Social Security Benefits in Belgium - ifib€¦ · 1.3.1 Specific Objectives 8 ... 1.6 Learning...

Prepared for the eGovernment Unit

DG Information Society and Media

European Commission

Case study prepared by Ralf Cimander and Herbert Kubicek (ifib, Germany), in co-operation with Frank Robben, Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS), Belgium.

Good Practice Case

Social Security Benefits for

Citizens in Belgium

Case Study

30 September 2005

eGovernment Unit DG Information Society and Media

European Commission

Table of contents

1. Social Security Benefits for Citizens in Belgium 2 1.1 Case Summary 2 1.2 Problem addressed 3 1.2.1 Specific Problem 3 1.2.2 General Background 5 1.2.3 Policy context and strategy 6 1.3 Solution 8 1.3.1 Specific Objectives 8 1.3.2 Implementation 9

- Workflow description 9 - Resources 13

1.4 Features making it a candidate for good practice exchange 16 1.4.1 Impact 16 1.4.2 Relevance of the case for other administrations that could learn from the experience 17 1.4.3 Transferability 18 1.5 Results 20 1.6 Learning points and conclusions 21 1.7 References and links 24

Annex 1: Assessment Questionnaire for the MODINIS Case Descriptions 25

GP Case: Social Security Benefits - Belgium 09-2005, vs 2.0 1

1. Social Security Benefits for Citizens in Belgium

1.1 Case Summary In Belgium, a lot of federal, regional and local public or private institutions are entrusted with social missions and are responsible for granting social benefits. This concerns government bodies (e.g. public social welfare centres) as well as private organisations (e.g. health insurance funds, unemployment agencies). These institutions provide services (e.g. assistance relating to job search, health care) or grant financial support (e.g. benefits, tax deductions). Public social welfare centres (centres publics d'action sociale, "CPAS"), which are located in each municipality, must provide citizens with help in different life-events, therapeutic measures, the prevention of difficult life-situations, and substantial support measures. Actually, the policy and funding of benefits in the social security domain is a duty of the Federal State, however, the service implementation is to be provided on the regional or local level. Besides the CPAS and the Federal State, the other government levels in Belgium and their institutions are also partners in the social sector. Altogether, there are about 2,000 offices on five government levels concerned with social services. The social services in Belgium are organised that way, that those services concern regularly several government levels. I.e. even if the service provision is local, other government level offices had to be consulted to carry out the service; this mainly concerns the verification of the applicant's data. This verification is to be laid back to one of the basic principles of administrative practice in Belgium, that citizens have to give information only once to the public administration. I.e. the public administration has to ask for the up-to-date data of this citizen at other public administrations that are also concerned with the respective citizen even if quite different purposes are pertained. However, since the responsibilities for services are shared among the various government levels this makes it especially difficult for the single CPAS to get up-to-date citizen data out of these various databases and, in addition, to get this data quickly. This challenge has been faced by the interposition of an institution which interconnects the back office applications of the various offices concerned with social services. I.e. the local CPAS use this network for the verification of applicants' data which is the basis for the entitlement and calculation of the social benefits. Within this network, i.e. throughout the whole social system, basic legal concepts, information components and instructions have been harmonised, so that the information is collected in a standardised way and can be used in a multifunctional way by all social security offices. By today, all the about 2,000 authorities and organisations concerned with social security, independent of their governmental level or affiliation, are networked. Between these offices, 380 million electronic messages were exchanged in 2004 with an average processing time of less than one second.


1.2 Problem addressed 1.2.1 Specific Problem Before the e-enablement of validation of the information about the applicant began, the processing of social security service required manual intervention at most stages of the process, either by staff or by customers. An in-depth analysis of the functioning of social security proved that

Specific problems addressed:

− the organisation of social security offices' business processes was not very customer-oriented and was certainly not co-ordinated among the various social security offices,

− each social security office had its own set of paper forms with accompanying instructions. These were necessary in order to check the entitlement for granting and if granted, the calculation of the amount;

− no possibility existed for an interactive exchange of data among the social security offices,

− social security offices very often requested information from the applicants that was already available at another social security office in the form of a paper document,

− if information from another social security office was requested, the applicant had to obtain this form from that office in order to provide it to the other office. I.e. exchanging the information (forms) directly among the offices was not possible;

− applicants who were granted had to inform many social security offices of a single event, following different legal concepts and administrative instructions each time,

− since the exchange of data occurred on paper, processing was expensive and time-consuming,

− this all led to a very heavy administrative load and accompanying expenses for applicants.

Following this procedure, the main challenges faced by the implementation of complementary benefits services for entitled applicants like disabled persons or for the re-imbursement of medical costs were

• Coordination and connection of social security offices

• Verification of service entitlement

• To ensure high level integration and interoperability among involved parties

• Effective user authentication in order both to match data across various actors and users and to ensure data protection of sensible data

− the validation of the entitlement of the applicant − the provision of a network among the offices concerned with

social security with clear responsibilities for data provision − to ensure protection of potentially sensitive data

Thus, the specific requirement concerning interoperability in the social security sector at local and regional level was to achieve interoperability between different stages of the supply chain. Mainly this concerns the responsible local social security institution, normally the Local Public Service Centres for Social Welfare "CPAS" (centres publics d'action sociale) as service provider and any other

IOP requirement: IOP between different stages of a supply chain producing one or more services


institution providing the respective data for verification or calculation. This could be only one institution as well as several institutions.

CPAS: local office for social security

SSI: Social Security Institution

Interoperability requirement A main objective of the social security sector services was to request personal application-related data only once since they are often already available in other public databases. I.e. the focus of the service realisation was laid on the re-organisation in the back-office to back-office processes.

Service delivery model: IOP among back-offices

Basic organisational model employed:

To meet the interoperability requirements, a communication model, using a clearing house between the requesting and the responding social security institutions has been employed. This communication model is characterised by pooling interdependencies, i.e. the requesting institution is dependant on a pool of data provided by another institution. This institution, i.e. the clearing house, does not possess this information but knows which institution has the information. I.e. the clearing house owns meta information in form of a directory and selects the responsible institution and routes the request to it. To automate processes and integrate requests and responds from different authorities, the clearing house also has to provide functionalities for data and format conversions.

Communication via involved agencies is via a clearing house which routes, checks converts and re-groups messages


1.2.2 General Background In Belgium there are five independent authority levels. Institutions at each levels are responsible for particular domains of public services particularly in the social sector. The levels are:

Service: Social security services in seven areas: incapacity for work, industrial accident, occupational disease, unemployment, retirement, child care and holiday pay, exemplarily presented in the example of complementary benefits for disabled persons and of increased re-imbursement of medical costs.

− the federal level, − the community level (Flemish, French, German), − the regional level(Flanders, Walloon, Brussels), − the provincial level (except Brussels, the regions are sub-

divided into 5 provinces each), and − the municipal level (589) with local self-administration.

Communities and Regions have different duties and responsibilities; however, their borders are not the same. Also concerned with social services are the companies responsible for public transport since persons entitled to social security (in the following abbreviated "soc. sec.") are allowed to travel on reduced fees or for free. The Belgian social security system consists firstly of three insurance systems (employees, self-employed workers and civil servants), covering at most seven social risks (incapacity for work, industrial accident, occupational disease, unemployment, retirement, child care and holiday pay), and secondly of four social support systems (allowances for the disabled, guaranteed family allowance, minimum income and income guarantee for the elderly), which grant people specific minimum services after verifying their subsistence resources. Offered services are e.g. livelihood grants, refund of medical costs, benefits for disabled persons, housing benefits, certificate of eligibility to public housing/accommodation, support for legal adviser. The basic principle of service provision, however, is always the same. Two services with different complexity will exemplarily be introduced within this case description: the complementary benefit for disabled persons and the increased re-imbursement for medical costs. In all, about 2,000 social security offices are responsible for the provision of Belgian social security. However, the entry points for social security services to citizens are generally local institutions or organisations. The Belgian law entitles the citizen to transmit personal information only once to the social security "network" (even if this can be considered as a general principle only). Since 1991, a co-ordinated revision of the processes and relationships is systematically being carried out in Belgium. All social security offices are linked to a network for electronic data exchange, which is managed by the Crossroads Bank for Social Security (part 6, link 1), and they are legally obliged to request all information from each other, which is available electronically within the network.

Types and level of agencies involved: On all five levels there are institutions responsible for social security and taxation. Grants are dependent on tax classes of applicants. The main actors are: • CPAS and

municipalities • Social Institutions on

the regional, community and federal level

• Federal public service Finance responsible for federal tax deduction

• National Office for Social Security and other concerned institutions

• Crossroads Bank for Social Security

• Public transport companies (free transport passes)


During this revision, the legal division of authority between all social security offices was respected. In spite of this re-engineering of workflows, with exception of the intercession of the newly created CBSS, the administrative relations between the Social Security Institutions have remained quite similar since 1988. 1.2.3 Policy context and strategy The complementary benefits services are fitted to the eGovernment policy of the Belgian government, which employs the following basic principles:

− the users of governmental services are provided with an integrated service offer that covers all governmental service departments and governmental levels, which is organised according to events during the life cycle/business episode of the customer,

− the provision of electronic services is therefore linked to a customer-oriented re-engineering of the service delivery processes,

− a single declaration of each event during the life cycle/business episode implies automated granting of all related services,

− the declaration of events and service delivery takes place using an access method chosen by the customer (e.g. interactive end-to-end integration with the customer's information system, file transfer, portal sites accessible via various end-user devices, intermediaries…),

Framework conditions: Basic principles of eGovernment in Belgium: • Integrated services for

customers, • Customer-oriented re-

engineering • Automation of

granting • Multi-channel

approach • Serving interoperable

services based on open standards

• Measures for prevention of the digital gap

− the co-operation between the various levels of government and government departments is promoted, amongst others through the expansion of an organisational, technical and safe interoperability framework; the technical interoperability framework is based on open standards,

− appropriate measures are taken for preventing a digital gap. The procedure of granted complementary benefits was developed and successfully completed with the support of policy decision-makers at the highest level. A number of the mentioned basic principles were statued in law, and a legal framework was created for harmonising basic concepts. In the areas where European Directives have been devised, Belgium got used to converting them into national law whereas the text is very close to the original Directive. One of the most important ones deals with the regulations regarding the protection of information and the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995). Others more specifically concern the use of ICT for data processing in public


administration. In the areas where no European Directives have been issued, Belgium has worked out its own national regulations, e.g. the law regarding administration publicity or concerning ICT crime. A quite different, but important law concerns the creation and organisation of the Crossroads Bank for Social Security CBSS. Beside these legal issues, the development of the social security services was carried out according to a Belgian IOP framework. Apart from the regulation for a rather technical interoperability with focus on interconnection, information exchange and security, agreement on how to ensure functional interoperability and how to ensure that investments made by parties won't become worthless each time standards change, was established.

Legal framework: • European Directives

converted in national law, especially concerning the protection of information and of processing of data from individuals as well as regarding ICT rules

• New laws especially concerning administration publicity and ICT crime and the regulations for the CBSS

The service implementation was prepared very thoroughly in cooperation with all involved social security offices and all social partners under the guidance of two co-ordinating institutions, namely the Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS) and the National Office for Social Security (NOSS). This type of service delivery clearly shows the potential of eGovernment for higher productivity, which in turn results in increasing competitiveness, growth and jobs. It is widely accepted that streamlining bureaucratic procedures and increasing public sector efficiency plays a significant role in raising productivity levels in the economy as a whole. Furthermore, by reducing 'red tape' and providing better access to information and better quality, the users will be provided with more user-centred services and the benefits of e-government altogether.

Interoperability Framework: Belgium set up its own interoperability framework capitalising on technical and functional/organisation issues


1.3 Solution 1.3.1 Specific Objectives

Specific objectives: • remedy the problem of

multiple collection of information

The implementation of the Belgian law’s general principle of entitlement of the citizen to transmit personal information only once to the social security network should allow the automatic granting of specific benefits and rights for the citizens. More precisely, the e-services to citizen analysed here have been designed to be one of the tools to remedy the problem of multiple collection of information. The following goals were aimed at in the short term:

• maximum of mutual data exchange between the social security offices

• streamlining of the information exchange

• harmonisation of the basic legal terminology

• reduction of forms • better quality data

General objectives: • standardisation of

communication

− ensuring that information collection at the service applicants occurs only once throughout all social security offices, including all data necessary for the calculation of all social security contributions and for the calculation of all salary and working time related social security benefits,

− the promotion of a maximum of mutual data exchange between the social security offices,

− the streamlining of the information exchange between the applicants and the social security offices, according to all of the complementary benefits and enclosed tax deductions they are entitled to,

− the harmonisation of the basic legal terminology, the information components and the instructions with regard to all information exchanges between the different offices responsible for social security, so that the electronic data exchange is multifunctional to a maximum degree,

− a reduction in the number of different forms required for the exchange of information, as well as the number of headings that occur on these forms,

• better back-office synchronisation incl. automatic granting of rights and benefits

• external control and mandatory agreement of every new communication flow

• information modelling that renders it independent of unavoidable changes in policy or law

• unique identification key for socially insured persons

− the use of modern technologies in support of these goals. The e-services – only interesting for transactions of small data volume because of the limitation inherent in any web interface – must be considered as a part of a more general movement coordinated by the CBSS that has led to:

− standardisation of communication among the institutions concerned with social security,

− principles of sole and appropriate collection of information, better back-office synchronisation and automatic granting of rights and benefits;

• adoption of coordinated computer infrastructure and network

− security precautions through external control and mandatory agreement of every new communication flow as well as through rationalised use of personal data;

• implementation of a solid but flexible IOP framework

− quality of information: information modelling that renders it independent of unavoidable changes in political or legal concepts;

− unique identification key for customers; functional back-office task sharing where responsibilities are well-defined


and which allows ad hoc compulsory information validity checks between institutions;

− adoption of coordinated computer infrastructure and network; the very different natures of those institutions is bottled up through the implementation of a solid but flexible interoperability framework.

1.3.2 Implementation Workflow description The process of granting complementary benefits for disabled persons in Belgium starts with the residence registration at the local responsible municipality. The complementary benefits are granted in form of tax deductions at federal, regional and municipal government level and in form of reduced fees or free travelling in public transport. After registration, the municipality then initiates the process by passing the registry information to the national Civil Register which subsequently updates the Reference Repository at the CBSS. This repository contains - besides the mirrored registration data of Belgian inhabitants - the further directories necessary for the authentication of customers and the correct routing of messages. With regard to these directories, the CBSS then submits a message to the soc. sec. institutions concerned with disabled persons in order to check if any entries of the disabled person are already available which concerns the entitlement and calculation of the complementary benefits and is awaiting their answer. The concerned soc. sec. institutions are the

− Regional offices for disabled persons, − National Office for Industrial Accidents, − National Office for Occupational Diseases, − National Office for Family Allowances for Employees, − National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-

employed, − Federal public service Social Security.

These soc. sec. institutions then transmit their answer to the CBSS which passes it to the respective offices responsible for tax deduction and public transportation:

− Municipality for automatic granting of fiscal benefits on local level,

− Regional Institution for automatic granting of fiscal benefits on regional level,

− Federal Public Service Finance for automatic granting of fiscal benefits on federal level,

− Companies for public transport for automatic granting of free transport passes.



As mentioned above, the Local Public Service Centres for Social Welfare (CPAS) and the regional soc. sec. Institutions are in charge of the social security services described here. However, though the policy concerning this subject is local and regional, the refund is to be paid by the Federal State. I.e. the Federal Public Service Social Integration verifies the allowances granted to the citizens and calculates the amount that has been paid and refunds this to the CPAS.

The workflow for the increased re-imbursement of medical costs which is exemplary for the other complementary benefits in the soc. sec sector is in big parts identical to the workflow described before, particularly the consultation of the soc. sec. institution via the CBSS. However, in this workflow, the application starts at the CPAS which takes care for the verification of the applicant's data (via submissions to the soc. sec. institutions) and takes the decision for the allowance. The decision is distributed to the CBSS which aligns the personal data with the National Civil Register for identification purposes and processes the allowance declaration, again with regard to its reference directory, together with the concerned soc. sec. institutions. I.e. the message is distributed to them and they in turn initiate the automatic granting of complementary benefit respectively the increased refund of health care costs to the applicant.

The citizen (disabled person) then will automatically be informed of the granted complementary benefits.

Citizen CBSS

Crossroads Bank for Social Security

(Federal)

Local Public Centre for Social Welfare

Decision of allowance

Workflow federal refund of allowances

granted by local public centre and automatic

granting of complementary

benefits in social security

National Register (Federal)

Identification data of the

person

Declaration of allowance

Processing of declaration of

allowance

Reference Repertory

Federal Public Service Social Integration

Verification of declaration

and calculation of amounts to

refund

Refund

Sectoral Reference Repertory

Automatic granting of

complementary benefits and

increased refund of health care

costs

Social Security Institutions


: Social Security Benefits - Belgium 09-2005, vs 2.0 12

GP Case

Citizen

National Office for Industrial Accidents

National Office for Family

Allowances for

Employees

National Office for

Occupational Diseases

Ziekenfondsen

Crossroads Bank for Social

Security

Reference Repertory

Federal public service Finance

Federal taxation


fiscal benefits

on regional


fiscal benefits

on federal level

Distribution based on Reference Repertory

and National Register Federal

public service Social

Security

Companies for public transport

Contact center for citizens


free transport passes

Informs of problem

with social benefits

Consults situation

with regard to benefits

Inform citizen of situation

Tra

nsm

issi

on d

ata

dis

able

d p

erso

ns

and/o

r (d

epen

dan

t) c

hild

ren

Registration of every file in reference repertory

Registration of every file in reference repertory

Registers in place of residence

National Register

National Register

589 municipalities 10 provinces Local taxation

Population Register

Pass information to National Register

3 regional institutions

Regional taxation

Regional offices for disabled persons


fiscal benefits on local

level

Workflow complementary benefits for disabled persons

Resources The key elements in the structure and organisation within the social security sector are the information model for modelling the soc. sec. services on the one hand and the CBSS which clears the data streams in its functionality as clearing house on the other hand.

Supporting infrastructure employed: • Information model

which provides the commonly employed service provision structure and definition of the objects

• CBSS as sophisticated high value clearing house in the soc. sec. sector incl. a reference directory for matching processes

Information model The modelling of information has had (and still has) a central part in the development of the social security services. All services in this sector provided at the CPAS follow more or less the same procedure, i.e. they are modelled and implemented in the same way. The information flow of each service has been modelled through the involved government levels and government bodies in such way that the real world is reflected in the model as closely as possible. This means the definition of items of information, their attributes and interrelations is based on an abstraction from reality and not on legal concepts. This has led to an independency of the information model of the service provision from changes in the legal environments. Special attention was paid to the time aspect during the information modelling process. I.e. the information may relate to a situation at a specific moment (e.g. the current residence) or to a situation during a period (e.g. the salary relating to a certain working period). So it was important to have consistency in the basic temporal units with which information is used for various purposes. I.e. the entitlement and calculation of re-imbursement of medical costs - which depends on the current income (e.g. salary, unemployment benefit) - needs up-to-date income information from the respective responsible social security institution (Labour office, Finance office). The implementation of these information modelling principles is based on object-oriented information modelling techniques and modelling languages such as UML and the subsequent applications are therefore designed in such a way that legal changes can easily and quickly be reflected. Since all soc. sec. services follow the same structure, the joint information model is applicable for all applications. The joint information model is described in a glossary at https://www.socialsecurity.be/portail/glossaires/dmfa.nsf/Consult/Fr/AModifGlos?OpenView&ExpandView and available to the social security offices and employers and their social secretariats in a co-ordinated way, by way of a workflow system. The evolution of the concepts over time is carefully stored and documented, so that data from the past can be correctly interpreted.

• Soc. sec. number for authentication

Warranty of security and privacy: • Data security and

privacy is warranted by the CBSS which is a public organisation by law that only is responsible for clearing without any legacy or service processing related functions.

• The CBSS is a main actor in the development and recording of the data protection guidelines in Belgium with a high capacity in authentication and identification technologies

CBSS With the CBSS, the service delivery is supported by a sophisticated clearing house with high capacities in terms of routing, information checks, data and format conversion, re-grouping of messages and validity checks of digital signatures. This central institution is to be


https://www.socialsecurity.be/portail/glossaires/dmfa.nsf/Consult/Fr/AModifGlos?OpenView&ExpandView


seen as an response to the rather complex access to data of various back-offices which is required by the service. The data exchange between back-offices can take place either by terminal emulation (the ability to make one computer terminal appear to look like another, usually older type of terminal so that a user can access programs originally written to communicate with the other terminal type. Terminal emulation is often used to give PC users the ability to log on and get direct access to legacy programs in a mainframe operating system), application-to-application or Internet protocol. Message standardisation takes place independent of the exchange mode. Every message is composed of two parts: the headers (in XML or flat format) contain all necessary information for correct routing: sender and addressee, type and kind of message, mandatory information to obtain authorisation, answer management. The message in itself (in XML, EDIFACT or flat format) contains the personal data (related to a Social Security Identification Number contained in the headers). The communications between back-offices rely on XML-structured messages while the CBSS ensures protocol- and syntax-conversion if necessary. The input from the outside (web portal, FTP, interbanking network) is collected through the Extranet and directly converted into structured messages. The connection between the CBSS and the social security institutions is made through the Extranet to which all social security institutions have a direct connection. The centre of the social security back-office communication is the register of references of the CBSS. Its task is to route every message according to the rules jointly decided (and managed by the CBSS) and indeed of the authorisations granted by the Expert Control Committee (see "Privacy and security" below). This register consists of three tables:

− available data: where (in which institution) are respective data available and for which purpose;

− access authorisations (who can access what); − directory of persons: in which databases is a person known,

in which quality and for which period (if relevant). The data combination of those three tables enables automatic routing of every incoming message. So the CBSS itself holds absolutely no core data about the insured persons: this task remains the exclusive mission of the soc. sec. institutions in their respective sectors. The CBSS grants the authorisations, organises and coordinates the transmission and communication, and supports the communication in itself.

Case capitalises mainly on following layers of IOP: • Technical (internet

protocol, email, HTTP, FTP)

• Syntactic (SOAP, UDDI, XML…)

• Semantic (EDI, XML, message standards, reference directory…)

• Organisational IOP (clearing house, legal changes)

There are no more than three standardised messages types processed in the soc. sec. sector by the CBSS:

− Submission: inquiry where a response in form of an professional answer is expected / required.


− Distribution, inquiry where no response is expected (except a confirmation of acceptance).

− Answer: the answer of an inquiry. This could be either an intermediary answer; i.e. more than one institution will provide an answer, however with different responding time-frames or a final answer; i.e. one or more institutions will provide an answer and the answers will be collected by the CBSS and sent in one single (final) message. The requesting soc. sec. institution can choose which type of answer it will receive.

Awareness and Marketing The social security institutions are obliged to provide the data for others. The other way around, social security institutions which won't provide the data could theoretically be disconnected from the CBSS. Thus, soc. sec. institutions only could benefit of the data exchange via the CBSS. This explains why all institutions concerned with social security are connected to the system.

Awareness and Marketing: • Soc. sec. institutions

have to provide data • Connection to CBSS is

not compulsory but only beneficial for soc. sec. institutions


1.4 Features making it a candidate for good practice exchange 1.4.1 Impact

Outreach: • All about 2,000 public

and private institutions in Belgium concerned with social security independently of their government level or affiliation are involved in the improved service provision; i.e. full national roll-out

One basic principle of administrative practice in Belgium, stipulated by law, is that citizens (businesses) have to give information only once to the public administration. I.e. the public administration is oblieged to ask for the up-to-date data of this citizen at other public administrations that are also concerned with the respective citizen even if quite different purposes are concerned. However, the responsibilities for services in the soc. sec. sector are shared among the various Belgian government levels which makes it difficult to get up-to-date citizen data out of the various data bases in Belgium and in addition, to get this data quickly. With interfaces to an intermediate clearing house, mainly based on application to application or on web-technologies, the various social security offices got themselves connected.

Performance: • 380 million messages

exchanged in 2004

By today, all the about 2,000 authorities and companies concerned with social security, independent of their governmental level or affiliation, are networked. Between these offices, 380 million electronic messages were exchanged in 2004 with an average processing time of less than one second for online transactions. Thus, social security benefits can be granted more quickly, due to the quicker processing of digital information. This saved many paper declarations and certificates and thus high costs. On average, the costs for such messages are less than 5 Eurocent per piece.

• Average less than 1 second per online message transfer

• More timely receipt of better quality registration data

Furthermore, services are provided at a higher level of quality, since validation procedures have been included in the implementation of the digital process and for the exchange of data, which has strongly reduced the number of errors in comparison to the period of paper declarations. Besides this considerably reduced red-tape and costs, and the invaluable added value in terms of efficiency, this service provision structure allows the automatic granting of complementary benefits. I.e. several manual checks and calculations were diminished and automation achieved. The automatic granting involves not only the social security sector but is also linked to the public administration in general since complementary benefits are regularly being granted via tax deductions at the different government levels. Due to this interconnection of social security institutions on several levels, fraud can efficiently be avoided. Since the information is only to be given once to the public administration, contradictory declarations e.g. concerning wages for the calculation of social security contributions on the one hand and the calculation of the several social security benefits on the other hand are no more possible. Also, illegal accumulation of benefits and other income e.g. by application for the same complementary benefits at different social security institutions are now impossible.

Benefits: • Citizen have to give

their information only once

• Automated granting possible

• Quicker service provision

• Better quality of information and less errors

• Reduced red-tape and costs

• Avoided fraud


1.4.2 Relevance of the case for other administrations that could learn from the experience The key success factors enabling the automated granting of complementary benefits rest on two central principles:

Innovativeness: • Information modelling

independent from environment changes and re-usable for other purposes or services

• Single collection and re-use of information for streamlining processes and better data quality

• Information management that historicises changes and manages access

− The compliance with the used basic principles concerning the handling of information within the framework of e-government and the

− re-use of the applied working method. I.e. the success of the aligned service provision of the soc. sec services is primarily due to the systematic observance of a number of clear principles concerning the handling of information within the framework of e-government. These principles can be a source of inspiration for the expansion of other e-government projects; main aspects are:

− Information modelling: The Information is modelled through government levels and government bodies in such a way that the model reflects the real world as closely as possible. I.e. the definition of items of information, their attributes and interrelations, is based on an abstraction from reality and not on legal concepts. Thus, changes to the information model are avoided due to the change of the legal environments. In addition it is possible to flexibly extend or adapt the information model when the real world or information use change.

− Single collection and re-use of information: Information is only being collected by government bodies for well-defined purposes and in a way that is proportional to those purposes. All information is being collected only once, as close to the authentic source as possible. Multiple government bodies don't collect the same information repeatedly from citizens or companies. In addition, they collect information from the information source at which it was first created. The information collected is being validated only once, following an established task sharing system, by the most suitably qualified government body or by the government body that has the greatest interest in its correct validation.

− Information management: Functional task sharing is being established, indicating which body stores which information in an authentic way, manages that information and makes it available to authorised users. In this way, an authentic source for every piece of information has been set within the government as a whole.

− Electronic information exchange: Electronic information exchanges are taking place on the basis of a functional and technical interoperability framework that evolves continually but gradually in accordance with open standards, and that is independent of the methods used for information exchange.

• Electronic information exchange based on a functional IOP framework

• Re-use of the applied working method that uses and re-uses available components and information


− Re-use of the applied working method: Available components and information are re-used aiming at maximising the use of already existing networks, means of electronic identification, authentication and authorisation, middleware environments and their accompanying basic services, portal environments, and the electronic information that is accessible from validated databases inside and outside of government. Thus, the efforts were directed towards the development of services with an added value, which are based on process adjustments, while the multifunctional use of the same components is assured for all.

1.4.3 Transferability

Transferability: • Services based on

common electronic dictionaries

• Services based on an information model and enclosed XML-Scheme documented in glossaries

• Service development is based on an IOP framework consisting of common and open standards

• Services are based on re-used concepts and applications

From the outset, the services presented here are developed on the basis of a unique concept. I.e. the transferability of service structures is inherent to the soc. sec system. All information concerning the electronic data exchanges is standardised for all social security sectors. The use of the object-oriented methodology, applied to the glossaries and the XML schemes, has led to the creation of original and innovative applications. Throughout the technical documentation, each generic concept is defined in a unique way and is stored in a common electronic dictionary available on the social security portal. The documentation concerning the transactions is divided into different specific electronic dictionaries which inherit from the generic concept and can be enriched by specific information. According to the inheritance principle, each modification to one of the generic concepts is transferred to the entire documentation. The exchange of all electronic information occurs on the basis of XML messages. The defined XML schemes are documented in glossaries, which are also available on the social security portal. These glossaries describe the meaning and the format of the different data units, the integrity conditions and the control mechanisms that have been provided. These glossaries are valid for all social security offices and are administered in a co-ordinated manner on the basis of groupware. Transferability also concerns the re-use of basic components, such as for instance the user and authorisation management system including the soc. sec. number and the digital signature card, or the electronic mailbox, for the support of electronic service delivery by the government bodies to citizens and companies in other domains than social security.


Transferability: • Technical and

syntactic IOP: Use of networks, information exchange infrastructure, security infrastructure

To sum up, with regard to interoperability, important measures within the soc. sec. sector which recommend for transferability were taken on each level:

− On the technical and syntactic level, i.e. allowing data transmission between the involved agencies in terms of − networks: (TCP/IP), mail (SMTP), directory services

(LDAP), data transfer (HTTP and FTP), − information exchange: structured data and open text

(HTML and XML Schemes), locked text (PDF), data modelling (UML), data transformation (XSL), web services (SOAP, UDDI), service repositories (WSDL), and

− security: transport security (SSL), secure mail (S/MIME), digital certificates (X509),

• Semantic IOP: Standards for message types, encoding, objects and attributes, layout and message headers

• Organisational IOP: Value proved organisational collaboration network, version management, change of legislation, intercession of CBSS

− On the semantic level in terms of − standardised encoding, − standardised use of objects and attributes, − standardised layout of message headers independent

of the information exchange format (EDI, XML etc.), − other features within the range of interfaces to the

soc. sec. institutions and by use of the reference directory

− On the organisational level in terms of − version management, − change of legislation, − creation of the CBSS.


1.5 Results

Impact: The most noteworthy realisation is the cooperation framework between the different administrations in the soc. sec. sector. All relevant institutions for the granting of complementary benefits are part of this framework. Thus, the take-up for these service applications and auxiliary services is therefore 100%.

• Introduction of a cooperation framework connecting all public and private offices concerned with social security. This framework allows granting benefits at any local office without

knowing more about the applicant than the information given in the application. I.e. neither the sources where the required data for the entitlement and calculation are stored nor if the applicant already have applied for benefits at any other institution has to be known by the administration officer. This is automatically done by the network. Only the respective message type (Submission, Distribution, or Answer) has to be chosen.

• Warrantee of a 100% trustworthy organisational and technical structure

• Provision of highly performed data routing and processing

Pre-conditioned for such a complex network are the correct routing and processing of the applications as well as their trustworthy verification at the respective soc. sec. institutions. Clear agreements were made between the social security offices, as to who validates which information for correctness and within what period of time. The validated information is available at authentic sources, which are accessible via a network to all interested social security offices. The users of this information have the right to assume that the data is correct and the applicants must be able to rely on the correctness of the data. The process that has been developed for this purpose delivers data of high quality, also in practice.

Performance: • All social security

institutions are enclosed, i.e. a take-up of 100% is achieved

• Faster processing of applications

• Reduced workload on both sides by, at the same time, more qualitative work

The applicants are therefore contacted much less frequently by the social security offices for the purpose of supplementing or amending information. The administration and maintenance of this framework and network is carried out with large computer support and under consultation with the various sectors of social security, including a workflow and a complete documentation of concepts, the information model and the changes that have been made over time. Certainly, this project could only be developed in a joint and sensible way, through the co-operation of the large number of different parties from the public and private social security offices, each with highly different tasks and the ICT companies that provide personnel administration software, etc.


1.6 Learning points and conclusions Critical success

factors for IOP: The social security sector is a forerunner in Belgium concerning the one-and-only provision of citizen information to the public administration. The presented services take part in a wider eGovernment strategy of sharing civil data among the various institutions under inclusion of a clearing house. Other service areas like the Crossroads Bank for Companies have followed this example. The critical success factors and the lessons learned from the development, implementation phase and practice were and still are: Strong political leadership Access to and support of policymakers at the highest level: strong political leadership is crucial to make the necessary changes possible and to guarantee cooperation between all government levels and government bodies. Long term vision A combination of a long term vision, profound re-engineering and quick wins: political leaders have to be convinced that eGovernment has to be based on a long term vision and a profound re-engineering of service delivery to the customers; quick wins are useful to prove the efficiency of eGovernment and to motivate civil servants to change, but they have to fit with the long term vision; a race for quick wins doesn't stimulate development of well conceived systems based on re-engineering. eGovernment Strategy as leading guideline The development of the complementary benefit services was situated in a general eGovernment strategy that was defined within the Belgian social security sector at the start of the 1990s; the basic principles of which were adopted into the national eGovernment strategy in 2000. The strategic plan of the service implementation was transparent for all involved parties from the beginning. As a consequence, no essential strategic points were brought into question during the development and implementation phase. The existence of such a clear strategy, to which all of the involved parties agree, is particularly a highly important success factor in the planning of eGovernment umbrella projects. Radical cultural change within government A radical cultural change within government, e.g. from hierarchy to participation and team work; meeting the needs of the customer, not the government; empowering rather than serving; rewarding entrepreneurship within government; ex post evaluation on output, not ex ante control of every input.

• Strong political leadership

• Long term vision

• Radical cultural change within government with processes upside-down

• eGovernment strategy based on fundamental principles as leading guideline


• Determination of critical success factors and measures before the start of the development

Critical success factors for IOP:

• Project governance to be supported by effective groupware

Determination of critical success factors and measures before the start of the development The service realisation has taught that it is extremely important during the design phase to determine the critical success factors, the measurement indicators that are required for determining the (lack of) success for each critical success factor, the provision of these indicators from the very start in the development of the applications, and to let the information on these indicators be administered and made accessible in a data warehouse environment that includes powerful aggregation, analysis and reporting facilities. Groupware required for project governance The availability of groupware for all involved parties is a must for documentation, project planning, project follow-up, issue management, and for a co-ordinated management of the information model and glossaries. If a large number of administrations must manage frequent changes by way of paper procedures, or even via consultation meetings, then a bottleneck is unavoidable. Central project sponsorship

• Central project sponsorship to avoid delays

In the case of such an umbrella project, a split up of budgets over a large number of partners involved can lead to delays, for instance because of the necessity for all partners to receive administrative approval. That is why the required financial resources were shifted to the organisation that provides the project manager. Publicly accessible information model

• Employment of an information model that is publicly accessible

• Information modelling based on reality and not on legal concepts

Information has to be modelled and to be collected, managed and exchanged in accordance with the model. The model typically contains standard elements, with well-defined characteristics and the relations between those elements. The model should be electronically and publicly accessible by a multiple-criteria search environment, with facilities to consult the model by element, scheme, version etc. Information modelling based on reality and not on legal concepts Information should be modelled through government levels and government bodies in such a way that the model reflects the real world as closely as possible. This means the definitions of items of information, their attributes and interrelations is based on an abstraction from reality and not on legal concepts. Thus, changes to the information model are avoided due to changes in the legal environments.


• Cross institutional agreements on data content and data interpretation has to be found


Collaboration semantics The agreement of data content of XML schemes and the data interpretation across different institutions and different services plays a key role. Each institution uses its own scheme and data structure based on historical use in order to provide public services. The institutions have to come to an agreement which means that they have to come to a compromise even if they have to accept changes in their basic data bases. So negotiations, e.g. about the interpretation of what is a name, what is an address etc. have to take place and commonly agreed. Standards It is important that data and other technical standards are set and agreed early in the development process. One organisation should be mandated to "own" the standards and ensure that they are adhered to. In this initiative, the CBSS were mandated to agree, and set the data and XML message standards and this proved very successful for the development and implementation of the social security services. Joint harmonisation allows for one-time data collection The joint harmonisation of basic concepts and the amendment of regulations for this purpose allow the one-time collection of information from citizens (and companies) because the information can be re-used in a multifunctional way. Efficiency by sharing or cross-cutting services A common vision and strategy, and the development of joint components, avoids not only unnecessary costs, it also makes it possible for users of governmental services to obtain integrated services from a single platform, services that conform to events in their life cycle/business episode. A joint development and administration of these components is highly useful so as to make sure that all involved governmental services make use of these components and that they do not see their shared character as a threat to their autonomy.

• Joint harmonisation allows for one-time data collection

• Early setting of and agreement on standards

• One organisation should be responsible for the management of standards

• Creation of service integrators

• Quality control of technique and information

• Sharing cross-cutting services to be more efficient

Creation of service integrators The creation of service integrators at each government level that co-operate to propose a common vision and that stimulate and co-ordinate the eGovernment initiatives is a factor for success. Quality control It has been shown that the quality of information plays a crucial role in the multifunctional use of information and, at the same time, in the success of the development. Next to formal control regulations, the development of statistical analyses of probable content-oriented inconsistencies in a data warehouse environment has shown itself to


be extremely useful. The experience that is being gained in this matter appears to be extremely useful and certainly transferable.


• Flexibility in case of difficulties arise

Flexibility in case of difficulties arise The difficulties that we experienced in this area were only overcome by being flexible and responsive with regard to our external partners. In the area of scheduling, resources and budgets, this implies that there must be room for this kind of flexibility.

1.7 References and links Websites (all URL's worked out on the last visit on 04.09.2005):

− Social Security Portal: https://www.socialsecurity.be − Social assistance: http://www.socialassistance.fgov.be/ − National Office for Social Security: http://www.onssrszlss.fgov.be − Crossroads Bank for Social Security: www.ksz-bcss.fgov.be − Example for a Glossary: − https://www.socialsecurity.be/portail/glossaires/dmfa.nsf/Consult/Fr/AModifGlos?OpenVie

w&ExpandView − Identity Card: http://eid.belgium.be/en/navigation/12000/index.html − E-government: the approach of the Belgian federal administration: − http://www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/icri/frobben/publications/2003%20-%20E-

government%20paper%20v%201.0.pdf


https://www.socialsecurity.be/

http://www.socialassistance.fgov.be/

http://www.onssrszlss.fgov.be/

http://www.ksz-bcss.fgov.be/



http://eid.belgium.be/en/navigation/12000/index.html

http://www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/icri/frobben/publications/2003%20-%20E-government%20paper%20v%201.0.pdf

http://www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/icri/frobben/publications/2003%20-%20E-government%20paper%20v%201.0.pdf

Annex 1: Assessment Questionnaire for the MODINIS Case Descriptions

In order to ensure the case descriptions meet the information needs of stakeholders in interoperability at the local and regional level, we ask you to complete this short assessment questionnaire. Your feedback will be used to improve the next version of the present case and will also be taken into consideration when writing up more cases to be described in the course of the project. Case being reviewed:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 1.) Information content a) Completeness of description 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| only few all relevant relevant aspects aspects b) Detail of description 1 3 5 3 1 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| too right too many general level details 2.) Length of description 1 3 5 3 1 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| too right too short length long 3.) Structure / headings 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| unclear clear


4.) Margins 1 3 5 |----------------------|-------------------- --| misleading not necessary good orientation 5.) Learning potential 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| none at all many new insights 6.) Usefulness for your own work 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| not at all very much 7.) Transferability of case to your country 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| not at all very high 8.) Will you get into contact with the contact person? 1 5 |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------| certainly for sure not Comments ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Your affiliation local/regional national IT academia government government business


Prepared by:

Ralf Cimander and Herbert Kubicek Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen GmbH (ifib)

Am Fallturm 1, D-28359 Bremen, Germany www.ifib.de

Tel.: (+49 421) 218 26 74, Fax: (+49 421) 218 48 94, email: [email protected]

http://www.ifib.de/egov-interoperability

European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA)

Center for Research and Technology Hellas / Institute of Informatics and Telematics (CERTH/ITI)

]

Prepared for:

European Commission Information Society and Media Directorate-General eGovernment Unit Tel (32-2) 299 02 45 Fax (32-2) 299 41 14 E-mail [email protected] Website europa.eu.int/egovernment_research

http://www.ifib.de/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.ifib.de/egov-interoperability

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