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Case study
Bettering bureaucracy with a Single Digital Gateway
Together with Estonia’s Information System Authority, Nortal has created a GovTech system that powers Estonia’s integration into the European single market by enabling information-sharing across 26 EU countries, all at different stages of digitalization, all with different backend systems.
This system aligns with the EU’s Single Digital Gateway (SDG) mandate—a legislative directive aimed at reducing bureaucratic hurdles across Europe.
You’re a Belgian who wants to retire and collect her pension in Spain. You’re a German entrepreneur whose business pays taxes in Ireland and France. We’ve built the technology that makes this possible, one which allows Estonian citizens to share over 250 legal certificates, in 48 areas of citizen information, throughout 46 business systems—all with 26 other nations. It’s a system that unites nations at different stages of their digitalization journeys, nations with disparate data, and makes the single market truly single.
Cross-border chaos
Cross-border paperwork is an unavoidable feature of any single market. The administrative process must be unified to enable university student exchange programs, to register a car in another domicile, and enable entrepreneurs to start businesses abroad.
Every nation’s paperwork requirements are different, and requirements may differ at institutions within a nation. One university in Spain may want your high school diploma, another requires proof of income eligibility for scholarships. Different documents are needed and they are uploaded and downloaded on different platforms.
When accessing hundreds of legacy systems across which data is scattered, users’ documents are located in a variety of government offices working in silos, making it time consuming to get documents for opening a business, changing schools, or any other bureaucratic task. Multiple log-ins may be required to chase down information and, at the personal level, it becomes an exercise in frustration.
At the societal level, it’s a massive waste of resources. Calculations show that for the European Union, a single digital gateway (SDG) could help companies save 11 billion euros, and relieve citizens of 885,000 hours of labor.
The single digital gateway
For Europe, the solution is the SDG. The system is flexible enough to allow nations and organizations to keep their own systems, choose their own technology, yet it creates an SDG layer which enables sharing. For citizen and business it means controlling their own data, with documents retrieved and shared automatically within the single market.
Our solution, developed in close collaboration with the Estonian Information System Authority, included strategy and innovation consulting for legal changes in state law and was delivered in four months to the Estonia Information System Authority. It was tested in 63 cases in cooperation with eight other member nations of the European Union.
Future-proof architecture
We applied a broad architectural approach in Estonia as it continues to learn how the SDG fits into the Estonian architectural landscape, and works to ensure scalability in response to potential EU changes. For example, considerations include how an ID matching application will function in the future and how it will integrate into the SDG workflow. GovSSO (single sign-on) is incorporated in solution design, meaning a good user experience with significantly fewer sign-ons.
We embraced testing and actively participated in all EU-held technical and business roundtable meetings and joint conformance testing events. Although these are not mandatory, they offer valuable insights into future application functionalities and opportunities for early improvements.
Killing it with KPIs
In just six months, Nortal built a fully functioning system for Estonia, exceeding the KPIs set by the Estonian Information System Authority by 230%. Developed from scratch, this system earned top recognition at a Europe-wide testing event, further validating its outstanding performance. The implementation of the single digital gateway is estimated to save Estonia three- to four million euros in direct costs, as well as a similar amount in future maintenance costs.
The full development of the intermediary platform was completed in just 12 months. Over the next three year, Estonia’s full implementation will be built out to encompass the entire infrastructure, and it is all being constructed in accordance to EU specifications at a budget manageable by the Estonian state.
But just as diverse, dispersed data is not just a European problem, SDGs are not just a European solution. In any nation or government where there are de-centralized states, provinces, or entities, the situation is the same – disunity, inconsistency, and a plethora of legacy systems.
But the citizen does not have to suffer. Get in touch to see how we might craft a system that addresses the needs of your specific country or organization.
230%
SDG system for Estonia exceeded the KPIs set by the Estonian Information System Authority by 230 percent during the collaborative Projecathon testing.
3-4m€
The implementation of the single digital gateway is estimated to save Estonia three- to four million euros in direct costs, as well as a similar amount in future maintenance costs.
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