In the new websites of the municipalities of the Kortrijk region, each municipality has an inventory of all services offered. In the website, this catalogue is used for showing relevant services according to themes or target groups. This project was build based on our former digital social house project (Interreg 3B), we broadened the concept of a product catalogue by introducing it in each municipality and by inventorising more services.

Description of target users and groups

The product catalogue is the underlying service layer of the 12 municipal websites of the Kortrijk region. These websites provide information and services to the citizens of that region.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The 12 municipal websites of the Kortrijk region are build with a common infrastructure since 1996. In 2009, the 4th generation of these websites are launched. A regional steering group and a taskforce are responsible for the main decisions and the roll-out of the project. 150 editors and 25 webmasters are involved. Intercommunale Leiedal - working for the municipalities of the region - is responsible for the analysis, the project management, and the procurement procedure.

Technology solution

The municipal websites are made with the open source CMS Drupal. Special features: - Multi-site setup - CultuurNet API (use of event information coming from a database of the Flemish Government) - Content Copy between sites - Shared login for all sites - GIS layer Technology choice: Open source software

Main results, benefits and impacts

Services can now be presented following a theme or a target group, products can be coupled to news or addresses. We aim for a multi-faceted, user depending and integral presentation of the municipal services. The description of products is facilitated by the fact municipalities can share and copy product descriptions.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The system is the Belgian adaptation of the UK ESD approach to municipal services. The innovation of the digital social house in our former Interreg 3B project Evoice (see http://www.smartregions.eu/index.php?q=digital-social-house-harelbeke ) led us to building a broader and better product catalogue into the new municipal websites (2009), where descriptions are shared between municipalities in the Kortrijk region. The idea of a digital social house has been picked up by others (see http://www.epractice.eu/cases/dsh ) and led to the start-up in 2009 of a Flemish Consortium who wants to build a Flemish Product Catalogue.

Lessons learnt

* a product definition is an important step which requires sometimes organisational transformation and a mental shift from an organisation- to a user-perspective * presenting products on a website depending on themes and target groups requires an integral vision of the municipality on service delivery * facilitating exchange and copying of service descriptions leads to better quality in service descriptions Scope: Local (city or municipality), Regional (sub-national)