Message Box for businesses
Message Box for businesses is a secure e-mail system, which was designed to facilitate digital interactions between businesses and public authorities. The system can be used to complete procedures such as licence applications, notifications, registrations and accreditations.
What is Message Box for businesses?
Message Box enables business to digitally exchange messages with:
- central government;
- municipal councils;
- provincial councils;
- water boards;
- autonomous administrative authorities (Zelfstandige bestuursorganen, zbo's), such as the Dutch Chamber of Commerce;
- other organisations with a statutory role.
Via Message Box, businesses can complete the relevant procedures required by the Dutch government to provide services in the Netherlands. The Message Box can also be used to pose questions to Dutch governmental organisations about the way in which specific rules are applied.
Why Message Box?
‘Answers for Business’, which is the Dutch government’s Point of Single Contact, created Message Box specifically for the purposes of the Services Act (Dienstenwet). Businesses can thus use Message Box to comply with all the procedures covered by the Services Act. Government organisations are obliged to answer messages which are sent by businesses via Message Box.
An option for businesses
As Message Box can be used for all procedures covered by the Services Act, it implies that businesses always have a digital point of access to public authorities. The system thus reduces administrative burden, and implies that businesses no longer have to worry about identifying the correct departments within government.
Message Box names can also be included in the Trade Register (Handelsregister), which entails that government organisations can directly contact businesses via Message Box.
Noord-Brabant and the Messagebox: Not just for the Services Act!
A growing number of government organizations are also using the system for other procedures. For instance: businesses can apply for all procedures for the province of Noord-Brabant via Message Box.
The province decided to use the Message box for this, since it was a proven technology, and implementation costs would therefore be low. They created a business case for all provincial procedures for entrepreneurs. Their mission was to create a single point of entry, any time, any day.
The province is driven to further digitalize the communication between entrepreneurs and the government and is currently working on a program to create smart e-forms and connect to the national registers.
Policy Context
Services Act
The Dutch Services Act (Dienstenwet), based on the EU Services Directive (2009), aims at facilitating business interactions with governments, by providing the with one, digital service counter.
What is the digital service counter?
All EU-Member States have a digital service counter for service-providing business owners, the so-called Point of Single Contact. The Dutch Point of Single Contact, which can can be found on www.answersforbusiness.nl, provides information about the procedures that are subject to the Services Act. For these procedures, businesses can also make use of to digitally apply for documents such as permits.
Description of target users and groups
All Dutch and all EU entrepreneurs (small businesses, self-employed and big businesses) can use the Messagebox for all procedures under the Services Directive.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
Responsibility for the Messagebox lies with the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Ministry has delegated the implementation of the project to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Day tot day management and further development is led by a Change Decision Board, in which all stakeholders are represented. Under this board, a Change Advisory Board resides.
Technology solution
To users the application resembles a simple Outlook mail client, to enhance recognition and usability.
Since the basic version is set up as a web enabled application it can be used by everyone with an internet connection without any extra investment. Organisations with higher traffic volumes can also implement a web service version, with a machine to machine connection.
The application complies with the Dutch open source and open software guidelines and uses the standards from the Dutch standardisation board: the Webguidelines (WCAG) to ensure accessibility, ‘Digikoppeling’ to connect to local authorities (stuf, ebms, wus), DKIM to secure outgoing notifications and PDF (A) for the downloadable messages.
Technology choice: Proprietary technology, Open source softwareMain results, benefits and impacts
The Ministry of Economic affairs has high ambitions for the Message box. In 2017 the Messagebox will be
- The central digital mailbox for all entrepreneurs in which they receive messages from all Dutch governmental organisations, if the entrepreneur chooses this solution.
- The solution for all governments, which will thus not provide their own applications for their procedures, to ensure that entrepreneurs can complete all procedures digitally.
The message box enables entrepreneurs to interact with the Dutch government digitally and safely, within a legal context that gives them rights. They will only have to check one mailbox – just like the offline reality – to be sure they have received all their messages.
Governmental organisations are provided, by the Messagebox, with a free central building block for messaging. The management and development of this building block is organised on a national level, as well as the registration of message boxes in the Trade Register.
This gives them the opportunity to decrease their mailing costs, even to the point of non-existence, and increase the online services to entrepreneurs, without having to invest heavily in IT.
Return on Investment
The business case created in 2013 states the net value over 15 years to be 418 million euro.
http://www.antwoordvoorbedrijven.nl/service/berichtenbox/voordelen/business-case (in Dutch)
Return on investment
Return on investment: Larger than €10,000,000Track record of sharing
Croatia reproduced the Dutch Message box as part of their Point of Single Contact: http://www.psc.hr/?lang=en
Lessons learnt
- Implementation is an ongoing process, not a project
- To increase usage, you need a good use-case
- If usage remains only possible for services under the Services Directive, communication and user-numbers will remain difficult