Public services improvement: Modernising a government
administration
The issue
For this public administration, processing requests
(dossiers) in a coherent and efficient manner was
rather difficult and complex because several departments
with specific expertise were required to contribute.
In practice, physical dossiers needed to flow from
one department to the other one. The idea was to radically
improve the way the administration operates through
the introduction of an electronic document and dossiers
management system (EDMS) in addition to electronic
procedures.
The approach
An operational audit of the administration facilitated
the identification of a series of improvement opportunities
and an action plan. Some quick fixes were immediately
implemented for immediate results. For a more thorough
transformation and to achieve significant process
improvement objectives, it appeared that the administration
would benefit from electronic document and dossier
management capabilities in addition to revised processing
procedures.
A specific project was then initiated. Many processes
are improved such as for example the processing of
a parliamentary question, or the preparation of a
new law. Beside the collaboration capabilities on
dossiers facilitated by the EDMS, features such as
an electronic bulletin board, calendars, contact management
and so on are also available.
The outcome/benefits:
Today, the realized benefits are the following:
- All the departments and agents concerned by
a new request are instantly notified and have
real-time access to the underlying documents
- Agents have access to "My documents"
to facilitate processing
- Searching across the entire system is possible
(assuming appropriate rights have been granted)
- No more physical documents get lost between
offices
- Archives are centralized and controlled
- Security is improved
