Case Municipality of Arendonk

Approach

What is often the case with (smaller) cities and municipalities is that there is no in-house specialist dealing with information management. Koen Geerts is a staff member at Arendonk municipality and knows a thing or two about GDPR and procedures. Despite this experience, he still needed an external partner with the right expertise to assist him. Together, they were able to take the step towards an efficient information management system. After all, for someone who doesn't specialise in it, the process can be overwhelming. He appealed to Zeticon for help to get everything going correctly.

Initially, an exploratory meeting followed. For us, it was important to know where the municipality wanted to go, how everything should proceed, and so on. We therefore initiated the first phase, which we call the "Quick Scan". Arendonk wanted to digitise as much as possible. The scan was the ideal starting point. Together with our experts, they were able to map out their current situation (down to the smallest details). We also held internal workshops where every person involved in the municipality could give input. Furthermore, we also physically visited them, allowing us to see their archiving and current digital processes. That way, we got a full picture of the situation so that we could provide the right advice.

We poured that picture into a comprehensive report. This contains the summary of our findings, but most importantly, our recommendations. Koen stated that he was relieved that their own expectations closely matched it. So it is tailor-made advice that forms a good basis for possible next steps. Koen couldn't be more pleased: "Now the real work begins!"

After all, the vision has to be translated into practice. How are they going to build their information management system? Digitisation is a complex process that needs to be steered in the right direction so that it remains manageable for everyone. The era of each working with their own folders, resulting in files getting scattered all over the place, will soon be over for the municipality. Koen is already looking forward to it. He knows better than anyone that something like GDPR is important in the implementation of the system. To give an example, the serial register has to be linked to the processing register and that whole thing has to be integrated into the system. The whole construction of the platform, we are starting on that together now.

Result

We are happy that the municipality of Arendonk is satisfied with the cooperation. We initially wanted to offer a research phase so that the municipality could decide whether or not they wanted to go further. Arendonk has the advice with them; a good basis to start from. Koen Geerts praises the workshops we did with them and their way of working. He calls them professional and he appreciates the transparent approach. "You get to know each other well, which is necessary as long-term partners, since we might be building our system with Zeticon for a few years. Tom and Louis are fine, experienced and enthusiastic people who communicate honestly and clearly. The solution now on the table is clearly tailor-made, not a thirteen-in-a-dozen idea. We got the advice we needed thanks to the Quick Scan."

Whether he would recommend Zeticon as a partner? On that, Koen is adamant: