Dutch municipalities should be more concerned about the use of software solutions that adhere to norms for eGovernment applications, according to recommendations from KING, a municipal advisory body. Many municipal administrations are unfamiliar with eGovernment norms concerning the applications that they use for their municipal tasks, KING reports in a study into the compliance of commonly used municipal software.
According to KING, software vendors complain that municipal administrations are not requesting the use of eGovernment norms enough. Many municipalities are not planning to replace existing software applications with new ones that adhere to these norms. Town should be made aware of these applications and should be assisted in drawing up replacement plans.
There is also a lack of binding agreements between vendors and municipalities, KING writes, adding that there is a need for compliance tests.
In May KING published its second compliance study for software solutions commonly used by municipal administrations. The advisory body looked into the applications’ compliance with ten Government norms for municipal tasks. These are norms for systems dealing with payments and levies, document services, address registries, permits, exemptions and notifications, but also municipal support for people with disabilities, (iJw voor gemeenten) and support for youth with behavioural problems (iJw voor gemeenten).
The study shows some gradual improvements in compliance depending on the eGovernment norm, KING writes. Software vendors are quick to adopt norms for tasks in the social domain, but less so for ‘classical’ tasks such as document services.
Each year the 393 Dutch municipalities spend around EUR 1.2 billion on ICT, the advisory body writes in its announcement of the compliance study. Dutch municipalities use software products from 200 different vendors. Making these software solutions interoperable should improve public services, KING writes, “and can also lead to significant cost savings.”
More information:
KING announcement on compliance study (in Dutch)
Compliancy Monitor 2015-2 (PDF, in Dutch)