Flemish Government
Flanders, Belgium
+500 Employees
Subsidy Management
VLAIO, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, is the point of contact of the Flemish government for all entrepreneurs in Flanders.
Stimulating and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, while contributing to a favourable business climate.
In addition to realising the policy note to make 'Flanders Radically Digital', VLAIO wants to grow into a customer-centric and data-driven organisation. Specifically, every entrepreneur should be able to digitally manage his/her application for all forms of subsidy and financing.
VLAIO was created on 1 January 2016 following a merger between ‘Agentschap Ondernemen’ and ‘IWT’. Mergers inevitably bring about changes in the organisational structure. Regarding IT management, the necessary flexibility was important in order to respond rapidly to the changes in the structure of the work force.
VLAIO used multiple, non-integrated and dated applications for customer relationship and subsidy management. The subsidy applications for the various subsidies were handled in different process flows.
Additional issues: - the technology was dated - the information was not centralised - the system was complex, difficult to maintain and did not meet the standards of a modern, digital work environment - there were no online tools available for entrepreneurs to submit or follow-up on their subsidy applications.
In other words, the way of working of the different merged teams urgently needed to be streamlined and there was a need for new digital tools.
The development of one global application for customer relationship and information management that gives every single employee fast and efficient access to all the information he/she needs to work productively.
It was a Partner Account Manager at Microsoft Belux who introduced Net IT to ‘Agentschap Ondernemen’, leading to a long-standing and close client relationship. When ‘Agentschap Ondernemen’ and ‘IWT’ merged into 'VLAIO', an external consulting firm was called in to give technological advice regarding the new VLAIO workplace that had to be developed.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the cloud, combined with Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint, proved to be the most suitable solution according to the independent technology expert.
VLAIO has made a conscious decision to use Microsoft Dynamics in the cloud: - this avoids having to administer a complex IT infrastructure - all further development is now outsourced to Microsoft Partner Net IT
Having the new VLAIO workplace in the cloud relieved VLAIO from bothering with technology. This allowed VLAIO to focus more on streamlining the operational processes of subsidy management and on the requirements analysis for the improved, centralised and uniform working environment. Also more attention could be spent on change management.
The technical design is modular and flexible with a view to structural changes in the organisation and to be able to implement new subsidies quickly.
With this software solution that Net IT delivered, VLAIO is able to intelligently configure more than a dozen different subsidy management processes by activating the desired set of functional features for each.
The VLAIO workplace also includes a “form builder” that allows government co-workers to build complex online subsidy application forms that synchronise data to the CRM system. After a company finally submits the subsidy application form, the internal process of subsidy management at VLAIO is started automatically.
In the new workplace, VLAIO is able to process about 1400 subsidy applications simultaneously. A small selection of the functionalities: - automatic internal and external e-mail communication - advanced document generation - meeting management for the advisory and decision-making committees - automatic generation of payment schedules and instalments
The application for customer relation and information management is integrated with VKBO (i.e. federal government database of all enterprises and business locations) and Graydon. This gives VLAIO direct access to the latest data of each company, allowing for the formulation of financial analyses including the strengths and weaknesses.
The budget management is linked to OraFin, the financial system of the Flemish government: payments are controlled from within the CRM system.
The management system is integrated with ACM/IDM (the central user and access management of all IT applications within the Flemish government) and with ArcGIS (geographic information system).
Net IT has devised and developed an advanced, technical solution to integrate dozens of different processes for subsidy management into one information management system. The functional operation of the subsidy management is highly adaptable per file form.
With this modularity at the heart of the technical design, a new type of subsidy file can now be rolled out within two weeks versus 6 months of development in the past. In other words, the technical solution that Net IT has provided makes it possible to implement, maintain and respond to changes in the organisation at least 1000% faster than before.
VLAIO now has a centralised system for a more intelligent and customer-centric way of working. There is a 360° view of every company and every subsidy file. The functional modules include relationship management, advice management, meeting management, payment management, document management and event management.
The VLAIO workplace allows everyone to work more productively: through the automation of administrative tasks (document generation, automatic e-mails) on the one hand, and automatic process management (to do lists are automatically generated) on the other hand.
The new VLAIO workplace currently facilitates 13 different forms of subsidy (13 different management processes of 13 different types of support in one tool). In 2018, 1207 files were submitted in a 100% digital manner.
The VLAIO project is a prime example of efficient management and is undoubtedly inspiring for other organisations that offer and manage subsidies within the government.
Solution Overview
