Feature - smart citizen forms.svg

Smart citizen forms

Keep the citizen well-informed and increase transparancy. Every client has an overview of the status of his dossier(s) and their history.

Overview

logo-front-office.svg

Module-front-office.svg

Front-office

Front-office software to help you digitise your services, improve the quality of requests and inform the client.


Smart forms, happy citizens

Wonen-Vlaanderen helps to make sustainable and affordable housing available for everyone in Flanders. They provide different support measures, such as the “renovation premium” to support the renovation of houses that are at least 30 years old, or the “adaptation premium” to support the modification of houses to the needs of the elderly. 

## Challenge and objectives
Wonen-Vlaanderen struggled with a backlog of cases, due to a long processing time of premium requests. It took up to a year for the citizen to receive a (final) decision. They worked based on a paper dossier and used an application to store the (meta)data of each dossier. The work pressure for the case managers was high.

They decided to simplify and digitise the administrative process of the renovation premium, with the following objectives:
- Substantially reduce the processing time;
- Move towards a paperless work environment;
- Have a software system that is easily adaptable to organisational reforms and legislative changes.

## A digital back office to save time
Wonen-Vlaanderen selected a scanning solution to digitise its paper dossiers and selected the Skryv platform for process automation and case management. 

The process automation of multiple objective checks and calculations allowed to drastically reduce the dossier processing time. The system automatically gathers info from different authentic sources and checks specific conditions such as the level of income, the age of the house, the type of house, etc. Thanks to this automation, it is now known within seconds whether a requester qualifies for the premium.

By digitising the remaining administrative workflow on the Skryv platform using the case management,  the case manager’s work is simplified. When a case manager starts a task, the system offers the exact info and documents needed to complete it. The automated task assignment ensures the work is distributed and that the case managers focus on the most important tasks. Dossiers can easily be retrieved with the search function. The dossier overview gives the case manager all key information about the dossier at a glance and makes all dossier information easily available.

Finally, it was important for Wonen-Vlaanderen to have an adjustable system that can adapt quickly to changing regulation.  For example, an updated premium type was added and activated on the platform within one month of publication of the new regulation. 

## Advantages
By introducing a fully digital way of working, together with the necessary simplification measures, Wonen-Vlaanderen reached its goals: 
- They noted a substantial decrease in the processing time, allowing to eliminate the case backlog that had been increasing in the previous years;
- The fully digital workflow allows for case management from home, supporting the teleworking available at the Flemish government;
- Wonen-Vlaanderen increased its flexibility. When legislation around the renovation premium changes they can easily adjust to the new situation, as was demonstrated with the swift upgrade to the new version of the renovation premium;
- They have a strong basis to build on. Other types of premiums, new integrations to authentic sources and reporting tools can easily be added. 


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By digitising its back-office, Wonen-Vlaanderen noted a substantial decrease in the processing time. This allows them to eliminate the case backlog they had built up in the previous years.


Wonen-Vlaanderen reduced its processing time

Everything you need to digitally process your dossiers from submission to payment. It’s adaptable, low-code and integrated with your services. 


Configuration-based set up and maintenance to save costs and improve business - IT alignment. Complemented with customisation to come to the best solution.

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Low-code case management

The low-code approach puts users in control. Add intelligence, introduce templates and let the processes work for you. Laying the foundation for a qualitative workflow. 

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Smart workflow management

Control and divide the amount of work and ease the collaboration with externals. (Automatically) assign tasks, define responsibilities and visibility according to the user's role. Check the version history to know who did what and when.

Collaboration & team management

A central overview of all the dossiers and to do's that varies according to one's responsibilities. Use the search and filter function to quickly find info and dossiers.

Overview & reporting

Maximally reuse data and avoid copy-paste and mistakes. We integrate with your organisation's log-in, authentic sources, databases, look & feel and other tools.

Integration

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Case management

Case management software to help you focus on the real deal, decrease the processing time and get insight into dossiers. 


Right info, right time, right place

Want to increase productivity and focus on your efforts?

Your low-code tooling to automate repetitive tasks and decisions. Easy to maintain and 100% reliable.


Save cost and gain flexibility with our low-code tools. They allow you to quickly set up and maintain your processes without heavy dependency on the software vendor.

Low-code set-up

Orchestrate how third party data enters your systems, how information is modelled and other actions in your end-to-end process. Optimize the process in order to eliminate redundancies and increase productivity.

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Orchestration

Support the case manager by automating decisions, so he can focus his efforts. Define the business rules in DMN and automatically generate an advice for specific questions. Obtain a lower error rate and overall quality improvement of dossiers. 

Decision automation

Easily integrate the automated process in your (case management) system. You can trigger or manage it via the properly documented Rest API. To save even more time, you can execute the automated processes in bulk instead of executing them individually.

System to system

Use the easy & accessible user interface to quickly validate the automated processes. It also comes with an admin page and support tooling. 


User interface

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Process automation

Automation software to help you automate repetitive tasks, make decisions and increase productivity.


Ease your work, increase productivity

Want to make maximum use of existing IT building blocks?

The all-in-one connectivity suite to integrate with eGovernment services. Prevent duplication of effort and minimize the IT and maintenance costs 


Connect faster to a whole range of eGovernment services and always have the most up-to-date version at your disposal. We are currently connected to: 

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Out of the box connectors

Difficulty with understanding the variety of technical implementation and documentation? Bypass the technical complexity of the eGovernment services by integrating to the connectors suite.

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Easy to integrate

You are automatically compliant with security requirements. Several government services expose sensitive personal data and require specific security measures. Examples are certificate management and legal logging each time data is consulted. 

Security compliance

Avoid fall-downs, useless calls and learn from best practices. Use smart techniques such as throttling to not overload the 3rd party service and circuit breaking to help bring the 3rd party service back in business. 

Robust connectors

Add more business oriented functionality to maximally benefit from the eGovernment service. For example, fall-back scenarios when the service is not available.

Mini-processes

Use the connector factory to quickly add connectors or follow evolutions. Including secure development practices and knowing how to deal with (anonimised) personal data during the development cycle.

Connector factory

Quickly get started, test without any hassle and get a view of the status and history of calls. Easily manageable and always up to date.

Easily accessible user interface

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Connectors

Connector software to help you reuse information, improve collaboration with others and to avoid copy-paste. 

Administrative simplification done smartly

Beyond the buzzword

The conceptual model

Say goodbye to digital paper

Want to tackle your backlog of dossiers?

Related Posts

Modules

Skryv

Resources

Learn how to digitise your gov services