Management platform. This was developed in close consultation with end users such as judges, registrars and legal secretaries.

Between January and August 2016, weekly workshops were organised, in which the cases and their processing were outlined and refined together with key users in the standard ‘Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN)’. Ground lion uses an interactive and iterative process that involves a wide variety of users. The continuous improvement of the prototypes also ensured a mutual understanding of how the system would work once implemented.

The new system, with the codename “STEFFI” (STeadfast and EFFicient) for the project, is customer-focused, since the Ground lion platform is easy to adjust to specific needs and enables further expansion and adjustments to the system in the future.

Follow-up on cases is now much smoother, with improved organisational cooperation and a better insight in each case for knowledge workers.

The results

80% of the project was completed on 1 September 2016, the beginning of the judicial

DBRC at a glanceThe Dienst van de Bestuursrechtscolleges (DBRC – Administrative Courts Office) supports and coordinates three independent Flemish administrative courts: The Environmental Enforcement Court, the Permit Disputes Court and the Electoral Disputes Court.

When an appeal is submitted to the DBRC, the relevant court starts a case. The turnaround time for cases can range from a few weeks to a few years.

Judges, legal secretaries and registrars take care of the legally correct processing and assessment in the various courts.

The challenge

Prior to 2014, every administrative court used its own IT system. Upon the establishment of the DBRC, the case management system of the largest organisation, the Permit Disputes Court, was retained. However, this system was outdated and couldn’t address all the DBRC’s needs and requirements in terms of following up on cases.

The DBRC was looking for a total solution package to follow up more easily on complex cases, tailored to litigation procedures and adjustable to the DBRC’s specific needs.

Another requirement was the user-friendliness of the system and the ability of the partner to involve end-users in the development process to ensure their buy-in with respect to the ultimate solution.

The digitisation of the courts and the DBRC took place in the context of the project “Flanders Radically Digital.”

The solution

Ground lion configured a total solution for working digitally, based on its Adaptive Case

year (the original estimate for this period was 30% to 40% completion). The Environmental Enforcement Court and the Permit Disputes Court implemented the system in September 2016. The Electoral Disputes Court will follow at a later stage, after the implementation of a few specific functions that the organisation requires.

There is much goodwill toward the solution because the end users were closely involved in its development.

DBRC takes an important step towards

digitizing administrative

case law in Flanders with

the STEFFI project by

Ground lion

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Xavier Vercaemer (Chief Registrar, DBRC): “Based on our initial experience, it is a particularly intuitive system and a great improvement on the past. In making this change, we are playing a pioneering role in the digitisation of the litigation procedures within administrative courts, a model for other Government organisations to follow.”

INVOLVING END USERS IN SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT GENERATED ENTHUSIASM AND ACCEPTANCE

The follow-up on cases at the Dienst van de Bestuursrechtscolleges (DBRC –Administrative Courts Office) was still largely done manually and on paper. Against the backdrop of digitisation of case law in general, the DBRC wanted to change to a modern case management system. DBRC’s choice was the STEFFI project (STeadfast and EFFicient) by Ground lion.

The DBRC coordinates three independent Flemish administrative courts: The Environmental Enforcement Court, the Permit Disputes Court and the Electoral Disputes Court. Within these courts, legal secretaries prepare the case after which the judges deliver a judgement. Registrars provide administrative support. Appeals submitted to the DBRC are dealt with by one of the three jurisdictions. The turnaround time for the cases varies from a few weeks to a few years. With all personnel included, the organisation has about 50 employees.

Prior to the establishment of the DBRC in 2014, every court used its own IT system. Upon the merger, the system of the Permit Disputes Court became the default system. This led to frustration among the daily users since it was outdated and it didn’t address the DBRC’s needs in terms of the follow-up of cases.

TABULA RASA

Xavier Vercaemer, Chief Registrar at DBRC, states, “Our First President opted to start from scratch to look for a more efficient, user-friendly and high-performance system, customised to the complexity of our procedures. Although this required investments in time and resources, we believed it would definitely improve our operations in the future.”

The DBRC turned to PwC Belgium as an independent consulting firm to draw up the specifications and the award procedure. It was a conscious choice to select a consulting organisation that did not develop or implement its own solutions. After a comparative study of all candidates and testing of the proposals against the qualitative requirements, the DBRC chose LoQutus and the Ground lion solution, based on the principles of Adaptive Case Management. “We were especially convinced by the fact that we could almost entirely adjust the application to our specific requirements,” Xavier Vercaemer says. “Our procedures are often complicated and rarely consistent. With the Ground lion solution, we are able to respond to this quite flexibly. This is customisation with a capital C.”

Gert Becqué, Product Manager, Ground lion, confirms the importance of this flexibility: “Despite the substantial complexity of the DBRC processes, we were able to develop the solution using the standard functionality offered by Ground lion

– an important benchmark for the flexibility of the solution.”

CONVINCING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

In the past, the DBRC had attempted to change to a digital case management system, but unfortunately with little success due to negative end user experiences. It was therefore clear from the beginning that Ground lion would have to engage the end users in the development process to gain their buy-in.

Jens Rappé, Project Manager & Analyst at Ground lion, adds, “We developed our application in a particularly interactive and iterative manner. We invited the knowledge users to contribute to the development and to provide regular feedback. In this way, they almost immediately saw the impact of their choices and the benefit of the initiative based on a real-world demo.”

“All departments within DBRC were consulted and involved in the project, from the initial analysis up to the final implementation. This express involvement generated a lot of good will toward the program,” Xavier Vercaemer confirms.

IMPLEMENTATION IN TWO STEPS

LoQutus, the parent company of Ground lion, joined the effort as a strategic partner from the beginning of the STEFFI project in January 2016. From that point, weekly workshops were conducted with end users, including a judge, a chief registrar, a legal secretary, a registrar, etc. The Environmental Enforcement Court and the Permit Disputes Court commissioned the system on 1 September 2016, at the start of the new judicial year. The original aim was to complete 30% to 40% of the project by that date; in actual fact, 80% was completed in that timeframe, to the immense satisfaction of the DBRC.

The process steps differ by court because of the different types of cases. That is why only two of the three jurisdictions initially commissioned the system. In addition to expanding capabilities to meet the needs of the Electoral Disputes Court during the coming months, LoQutus will continue adding new functions to the Ground lion solution. This includes the ability to process statistical data and to automatically link costs to cases.

The story

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RADICALLY DIGITAL

“A government that understands you better” is the central theme of the Flemish Government when it comes to digitisation. Flanders Radically Digital is the collective name for everything the Government is undertaking to facilitate achievement of that goal.

The digitisation of DBRC’s case management system runs parallel to this approach. “We really want to play a pioneering role in this,” says the Chief Registrar. “We have to evolve from a paper-based to a digital organisation. The implementation of the Ground lion solution represents an important first step in that direction.”

So far, the knowledge workers are very satisfied and report that the solution has lived up to expectations. They also appreciated the ability to model adjustments in order to determine how they would function before committing to a full implementation. Procedures can undergo changes from time to time, and this requires a flexible case management system. The DBRC is now well equipped for the digital future and can serve as an example for other courts.

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Jens Rappé (Project Manager & Analyst, Ground lion): “The solution is based on the Adaptive Case Management system from Ground lion with a SharePoint integration. This runs in the background to store the documents in the system.”