Online construction permits in Lyngdal (eGovLyngdal)

Local egovernment initiatives are finally reaching fruition. The municipality of Lyngdal has breached the divide between the layers of gouvernment and the functional siloes are streamlined. Integrating front-end interactive portals with online maps and a back-end case processing application gives construction entrepeneurs a powerfull tool for plowing through documentation demands for constrution. Further integration between municipal and state casehandling applictations and archives results in reducing case processing times. The result is high quality construction applications and streamlined case processing.

Policy Context

The municipality of Lyngdal (Lyngdal kommune) operates, as all Norwegian municipalities, within several policy areas. These range from education, health, local legislation to environment and agriculture. Our submission is within the context of implementing local legislation of construction permits.

Description of target users and groups

Targetgroups for the Lyngdal municipal egovernment initiatives are construction entrepeneurs and citizens seaking construction permits. The construction entrepeneurs have access to the municipalitys extranett for businesses in the construction sector where they can find information on each construction permit application they have in the municipal back-office caseprocessing application and archive database. Another initiative is the geographical representation of applications on online maps including a variety of tools for obtaining property information and planning tools for size and placement of buildings. Applications can be delivered through the national online construciton permit system "Byggsoek" which is integrated with the municipalitys case processing application and archive database. Ordinary citizens can also access the integrated online map tools and national online construction permit system. The initiatives also targets local case processors and vertical integration in workflows between local and regional (state) construction case prossesing. When a high quality (eg. correct application with all nessecary documentation) construction application is recieved from the national system "Byggsoek", the municipal case processor has access to integrated map tools and electronic documentation for quicker processing time. If the application needs some approval from regional (state) gouvernment, our case processing systems are integrated to shorten the transfer time and transaction costs between administration levels. These initiatives give a more complete front-end/back-end integration and bridge administrative siloes resulting in a fast and high quality construction permit case processing.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The management approach used was in the spirit of Business Process Management, using process analysis and models as a guide to acchieve the best results for the project. The municipality of Lyngdal (Lyngdal kommune) has created a lasting and good partnership with five construction entrepeneurs. These still meet with the municipality to convey change requests. The municipality has also signed a mutial benefitial development agreement with ErgoGroup AS which is the deliverer of the case processing system "ePhorte". This has also led to a good partnership with the development company behind ePhorte called Gecko AS. The municipality also has a good partnership with the regional (state) government (Fylkesmannen i Vest-Agder) which has resultet in a further development of the earlier initiatives in the form of the "BEST" project mentioned earlier. Multi-channel issues: The applicant delivers an online construction permit form electronically from a national system (Byggsoek) which is transfered instantly to the municipality for further case processing. In cases that require processing by the regional (state) authorities, the case processing system can deliver documentation directly and safely to the regional back-office case processing system. This is done as a batch process. The Applicants can also deliver paper applications. These are scanned and metatagged in the case processing system and may be handled as above.

Main results, benefits and impacts

All construction related permits are published graphically on the municipal online map tools. Five construction entrepeneurs have access to the municipal extranett with tools for construciton applications and all citizens of Lyngdal can use the map service and/or the national construction permit system (Byggsoek) to fast track their construction applications. Using an online construction permit system integrated with the municipality back-office systems gives the citizens anbusinesses the opportunity to apply for permits on a 24/7 basis. The system forces the applicant to fill inn the necessary documentation first time around, reducing iterations. The solution helps the applicant by partially filling out the forms needed. No postage is needed with the integration with the municipal system cutting days off the processing time. Applicants experience a comfort in seeing their public cases grapchipally on online maps and entrepreneurs can follow their permit process closely from the municipal extranett. Processing time is reduced by cutting the postage time between administration levels, thanks to the integration of case processing systems through the implementation of new and also established standards (eg. Noark-4 and XML standards). The use of standards for integration in administrative production leads to more innovation and affirmation of standards by the system developers and standard owners (eg. KS in the case of Noark-4). Innovation: The municipality of Lyngdal (Lyngdal kommune) have used new standards for case processing application integration, and managed to create a production case which brigdes the gap between citizens, businesses and government levels. This is the novelty of our egovernment initiative: A complete case of egovernment and innovation through national standards for the benefit of the citizens.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The initiatives was a part of a project called "KS Integrasjonsprosjektet, pilotering og drift" owned by The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) with backing from the "Hoeykom" initiative (a support initiative for broadband based, information intensive eGovernment services). This project has influenced another Hoeykom backed project called "BEST - Betre elektronisk samhandling og tenester" (BEST - better electronic cooperation and services) in which the municipality of Lyngdal is a participant. This project has a goal of involving more case processing system developers to conform on a standrard way of exchanging data regardless of propriatory systems and file formats. The project also seeks to create a critical mass of municipal and regional users of the standard and the technology for a faster dissemination.

Lessons learnt

1. A small organisation like the municipality of Lyngdal can participate in ground breaking innovation 2. The use of standards on propriatory software creates a more complete egovernment information system 3. Involving business partners together with government partners creates a more complete development environment for innovative egovernment solutions Scope: Local (city or municipality), National, Regional (sub-national)