In a meeting room somewhere in the heart of North Brabant, Paul Hogenhuis, legal adviser at the province, sits with a stack of documents in front of him. It is 2010, and despite the rise of digitalisation, he languishes under the flow of hard-copy mail.
Municipal budgets, development plans and communication with entrepreneurs – it all comes in thick, paper packages. Hogenhuis: “You have to imagine that we had a scanning line where all mail was processed manually. You would often end up with skewed scans, and then you had to start all over again. It took so much time.”
But the tides are now turning. A new digital tool, the Message Box, has been introduced. An ambitious plan soon emerges: the province of North Brabant aims to fully integrate this digital mailbox into its work processes. Hogenhuis recalls the first meeting with the deputy for Economic Affairs, Mr Pauli. “His immediate response was: ’This is great, let’s schedule an appointment and start building on this.’ The deputy’s enthusiasm gave us a huge boost.”
A bridge between innovation and efficiency
The deployment of the Message Box is not an isolated measure; it fits into the province’s broader policy of being among the top five innovative regions in Europe. “How can we call ourselves the region of ASML and the Automotive Campus if our operations do not evolve with us?” Hogenhuis quips.
That being said, the implementation process is not without its challenges. Starting with a pilot, the province connects the Message Box to their forms generator and their case system using a Digi link. Hogenhuis explains: “In the beginning, there was a lot of manual work. Our Documentary Information Services (abbreviated DIV in Dutch) department had to monitor notifications and process messages daily. But as we improved the links, those processes became a lot more efficient”. By now, the Message Box has become indispensable. From the environmental department sending out environmental permits to approving municipal budgets – everything runs smoothly and securely.
Impact on people and processes
The benefits of the Message Box are enormous for employees. Hogenhuis gives a striking example: “We used to receive a large amount of paperwork from 60 municipalities in Brabant for the approval of budgets. This had to go through the scanning line, whereupon an employee would receive a pdf that was often skewed. Now, everything is received digitally in the Message Box as a Word document that can be used instantly. It saves SO much time.”
The Message Box is a great solution for business owners as well, as they now have 24/7 access to their mail through a secure and reliable channel. “It is not merely cost-cutting for the province, but for entrepreneurs as well. Less postage, less red tape. It is a win-win,” says Hogenhuis.
An example to others
Hogenhuis proudly reports that North Brabant, as a pioneer in the use of the Message Box, has inspired other government agencies with their approach. “We were even able to help other municipalities get started with their accounts. By now, all Brabant municipalities are using the Message Box, which makes inter-governmental collaboration that much easier.”
That said, there is still work to be done. Therefore, Hogenhuis closes with an appeal: “If your organisation is not yet fully using the Message Box, start today. Get administrative ‘backing’; put together a project team and learn from the experiences of others. This is not just a handy tool – it is an essential part of modern government.”
More information
Would you like to know more about the use of the Message Box for your business? You can find more information or apply for one on this Nldigitalgovernment.nl topic page.
