Custom Software Solutions for Government and Public Sector Organisations

Government organisations across the Netherlands face a complex digitalisation agenda. Municipalities, provinces, water boards and executive agencies must modernise their service delivery under increasingly stringent legislation. The Baseline Informatiebeveiliging Overheid (BIO) sets mandatory information security controls, the Open Government Act (Woo) requires proactive publication of administrative documents, and the Algorithm Register demands transparency about automated decision-making. At the same time, citizens expect digital public services that match the convenience of commercial apps: fast, intuitive and available around the clock. Many public sector organisations still rely on outdated systems that cannot meet current standards. Connecting to national facilities such as DigiD, the Generic Digital Infrastructure (GDI) and base registries often requires specialist knowledge that is in short supply. The case-oriented working model (zaakgericht werken), where every citizen interaction is registered and tracked as a case, requires software with structured process flows and complete audit trails. The introduction of the Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) and the accompanying Digital System for the Physical Environment (DSO) has intensified the urgency. Municipalities must offer permit applications, notifications and preliminary consultations digitally through the national planning portal. This demands integrations that correctly handle spatial data, applicable rules and case handling. MG Software has hands-on experience building digital government services that comply with the NL Design System guidelines, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements and Common Ground architecture principles. We understand that public sector projects require careful procurement, transparent accountability and close collaboration with policy officers, information managers and end users. Our aim is to translate complex regulations into user-friendly digital processes that citizens and civil servants rely on every day.

Pain points

• Ageing legacy systems that fail to meet NL Design System guidelines and WCAG 2.1 AA requirements. Maintenance costs continue to rise because original documentation is missing, knowledge has left with the original supplier and technical debt compounds with every patch.
• Manual handling of permit applications and notifications through separate forms, email threads and paper case files. Processing times stretch to weeks while citizens have no visibility into the status of their request, leading to complaints and appeals.
• Absence of a unified citizen portal where residents can digitally submit and track permits, tax assessments, social support requests and public space reports. Citizens are forced to call or visit in person, creating high workloads at the contact centre.
• Challenging connectivity with national facilities such as DigiD, MijnOverheid, the Generic Digital Infrastructure (GDI) and base registries (BRP, BAG, BRK). Completing Logius acceptance procedures is time-consuming and requires specialised technical expertise that is rarely available in-house.
• Fragmented information flows between departments that result in inconsistent data. Reporting to the municipal council, national government or oversight bodies requires disproportionate manual effort because data from multiple systems must be consolidated by hand.
• Insufficient transparency around automated decision-making. The Algorithm Register obliges government organisations to explain how algorithms are used, yet many lack visibility into which automated processes run and on what rules they are based.
• Inadequate readiness for the Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) and the Digital System for the Physical Environment (DSO). Municipalities must offer digital permit checks, notifications and preliminary consultations, but existing systems do not seamlessly connect to required interfaces.
• Limited capacity for ongoing security and privacy compliance. The BIO prescribes strict measures, but keeping up with penetration tests, DPIAs and processing registers competes with daily operational pressure and is often deferred until an incident forces action.

Our solutions

• Accessible citizen portals with DigiD authentication where residents submit requests, track statuses, upload documents and receive messages around the clock. The portal is built to WCAG 2.1 AA and NL Design System standards, with full support for screen readers, keyboard navigation and bilingual interfaces in Dutch and English.
• Case-oriented permit management systems with automated zoning checks, intelligent routing to the appropriate case handler, email and SMS status notifications, and complete audit trails. Connections to the national planning portal and DSO ensure that notifications and preliminary consultations flow directly into the case system.
• Open data platforms that comply with the Open Government Act (Woo) and publish datasets in DCAT standard format. Administrative documents, budgets and council papers are automatically categorised and made searchable, giving journalists, researchers and citizens straightforward access to public information.
• Reliable integrations with national base registries (BRP, BAG, BRK, WOZ) and Logius services. We handle the full DigiD SAML connection including the Logius acceptance process, and build StUF and REST API integrations with existing case management systems such as Open Zaak, Zaaksysteem.nl and RxMission.
• Executive dashboards providing real-time insight into processing times, citizen satisfaction scores, case volumes and open reports. Reports are exportable in formats that align with accountability cycles towards the municipal council, provincial government or national bodies.
• Algorithm transparency tooling that helps organisations document, explain and publish automated decision-making processes in the Algorithm Register. This includes impact assessments, decision-rule logging and a citizen-facing explanation component that provides understandable reasoning behind automated decisions.
• Security-by-design development in accordance with the Baseline Informatiebeveiliging Overheid (BIO). Every release undergoes a security review, and we advise on DPIA processes, processing registers and penetration testing so that compliance is a continuous part of the development lifecycle rather than a one-off project.

Benefits

• Permit processing times decrease substantially as checks, routing and status notifications are automated. Civil servants spend less time on administrative tasks and more on substantive assessment and citizen engagement.
• Full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance ensures that digital services are accessible to all citizens, including those with visual, motor or cognitive impairments. This reduces legal risk and broadens the reach of digital channels.
• Lower operational costs as paper-based processes, manual data handling and telephone inquiries are replaced by automated workflows. The contact centre receives fewer routine questions because citizens can check their status online.
• Higher citizen satisfaction through transparent processes, self-service portals with round-the-clock availability and proactive status updates by email or SMS. Citizens experience government as reliable and approachable.
• Improved data quality and reporting capability because information from base registries is centrally available and no longer needs to be manually retyped. Reports for the council or oversight bodies are faster and more reliable.
• Structural compliance with current legislation (Woo, BIO, GDPR, Omgevingswet) is embedded in the development process, so your organisation is not dependent on ad-hoc audits or incidents to meet regulatory standards.

Technologies

Our approach

Our government projects begin with a thorough assessment of the existing application landscape, DigiD requirements, WCAG accessibility standards and applicable legislation such as the BIO and Woo. During a discovery phase we map current processes and pain points together with policy officers, information managers and end users. We then define an MVP that addresses the most pressing bottlenecks, for example a citizen portal for the five most requested products or a case management system for permits. Development proceeds in two-week sprints, with each sprint followed by an accessibility audit, a security review and a feedback round with the target audience. Integrations with base registries and Logius services are initiated early so that acceptance procedures run in parallel. After go-live we provide ongoing maintenance, monitoring and iterative development informed by user analytics and policy changes.

How to measure success?

We measure government project success against concrete KPIs: average permit processing time (target: reduction of at least 40%), citizen portal adoption rate (percentage of digital versus counter transactions), WCAG 2.1 AA compliance score from periodic audits, citizen satisfaction ratings from post-service surveys, and the proportion of fully digital case handling compared with hybrid or paper-based workflows. We also monitor technical indicators including uptime, page load times and successful DigiD authentication rates. These metrics are agreed upon at project kick-off with your project team and reported periodically during steering committee meetings.