The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic posed major challenges for the Flemish government. The sudden transition from ‘normal’ office-based working habits towards working from home and online meetings urged the authorities to accelerate the digitisation of its processes. To this end, a campaign called ‘Vlaanderen helemaal digitaal’ (Flanders goes digital all the way) was launched to match needs and demands with existing and emerging solutions.
On the one hand, organisations and enterprises could signal problems for which they were looking for solutions. On the other hand, solutions could be proposed by both private companies and governmental organisations. Among the many questions, one particular demand stood out: civil servants were no longer allowed to work in their offices and hence they were not able to physically send documents. However, the sending of letters and documents is part of many legally established procedures, so they had a problem. How do they send legally valid documents while working from home?
Our project MAGDA aimed to create a comprehensive solution for sending official documents to citizens, enterprises and organisations digitally by means of delivery into their e-Box. The e-Box is intended for all formal and official documents, including documents with a confidential content and which must always be guaranteed to be delivered. Examples would be all kinds of permits, approvals, certificates or copies for citizens and businesses, assessment notices, collections or fines. The e-Box is the private, digital letterbox of every citizen and enterprise.
This approach has many advantages. It offers the highest level of security and delivery of documents into it is guaranteed. Moreover, it is legally certified since deposit in the e-Box counts as a registered mailing, and is compliant with the GDPR.
In case the addressee does not use their private e-Box, the MAGDA Documentendienst (MAGDA Document Service) allows for automatic printing and mailing by the post office. No intervention from the sender is needed.
MAGDA Documentendienst is meant for all official agencies in Flanders willing to digitise their document flow. They can use it to safely send official documents even if their content is confidential, e.g. the invitation to all citizens to get a Covid-19 vaccination or the approval of a planning application.
MAGDA Documentendienst comes with an API, so it can be integrated into the appropriate business processes. This is the ultimate solution to send large numbers of documents. It is also available through a user-friendly web interface (MAGDA Online) in which the API has been integrated, ideal for sending small amounts of documents for which it is hard to justify the integration of the API through an IT project. They are complementary and can be used where they best fit the need at hand.