e-Depot offers notaries a quick and easy way to complete, sign and deposit the forms and documents required to create a company in all administrative databases. Tax, social security and land registry information can also be researched electronically. In collaboration with the Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries, we have provided an electronic point of contact and an infrastructure that is interconnected with the National Registry and Federal Public Services for Economy and Justice. A company can now be set up in three days, in comparison with the three months previously required.

Policy Context

Some entrepreneurs felt that the Law of Establishment hindered their attempts to launch their own business or start up an independent activity. To stimulate entrepreneurship, the Belgium federal authorities decided to modernise legislation on establishment and make it much simpler. Companies face many administrative hurdles when they start up. Criticism generally concerns the large number of forms that need to be completed and the long periods required for files to be processed. The introduction of e-Depot frees all new entrepreneurs of the most cumbersome of administrative procedures. A company can now be created within three days. Less paperwork, more companies. By significantly reducing the amount of paperwork required, companies save time, money and energy. The reduced administrative burden also has a positive impact at international level. More entrepreneurs make the economy more competitive than neighbouring companies. In 2003, the process took 56 days, in 2004 it only took 26 days! Entrepreneurs starting out must request an individual VAT number from the VAT office which, in practice, required a lot running about. Thanks to the unique company number (identical to the VAT number), all this shuttling back and forth is no longer necessary! By progressively reducing the administrative procedure to 3 days, Belgium tops EU rankings and also has one of the quickest procedures in the world.

Description of target users and groups

There are currently 1,199 notarial offices in Belgium and 1,375 notaries. Each year, 2.5 million people visit these offices for advice or to obtain an official deed. As regards public administration, no less than five federal public services are in contact with notaries, namely the National Register (for the creation of natural persons), the Belgian Enterprise Database (BCE/KBO - for the creation of legal persons such as companies), FPS Justice (for the deposit of various exemplified copies, deeds and various extracts), the Belgian Official Gazette (for the official publication of deeds) and FPS Finance (for VAT in particular).

Description of the way to implement the initiative

Partners: - Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries: provides the client roll-out portal infrastructure for the notaries and handles user authentication which is transmitted to the others - National register: authentic source for personal data; for those living in Belgium - Crossroads bank for social security: authentic source for people data, for people living abroad, and certain special cases - Belgian Enterprise Database: authentic source for company/enterprise data - Federal public service Justice: authentic source for notarial deeds - Belgian Official Gazette: publishes the abstracts of notarial deeds. Sponsors, hosting & support: - Agency for Administrative Simplification: sponsor for the e-Depot project, responsible for the horizontal program coordination and development - FEDICT: the ICT service of the Federal government and thus the sponsor of the e-Depot for application development support, hardware & software infrastructure (also called the federal service bus platform) which includes Sun hardware, BEA WebLogic integration and connectors to several private networks; including hosting and operational procedures; Contractor: - Computer science corporation: contractor for functional SOA architecture design, development and testing, responsible for the delivery of a solution for the digital signatures of PDF documents.

Technology solution

We use technologies [like web services (SOAP, WSSE, SAML), data manipulation (XML, XQuery, XmlBeans), messaging (JMS, WLI message broker), frameworks (WebLogic workshop control architecture), application server (BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1.4)] to provide access to authentic sources through “basic services”, business processes to integrate basic services into composite services, composite business services to external clients.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The e-Depot project is an example of a successful SOA implementation with potential growth for future projects (reusability of building blocks to automate other businesses). To draw up deeds, notaries exchanged large number of details with several administrations. This data can now be communicated electronically. Notaries sign deeds deposited electronically using their REALcard which serves as e-IDcard. The file is sent to various official databases, such as the National-registry, the Belgian-Enterprise-registry and the Belgian-Moniteur. A few minutes later, the notary receives a company number for their client (Belgian/foreign) and can electronically invoice the services provided. The client can then use this number to start their activities. All information about clients and their files is treated confidentially in electronic communications. The process is standardised, for example, through model deeds that are automatically completed in advance and intelligent calculation programmes. The site can only be accessed using the REALcard (proof of identity) which also allows notaries to officially sign a whole range of documents. This professional-card offers notaries and their partners (authorities,administrations,banks) maximum security. A fully automated procedure is available to: submit a notarial deed, create the company in the BCE, return the newly created company number to the notary, send the act to FPS Justice, activate the company in the BCE, send the abstracts of the deed to the Belgian Official Gazette, return the publication data to the notary, update the publication data.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The Belgian government has introduced a series of measures aimed at improving the collection of social security and tax contributions. These measures include the notification mechanism, commonly known as the 'fourth way'. The fourth way entails an obligation to notify tax collection bodies. Notaries and bailiffs are directly affected because they can sell (or dispose of) property, seize property, draw up real estate deeds or mortgages with individuals or companies that may have debts. Once the notice has been sent, the tax collection bodies communicate the amounts they are due to receive electronically. As part of the social security notification process (4th way), a range of public bodies have developed specific web services in order to develop integrated applications for different professional categories. Notaries, bailiffs, tax collectors and acquisition officers can, for example, ask for an overview of any debts with collection bodies by submitting a single electronic request. Thanks to the Agency for Administrative Simplification (ASA/DAV) and FEDICT, these initiatives are now well established and being developed further. e-Depot acted as a catalyst for this innovative policy. Support for federal and regional organisations in Belgium is structured around the Belgian e-Gov platform. An SOA platform ensures that electronic services cooperate smoothly via open standards. It also monitors development of electronic process chains not only between the actors involved but also between the actors involved, citizens and companies. To keep costs down and make the system user-friendly, a certain number of basic services were developed and then applied generally. These include, for example, the systems used to manage users and generic access to authentic sources. Belgium's experience can of course be applied in other countries and the applications developed use technologies that transcend borders.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - We have learned to use the SOA platform and implement different authentification and encryption algorithms with an electronic identity card. Lesson 2 - This project also gave us the opportunity to develop co-operation with the private sector to gain governance. Lesson 3 - This project, which has significant legal and economic impact, serves as the foundation for a new operational approach. Starting with the existing architecture and information system in several federal organisations, an e-Gov project approach was used to improve this architecture and open it up by focusing on interaction with the outside world. e-Depot is the basement for lots of future e-Gov developments. The organisations who can learn from our experience meet the following criteria: a) they want to use identification and access authorisation using an electronic identity card; b) they are in a multi-organisation cooperation model; c) they want to made wider use of electronic information exchanges.

Scope: National