Municipalities in the Netherlands take control of their digital infrastructure using the no-code platform to provide health services to youth citizens more efficiently and effectively.
PRESS RELEASE: The Netherlands - 22nd February, 2018 - Betty Blocks, the leading no-code application development platform, today announced the acquisition of not one, but 14 new customers in the government sector. The City of Zaanstad and 13 surrounding cities in the region found their IT solution with Betty Blocks’ platform.
The 14 municipal governments were established as an association to collaborate on the purchasing and redistribution of specialized youth care services in this region. They were seeking an administrative solution to better manage residents’ data, contracts, products and subscriptions with the youth care providers. The current system involved the manual processing of all data, communication and invoices. While achieving this solution would require the compliance of all cities, the City of Zaanstad brought an innovative idea forward that would improve the management of youth care services for all municipalities involved by aggregating the data in a single database.
“We had a vision on how youth services should be handled in the region but no available software could support this vision,” City of Zaanstad Senior Information Manager Tom Uleman said. “Further from a political standpoint, it seemed impossible to align every stakeholder with one project. With Betty Blocks, we were able to build a prototype within 10 days that convinced each stakeholder. Ultimately, we delivered this ambitious software project well within the deadline and budget.”
Speeding up time to market, optimizing processes
Using Betty Blocks’ platform, the City of Zaanstad created a prototype with QNH to realize their idea. The City of Zaanstad built an application that synced all data in one portal. With this application, the local government could better collaborate with the youth care providers, have more control over the database, and provide better service to the citizens. The City of Zaanstad built the prototype within a few days and were able to experience the value of the application, the no-code platform and the shift to digital services.
Along with improved processes, the impact of this prototype had even greater implications. Bringing all 14 governments in line with one goal is difficult but the City of Zaanstad was able to demonstrate the benefits to, and further align, the surrounding governments in the entire region with the same plan. The visual modelling of the application simplified the structure for other municipalities to easily understand and adopt for their own organization. Ultimately with a strong initiative and the means to build the prototype efficiently, the City of Zaanstad was able to transform the status quo in the regional governments’ collaboration.
A need for customized software
Many government organizations use standardized software, which is difficult to change and therefore, innovate. The City of Zaanstad would have been limited to a standardized SaaS package that would fit 70-80% of their processes. However, supplementing their existing digital infrastructure with Betty Blocks’ customizable and more flexible platform enabled them to gain full control in automating processes and improving workflows.
“Betty Blocks’ no-code platform has given us the ease of use and flexibility to not only create our own solutions, but also gain ownership over our solutions,” Uleman said. “While this first digitization project proved to be a success, we see the potential to transform our services and innovate our organization even more in the future.”
Municipal governments are facing mandates from the national government to transform their operations and provide better services to inhabitants. In the Netherlands, the national government has set requirements for municipalities to achieve a level of digital innovation in the areas of education, infrastructure, security, business and social sectors by the year 2020.
Furthermore, governments worldwide are seeking to become a ‘digital’ government by shifting repetitive, manual processes to a digital system. Organizations are discovering that technology is providing increasing benefits for the people using it. Using a no-code platform, governments can reach the goals of a ‘digital’ government while empowering the human behind the technology. With Betty Blocks, governments have experienced the benefits of this change directly.
No-Code platforms have been seen as the solution of choice for municipalities due to the ease of use, efficiency and effectiveness. As shown by existing customers in the government industry, using no-code streamlines internal operations and services to citizens, encourages innovation and helps to achieve national mandates.
About Betty Blocks
Betty Blocks is the leading no-code high-productivity aPaaS provider in the world. As the only, truly no-code platform based in the cloud, Betty Blocks enables you to build complex, enterprise-grade applications efficiently and effectively. Winner of the Holland Business Award and the first ever no-code platform to have obtained the ISO 27001 certification, Betty Blocks is validating its platform in the areas of security and customer satisfaction. As rapid as Betty Blocks makes application development, they are rapidly expanding internationally. They currently have offices in the Netherlands, Germany, US, UK, Japan and South Africa.
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