Fully integrating public authority services
The world of public local authorities is not as uniform as people think. Although overlaps exist in specific requirements – take for example the Government Information Security Baseline (BIO), every public body nevertheless has its own dynamic, strategy and objective. Whereas water boards have already made considerable strides in data-oriented working and management, municipalities are far more concerned with digital services to citizens. Decentralisation of tasks must be addressed and the introduction of the new environment and planning act is creating pressure on local authorities. Digital portals are almost commonplace and the next step is to ensure that public authority services are fully integrated. In the future, the Common Ground and Haven hosting application will be standard-setting for cooperation between and the services of municipalities, where the Waterschapshuis connecting organisation is continuously looking for optimisations in the cooperation between individual water boards.

Water boards and municipalities make up more than 25% of the work performed by Open Line. Both groups are fully integrated and constitute a stable basis in the relationship we have. Long-term relationships, which have allowed us to build a great deal of knowledge about key business processes, core applications, the ecosystem and, last but not least, service level.

Moments of truth
In the service to a local authority or water board, one of the first steps we take is mapping out the main ‘moments of truth’. Needless to say, we have a Service Level Agreement, an Agreements and Procedures File and a Financial Agreements File, but those are the formal documents. At any municipality or water board, there are occasions when everything is just that little bit more important. Examples include a commemoration day at which many dignitaries are present, municipal council or water board elections or flooding or a risk of such. In terms of scalability and in our processes, Open Line is able to adapt itself uniquely to the requirements and wishes of its client.

Digitalisation, connection and agility of local authorities
In our own way, we contribute to the digitalisation, connection and agility of local governments and water boards. In doing so, we offer a measured approach to make the most of the combination of current technologies and services, knowing that dependence on legacy applications and legacy suppliers is often a given. The power of managed cloud services is that a contract duration of five to ten years is often involved, offering an ideal basis for a long-term growth and modernisation strategy. In the case of municipalities, this also offers stability when embracing Common Ground and Haven initiatives. Initiatives that are currently still in the conceptual stage, but about which Open Line is convinced that these will add value in improving and optimising municipal services.